The Innovation Stage is the main plenary stage at RetailJam, accessible to all attendees. This is where you will find our inspirational, innovation-focused sessions.
Complementing the Innovation stage content, over the course of the day, VIP attendees are also able to access additional sessions, demos and 1:1s in topic-specific Hives.
Take a look at this year’s RetailJam agenda below…
07:00 – 08:45 – Transfers from Slough train station every 15 minutes
08:00 – 09:00 – Registration and networking
09.10 – 09.15 – RetailJam Kick-Off and Chair’s Opening Remarks
Sally Green, Co-Founder, Retail Jam and The Hive Network
David McClelland, Journalist & Broadcaster
09.15 – 09.50 – Leadership Panel: People, planet, profit – what are we doing to adapt and remain competitive?
CEOs and leaders are under no illusion that after a tough few years, things will remain tough as they deal with the challenges of high inflation, cost of living crisis and geopolitical disruption. They are, however, focused on long-term growth and viability. Understand how to identify opportunities for continuous improvement and innovation during austere times, in order to deliver sustained business value and maximise profitability.
- Innovation can often slow down during turbulent and austere times, however, this doesn’t have to be the case if retail leaders pursue realistic innovation. What are the short-term measures that are working to mitigate the impact of macro challenges?
- How is the pace of change impacting your organisations? Which interventions and investments are keeping you on track to create long-term value?
- How are you accelerating digital transformations, building greater supply chain resilience, creating business models that are both environmentally and financially sustainable?
- How are you investing in technology to reinvent in retail rather than just maintain your business?
- How are you making sure technology delivers the right results at speed and scale?
- How are you leading your teams through these organisational and cultural adjustments?
- What is retail’s next frontier?
Panellists:
Peter Jelkeby, UK&IE Country CEO & Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA
Maria Hollins, CEO, Ann Summers
Amanda Scott, CEO, Next Beauty
Diana Dimitian, SVP Managing Director South Europe, North Africa, Levi Strauss & Co
Ajay Nassa, Chief Omnichannel Officer, Virgin Megastore
Krista Nordlund, Chief Digital Product Officer, Marks & Spencer
Moderator:
David McClelland, Journalist & Broadcaster
09.50 – 10.20 – AI Panel: Do you have FOMO? AI in retail – hype vs. reality
Every individual, company and team is eager to join the AI and Machine Learning bandwagon. Nobody wants to be left behind or feel excluded from this transformative technology, but where are we really with AI deployment in retail?
- How do you currently leverage AI within your retail business in an efficient way?
- Where are you looking to leverage it in the short-, medium- and long-term?
- Where is it hitting the mark or soon to reach the maturity you need?
- What are the incremental steps that brands should take to leverage AI in a sustainable way?
- How close or far are we to truly using AI in the world of content and creative-led marketing campaigns, and in delivering a customer experience and truly assessing consumer campaigns?
- How are you planning to scale up (or not) for this tech and blend with human resources?
Panellists:
Tom Betts, Group Data Director, Kingfisher Group
Ghanasham Apte, Head of Data Science, BT Group
Alexander Toft, Director – New Markets & Ventures, Moonpig
Moderator:
David McClelland, Journalist & Broadcaster
10:20 – 10:30 – Networking break
10.30 – 10.50 – Digital Marketing RetailTalk – Keeping the attention of existing customers: Driving customer lifetime value with personalised engagement
- How do you ensure that you nurture, reach and service your existing customers whilst you aim for new customer acquisition?
- How do you keep people engaged? If they’ve just purchased a one-time item, then how do you get them to repeat the purchase?
- Building trust by demonstrating a deep understanding of customer needs and desires.
- Insights and strategies to create contextually relevant experiences that are tailored to a customer’s individual needs and preferences.
- Delivering your message at the right time, in the right place, and through the right channel to maximise your customer lifetime value.
Sam Dickson, Acting Chief Customer Officer, Asda
10.50 – 11.05 – Digital Marketing and Customer Experience – Disruptive brands: Embedding sustainable innovation to strengthen a unique brand
- The problem in the chocolate industry and what Tony’s is doing to fix it
- What has built the brand so far? Using distribution as a marketing strategy, visibility in store, earned and owned media
- How we are using B2B personalised bars as a marketing channel
Nicola Matthews, Countess of Cocoa, Head of Marketing – UK and Ireland, Tony’s Chocolonely
11.05 – 11.20 – Digital Marketing and Customer Experience – Disruptive brands: How to grow credibility and strengthen a unique brand in a once incumbent dominated market
- How did you launch and disrupt the fashion industry to win the hearts of customers in a difficult and established market?
- What technology, processes and strategies did you capitalise on to become the fastest growing luxury DTC fashion brand?
Ciaran McClellan, Growth Director, ME+EM
11:20 – 12:00 – Customer Experience Panel – The road to creating a consumer-centric, personalised, omnichannel journey
True omnichannel is giving the customer the possibility to make purchases or do their business, however they want to and the capability of shifting between the virtual world and the physical world, however it suits them.
- We all know that central to becoming a deeply-loved brand is to be consumer-centric, but how do make that a reality?
- How do you find new ways to connect and engage with consumers along their journeys across channels and touchpoints, new ways of developing products and services aligned with consumers expectations and values, and new organisational models and capabilities to make consumer-centricity become an omnichannel reality?
- How can we better connect the dots between the consumer experience online and to then be complimented when they go in-store?
- How can you embark on gaining a single view of the customer across channels and truly know their customer journey, online vs. in-store?
- Managing consumer-centricity across various omnichannel business models and journeys: click and collect, returns.
- Delivering consumer-facing omnichannel innovation at scale, across multiple brands.
Panellists:
Emilie Maunoury, Digital, eCommerce and CRM Director, Clarins Group
Matt McLellan, Vice President – Customer Planning and Proposition, Asda
Virginia Wakefield, Director of eCommerce, B&Q
Moderator:
David McClelland, Journalist & Broadcaster
12.00 – 13.30 – Lunch, networking, live music, and fun and games
13.30 – 14.10 – Digital Marketing, Customer Experience, Technology and eCommerce Startup Showcase
Five carefully-sourced, validated and selected startups short-listed for our showcase who can innovatively solve key retail challenges in digital marketing, customer experience or technology and eCommerce get 5 minutes to pitch their business idea to a panel of experts, followed by 2 minutes of Q&A to ask questions about their venture.
14:15 – 14:40 – Technology and eCommerce Hive RetailTalk – Fireside Chat: A consumer-centric digitisation and tech transformation journey
- What has it meant for one of the world’s most recognisable retail brands to go digital?
- How has the transformation changed how the company operates day-to-day?
- How have you managed consumer-centricity through the digitisation and transformation process?
- What new innovations are you looking at to connect and engage with your consumers along their journey across channels and touchpoints?
- How did your strategy change as you went through the process? The ‘do’s and don’ts’.
14.40 – 15.00 – Technology and eCommerce RetailTalk – Unlocking the value of ML and AI across the business at Currys
It’s commonly stated that ‘data is the new gold’ and there are a wealth of new tools platforms and suppliers who can help unlock value within the business, but the less frequently stated side of the analogy is that it was only those who sold the shovels who were guaranteed riches.
- How Currys avoided some of the common pitfalls of data science model builds
- Deployment and case examples of the good, the bad and how we’re changing the roles within the team to increase model utilisation, uptake and value for the business
Robert Bates, Head of Decision Sciences, Currys
15.00 – 15.30 – Networking break
15.30 – 16.10 – Sustainability Startup Showcase
Five carefully-sourced, validated and selected startups short-listed for our showcase who can innovatively solve key retail challenges in sustainability, get 5 minutes to pitch their business idea to a panel of experts, followed by 2 minutes of Q&A to ask questions about their venture.
16:15 – 16:45 – Sustainability Panel – What new approaches and technologies are helping to deliver sustainable supply chains?
With raw material shortages, ongoing geopolitical volatility, increased scrutiny of retailers’ ESG claims from governments and customers, investments in the supply chain are critical to maintain market share, so what’s next for supply chain technology?
- What are your latest efforts to reduce environmental impact and how is technology helping?
- What circularity practices are you implementing and what does innovation in circularity look like?
- With rental, repair, refurbished and subscription services growing exponentially – which supply chain models are ensuring a greener footprint?
- Is having a more digitised supply chain helping with carbon tracking? How are you getting greater visibility on the lifecycle of products and over partners?
- How are you rethinking your traditional supply chains and returns processes to reduce the impact to the environment?
Panellists:
Zac Goodall, Head of Sustainability, Riverford Organic Farmers
Marija Rompani, Director of Ethics and Sustainability Strategy, John Lewis Partnership
Adele Gingell, Head of Positive Impact and the Finisterre Foundation, Finisterre
Sara Brennan, Positive Business Director, Pentland Brands
Christophe Bocquet, Director, Quality, Compliance, Customer Service and Corporate Social Responsibility, Chloe
Moderator:
David McClelland, Journalist & Broadcaster
16.45 – 17.05 – Sustainability RetailTalk – Embedding sustainable innovation into people, culture, product
- Business-wide transformation of embedding sustainability at scale
- Sustainable actions across the whole value chain
- Radical collaborations – where it has failed and what we learnt
- Regenerative agriculture practices and innovations
- What the next decade looks like
Emma Keller, Head of Sustainability, Nestle
17.05 – 17.35 – Innovation Panel – 2024 and beyond: Driving innovation to stay ahead of the curve and deliver value to consumers
- How do you make sure you’re a strong, profitable and future-proof business through turbulent times?
- How to reorganise for growth through consumer centric-transformation – what’s working and what hasn’t?
- Working smarter for measured, productive and sustainable growth: how to be precise in what you invest in, for efficiencies and growth which add value to the consumer?
- Delivering innovation at scale: leveraging new to retail technologies, engaging experimental partnerships to open new revenue streams and delivering consumer facing innovations
- Using innovation to prepare for the next generation of shoppers
Panellists:
Paul Cooper, Director of Technology Operations, River Island
Stuart Ramage, Head of Strategy, Transformation & Enabling Capabilities – Digital and Technology, M&S
Mei Chan, General Manager, Head of Fashion, Luxury & Lifestyle – Globalization Business, Alibaba Group
Mark Brown, Marketing Director – Europe and Australasia, General Mills
Ross Arnone, Head of Product Team, Tesco Labs, Tesco
Moderator:
David McClelland, Journalist & Broadcaster
17.35 – 17.55 – Keynote Fireside Chat – Maintaining sustainable connections with the consumer and the planet
Learning how to cultivate lasting emotional connections with consumers and driving innovation in sustainability and circularity is integral for long-term business growth. How do you constantly innovate to create a unique brand world by focusing on value alongside leverage data and analytics, consumer insights, and omnichannel experiences to attract, retain and grow consumers?
18.00 – 21.30 – RetailRocks Summer Solstice Party @ RetailJam
Unwind with your colleagues and peers with food, drink and games, as well as music.
18.00 – 22.00 – Transfers to Slough train station every 30 minutes between 18:30 and 22:00
10.30 – 10.50 – Digital Marketing RetailTalk – Keeping the attention of existing customers: Driving customer lifetime value with personalised engagement
- How do you ensure that you nurture, reach and service your existing customers whilst you aim for new customer acquisition?
- How do you keep people engaged? If they’ve just purchased a one-time item, then how do you get them to repeat the purchase?
- Building trust by demonstrating a deep understanding of customer needs and desires.
- Insights and strategies to create contextually relevant experiences that are tailored to a customer’s individual needs and preferences.
- Delivering your message at the right time, in the right place, and through the right channel to maximise your customer lifetime value.
Sam Dickson, Acting Chief Customer Officer, Asda
10.50 – 11.05 – Digital Marketing and Customer Experience – Disruptive brands: Embedding sustainable innovation to strengthen a unique brand
- The problem in the chocolate industry and what Tony’s is doing to fix it
- What has built the brand so far? Using distribution as a marketing strategy, visibility in store, earned and owned media
- How we are using B2B personalised bars as a marketing channel
Nicola Matthews, Countess of Cocoa, Head of Marketing – UK and Ireland, Tony’s Chocolonely
11.05 – 11.20 – Digital Marketing and Customer Experience – Disruptive brands: How to grow credibility and strengthen a unique brand in a once incumbent dominated market
- How did you launch and disrupt the fashion industry to win the hearts of customers in a difficult and established market?
- What technology, processes and strategies did you capitalise on to become the fastest growing luxury DTC fashion brand?
Ciaran McClellan, Growth Director, ME+EM
11.20 – 11.40 – Digital Marketing 1-to-1 Meetings Round 1
11.45 – 12.05 – Digital Marketing 1-to-1 Meetings Round 2
12.00 – 13.30 – Lunch, networking, live music, and fun and games
13.30 – 14.10 – Digital Marketing Roundtables Round 1
Roundtable 1: How can you structure your marketing activations so that they’re high impact, low effort?
Roundtable 2: Cutting through the noise to your reach your best customers.
Roundtable 3: Personalising the customer journey at scale.
Roundtable 4: Getting the best out of your CRM to market effectively for the subscription-based consumer.
Roundtable 5: Activating and driving revenue and loyalty from high-value customers.
Roundtable 6: Building value-driven loyalty.
Roundtable 7: How do you optimise your digital experience platform to meet the expectations of today’s digitally savvy, ultra-demanding customer by using AI?
Roundtable 8: How can you optimise onsite search and utilise merchandising innovations to meet the expectations of today’s digitally-savvy, ultra-demanding customer?
Roundtable 9: Improving organic and paid search conversion rates.
Roundtable 10: ‘Do more with less’ – how can you be precise with your marketing investment for growth?
Roundtable 11: Developing a winning retail media strategy.
Roundtable 12: Optimising content marketing to strengthen your brand.
Roundtable 13: Tactics for tapping into the power of social media.
Roundtable 14: Leveraging influencers and micro-influencers.
Roundtable 15: How best to use social listening to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Roundtable 16: Modelling your marketing mix and measuring the return on social selling.
14:20 – 15:00 – Digital Marketing Roundtables Round 2
15.00 – 15.30 – Networking break
15.30 – 16.10 – Digital Marketing Workshops
Workshop 1: Master global markets – attract and convert international customers efficiently, and at scale.
Workshop 2: Creativity is your new superpower – how can you harness it for better brand engagement?
Workshop 3: What can you do to create a successful TikTok or Meta shop?
Workshop 4: Bridge the GAP between marketing strategy and execution, regain your competitive advantage, boost your retention and growth.
All workshops are assigned on a first come, first served basis. If you are unable to take a seat at one of the workshops, please feel free to visit the Innovation Stage, Innovation Lounge or Solutions Zone.
16.30 – 17.00 – Digital Marketing Hive
Visit the Solutions Zone and Innovation Lounge to meet the partners!
18.00 – 21.30 – RetailRocks Summer Solstice Party @ RetailJam
Unwind with your colleagues and peers with food, drink and games, as well as music.
18.00 – 22.00 – Transfers to Slough train station every 30 minutes between 18:30 and 22:00
10.30 – 10.50 – Customer Experience 1-to-1 Meetings Round 1
10.55 – 11.15 – Customer Experience 1-to-1 Meetings Round 2
10.50 – 11.05 – Digital Marketing and Customer Experience – Disruptive brands: Embedding sustainable innovation to strengthen a unique brand
- The problem in the chocolate industry and what Tony’s is doing to fix it
- What has built the brand so far? Using distribution as a marketing strategy, visibility in store, earned and owned media
- How we are using B2B personalised bars as a marketing channel
Nicola Matthews, Countess of Cocoa, Head of Marketing – UK and Ireland, Tony’s Chocolonely
12.00 – 13.30 – Lunch, networking, live music, and fun and games
13.30 – 14.10 – Customer Experience Workshops
Workshop 1: Master global markets – attract and convert international customers efficiently, and at scale.
Workshop 2: Creativity is your new superpower – how can you harness it for better brand engagement?
Workshop 3: What can you do to create a successful TikTok or Meta shop?
Workshop 4: Bridge the GAP between marketing strategy and execution, regain your competitive advantage, boost your retention and growth.
Workshop 5: How to cheaply and easily become a Web3 commerce brand.
Workshop 6: Building an omnichannel operating model.
All workshops are assigned on a first come, first served basis. If you are unable to take a seat at one of the workshops, please feel free to visit the Innovation Stage, Innovation Lounge or Solutions Zone.
14.30 – 15.00 – Customer Experience Hive
Visit the Solutions Zone and Innovation Lounge to meet the partners!
15.00 – 15.30 – Networking break
15:30 – 16:10 – Customer Experience Roundtables Round 1
Roundtable 1: How do you optimise your eCommerce platform to meet the expectations of today’s digitally-savvy, ultra-demanding customer?
Roundtable 2: How can you optimise onsite search and utilise merchandising innovations to meet the expectations of today’s digitally-savvy, ultra-demanding customer?
Roundtable 3: Optimising content marketing to strengthen your brand.
Roundtable 4: Tactics for tapping into the power of social media.
Roundtable 5: Leveraging influencers and micro-influencers.
Roundtable 6: How best to use social listening to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Roundtable 7: Don’t deliver a product, deliver an experience.
Roundtable 8: How can retailers make the in-store and on-line experience more seamless?
Roundtable 9: Delivering post-purchase delight.
Roundtable 10: The role of identity in a digital first retail future.
Roundtable 11: How can you unlock the value of data to really understand and personalise to your customer?
Roundtable 12: Using AI to optimise customer experiences: Chatbots.
16:20 – 17:00 – Customer Experience Roundtables Round 2
18.00 – 21.30 – RetailRocks Summer Solstice Party @ RetailJam
Unwind with your colleagues and peers with food, drink and games, as well as music.
18.00 – 22.00 – Transfers to Slough train station every 30 minutes between 18:30 and 22:00
10:30 – 11:10 – Technology and eCommerce Roundtables Round 1
Roundtable 1: Balancing the challenge of re-platforming whilst unleashing new capabilities to deliver incremental sales.
Roundtable 2: How to support a seamless buyer journey through composable commerce.
Roundtable 3: How to build out the right data architecture for your business and set it up for the future.
Roundtable 4: How can you unlock the value of data to really understand your customer?
Roundtable 5: How can you use business intelligence to understand consumer behaviour?
Roundtable 6: How can you work smarter, drive further efficiencies in your tech stack and position yourself for growth?
Roundtable 7: Driving growth through digital payments.
Roundtable 8: How to grow your sales channels through a retail marketplace model.
Roundtable 9: The role of identity in a digital first retail future.
Roundtable 10: How can we use AI to automate systems, processes and technologies to make things simpler and quicker?
Roundtable 11: What does the path to using AI look like?
11:20 – 12:00 – Technology and eCommerce Roundtables Round 2
12.00 – 13.30 – Lunch, networking, live music, and fun and games
13.30 – 13.50 – Technology and eCommerce 1-to-1 Meetings Round 1
13:55 – 14:15 – Technology and eCommerce 1-to-1 Meetings Round 2
14:15 – 14:40 – Technology and eCommerce Hive RetailTalk – Fireside Chat: A consumer-centric digitisation and tech transformation journey
- What has it meant for one of the world’s most recognisable retail brands to go digital?
- How has the transformation changed how the company operates day-to-day?
- How have you managed consumer-centricity through the digitisation and transformation process?
- What new innovations are you looking at to connect and engage with your consumers along their journey across channels and touchpoints?
- How did your strategy change as you went through the process? The ‘do’s and don’ts’.
14.40 – 15.00 – Technology and eCommerce RetailTalk – Unlocking the value of ML and AI across the business at Currys
It’s commonly stated that ‘data is the new gold’ and there are a wealth of new tools platforms and suppliers who can help unlock value within the business, but the less frequently stated side of the analogy is that it was only those who sold the shovels who were guaranteed riches.
- How Currys avoided some of the common pitfalls of data science model builds
- Deployment and case examples of the good, the bad and how we’re changing the roles within the team to increase model utilisation, uptake and value for the business
Robert Bates, Head of Decision Sciences, Currys
15.00 – 15.30 – Networking break
15.30 – 16.00 – Technology and eCommerce Hive
Visit the Solutions Zone and Innovation Lounge to meet the partners!
16.15 – 17.00 – Technology and eCommerce Workshops
Workshop 1: Building a value-driven and future-ready tech roadmap.
Workshop 2: Not just tech! Implications of the MACH journey.
Workshop 3: The evolution of marketplace models and how to make them work for your business.
All workshops are assigned on a first come, first served basis. If you are unable to take a seat at one of the workshops, please feel free to visit the Innovation Stage, Innovation Lounge or Solutions Zone.
18.00 – 21.30 – RetailRocks Summer Solstice Party @ RetailJam
Unwind with your colleagues and peers with food, drink and games, as well as music.
18.00 – 22.00 – Transfers to Slough train station every 30 minutes between 18:30 and 22:00
10:30 – 11:10 – Sustainability Roundtables Round 1
Roundtable 1: Leveraging supply chain collaborations to strengthen sustainability credentials.
Roundtable 2: The ‘do’s and don’ts’ of localising suppliers and operations.
Roundtable 3: Sustainability vs. convenience – can you optimise fulfilment costs, environmental impact and customer expectations without minimising profit?
Roundtable 4: How to understand, measure and monitor customer sentiments.
Roundtable 5: Building a sustainable, community-driven impact brand.
Roundtable 6: How to scale up sustainability initiatives without impacting your full price business.
Roundtable 7: How do you balance sustainability with driving incremental sales?
Roundtable 8: How to successfully quantify your sustainability initiatives and ‘market’ this better to customers.
Roundtable 9: Keeping sustainability on the business and workplace agenda.
11:20 – 12:00 – Sustainability Roundtables Round 2
12.00 – 13.30 – Lunch, networking, live music, and fun and games
13.30 – 14.00 – Sustainability Hive
Visit the Solutions Zone and Innovation Lounge to meet the partners!
14.20 – 15.00 – Sustainability Workshops
Workshop 1: How do you overcome the technological challenges of measuring your carbon emissions accurately?
Workshop 2: Accelerating strategies for more sustainable fulfilment operations.
Workshop 3: Balancing sustainability with commerciality when there is rising costs.
Workshop 4: Now that you have the B Corp badge, how can you leverage it?
All workshops are assigned on a first come, first served basis. If you are unable to take a seat at one of the workshops, please feel free to visit the Innovation Stage, Innovation Lounge or Solutions Zone.
15.00 – 15.30 – Networking break
15.30 – 15.50 – Sustainability 1-to-1 Meetings Round 1
15:55 – 16:15 – Sustainability 1-to-1 Meetings Round 2
16:15 – 16:45 – Sustainability Panel – What new approaches and technologies are helping to deliver sustainable supply chains?
With raw material shortages, ongoing geopolitical volatility, increased scrutiny of retailers’ ESG claims from governments and customers, investments in the supply chain are critical to maintain market share, so what’s next for supply chain technology?
- What are your latest efforts to reduce environmental impact and how is technology helping?
- What circularity practices are you implementing and what does innovation in circularity look like?
- With rental, repair, refurbished and subscription services growing exponentially – which supply chain models are ensuring a greener footprint?
- Is having a more digitised supply chain helping with carbon tracking? How are you getting greater visibility on the lifecycle of products and over partners?
- How are you rethinking your traditional supply chains and returns processes to reduce the impact to the environment?
Panellists:
Zac Goodall, Head of Sustainability, Riverford Organic Farmers
Marija Rompani, Director of Ethics and Sustainability Strategy, John Lewis Partnership
Adele Gingell, Head of Positive Impact and the Finisterre Foundation, Finisterre
Sara Brennan, Positive Business Director, Pentland Brands
Christophe Bocquet, Director, Quality, Compliance, Customer Service and Corporate Social Responsibility, Chloe
Moderator:
David McClelland, Journalist & Broadcaster
16.45 – 17.05 – Sustainability RetailTalk – Embedding sustainable innovation into people, culture, product
- Business-wide transformation of embedding sustainability at scale
- Sustainable actions across the whole value chain
- Radical collaborations – where it has failed and what we learnt
- Regenerative agriculture practices and innovations
- What the next decade looks like
Emma Keller, Head of Sustainability, Nestle
18.00 – 21.30 – RetailRocks Summer Solstice Party @ RetailJam
Unwind with your colleagues and peers with food, drink and games, as well as music.
18.00 – 22.00 – Transfers to Slough train station every 30 minutes between 18:30 and 22:00