NRF Retail Big Show in New York: What to expect

NRF Retail Big Show is returning to New York in 2023.

The leading retail event covers topics like innovation, new technology, leadership, new business models, omnichannel, and many more.

The event features a 300,000 square foot exposition space, an NRF Innovation Lab, a Startup Zone, and an educational curriculum about the industry and future retail trends. It aims to connect industry experts to share ideas and insights and learn from each other.

NRF will take place from January 15 to 17 at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.

What to expect

The Show starts with a networking event and an opening party on Saturday, January 14.

January 15 – Sunday

Between keynote sessions, networking opportunities, and special programs, a featured session with Jacob Hawkins, chief marketing, digital, and omni officer of Forever 21, and Jacee Scoular, senior director of Hollister Co., will be held in the morning. The talk, titled ‘Under the influence: Building successful brand collaborations with content creators’ will focus on the importance of authenticity, finding the right business partner, and reaching key performance expectations.

Shortly after, the featured session ‘Purpose driven retail: Chobani, Hollister, and Nordstrom share their stories’ will take place and inform participants about conscious capitalism and purposeful actions. Mark Broadhurst, senior vice president of Chobani, and Gigi Ganatra, vice president of corporate affairs of Nordstrom, will share their insights among other pioneers.

In the afternoon, Vijay Karthik, CTO of Neiman Marcus Group, and Justin Honaman, head of worldwide consumer products and retail GTM, will discuss customers’ expectations for innovation and personalised luxury experiences. The senior leadership team will present the company’s digital transformation produced by Amazon Web Services.

January 16 – Monday

The second day of the NRF Retail Big Show will start with the keynote session: ‘The future of retail leadership: Target CEO Brian Cornell in conversation with top female leaders’. He will discuss with Target’s leadership team, including Kiera Fernandez, Christina Hennington, Alexis Sheppert, and Cara Sylvester, how to build a strong company culture by implementing their leadership visions for the future.

Afterwards, real estate director at Luxottica North America, Luca Delli Santi, and managing director at Jakala Corporation, Paolo Pedersoli, will present ‘How Luxottica strengthens brick-and-mortar locations decision-making through (geo-) analytics platform produced by Esri’. Due to changing consumer habits, store formats, digitalization, and new technologies are required that focus on generating and complementing data.

The next keynote session will focus on ‘Building an innovative and personalised luxury experience with Farfetch and Harrods’. Kelly Kowal, chief platform officer at Farfetch, will discuss challenges and learnings with Michael Ward, managing director at Harrods, and Hilary Milnes, executive America editor at Vogue Business.

January 17 – Tuesday

Tuesday morning will kick off with a conversation with Neiman Marcus Groups’ CEO, Geoffroy van Raemdonck, about revolutionising luxury experiences and implementing growth strategies.

The next featured session will discuss whether resale can be more profitable and even increase foot traffic in stores. Seana Strawn, head of retail design and home furnishing identity at IKEA US, and Lee Peterson, executive vice president at WD Partners, will present their experiences and research insights.

Around noon, a discussion about the relevance of RFID will be held. Carl Barker, VP of Lululemon, and Ailen Bilharz, director of iD Cloud Platform at Nedap, will explain implementation possibilities to advance inventory visibility. The NRF Retail Big Show will end on Wednesday, January 18, with guided walking tours through store experiences to actively experience the implementation of new retail technologies.