Retail Week Live offers attendees a wide variety of valuable content, here are just eight ways you can benefit from being involved.

Inspiration

Retail Week Live is designed to recharge retailers’ batteries, provide brain food and deliver ideas that can be practically implemented afterwards.

Our speaker line-up will provide inspiration in spade-loads, starting with a keynote address from Dixons Carphone’s ebullient and razor-minded chief executive Sebastian James.

He will talk about last summer’s merger within the context of consumer habits that are being transformed by new technology and share his vision of

building a retailer that clicks perfectly in the digital age.

Similarly on day two, Co-op chief executive Richard Pennycook, New Look chief executive Anders Kristiansen and Poundland chief executive Jim McCarthy will share their experience of leadership.

Other big names include Walgreens Boots Alliance’s Stefano Pessina and etailer Ao.com’s John Roberts.

Expertise

The contributors to Retail Week Live bring unmatched expertise that will enable those attending to deepen their knowledge of the industry, particular sectors and trends.

As the grocery market goes through a period of change unimaginable just a few years ago, Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe will consider this retail revolution.

Coupe will reflect on the implications of such change for the big grocers and discuss which levers, other than price, can make a difference.

And as retailers across the board consider the extent to which traditional ways of doing things are still applicable, Argos chief operating officer David Robinson will talk about reinventing the business model.

Consumer insight

There will be plenty of focus on the most important person in the retail industry: the consumer.

From MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis, Retail Week Live delegates can expect analysis of the power shift between retailers and shoppers.

Consumer technology such as smartphones puts the customer increasingly in control of the relationship and affects everything from price comparison to expectations about the shopping experience.

Those attending will get the benefit of insight from a man whose views are listened to by 15 million consumers.

Similarly author, TV presenter and Daily Telegraph contributor Harry Wallop will moderate a stream of sessions devoted to consumer behaviour.

Strategic analysis and brand-building insight

Shifting shopping habits and a ferociously competitive retail landscape have prompted reassessment by retailers of their strategies.

One of the Retail Week Live streams will be entirely focused on strategy, addressing a wide variety of aspects ranging from consideration of business models, customer-centricity and the relationship between bricks and clicks.

There will be plenty of time for delegates to question contributors too, providing opportunity to take practically relevant insights and lessons back to work the next day.

Panellists and speakers include Ocado chief executive Tim Steiner, HMV Digital managing director James Coughlan, Shop Direct chief executive Alex Baldock  and GameStop executive vice-president Michael K Mauler.

On the brand stage delegates will have the chance to learn lessons from other industries and acknowledged masters of brand-building.

They include branding guru Rita Clifton, who will speak about why retailers need to start thinking like brands, as well as Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs and Dreams chief executive Mike Logue.

Political perspectives

A general election is close and the outcome will affect retail as well as the country, while the possibility of a referendum on the UK’s continued EU membership is also on the cards.

Delegates will hear from some of the country’s most influential politicians.

Lord Mandelson, one of the most powerful politicians of his generation, will speak about some of the big political themes likely to shape retail, including the future of the UK’s relationship with Europe.

“There will be plenty of focus on the most important person in the retail industry: the consumer”

George MacDonald

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett will address a VIP breakfast briefing on the upcoming general election.

And Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage will take part in a discussion of boardroom diversity entitled ‘Consign quotas to history’.

That debate will be run by Ann Summers chief executive Jacqueline Gold and

participants include Hallett Retail founder Wendy Hallett MBE and Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe.

Innovative ideas

Retail has always been about the new but that has never been truer than now, as technology in particular transforms shopper habits and retail operations, bringing opportunity and challenge in equal measure.

Delegates will take away insights from retailers that have created innovation labs, such as Argos’s head of digital innovation

Neil Tinegate and John Lewis’s head of IT architecture Julian Burnett, as well as investors such as Founders Forum chief executive Henry Lane Fox, Index Ventures co-founder Giuseppe Zocco and Haatch’s Scott Weavers-Wright.

Attendees will also hear first-hand from some of the most innovative start-ups, which will pitch at Retail Week Live to a panel of eminent judges.

Contacts

Retail Week Live brings delegates the opportunity to mingle with peers, share insights and make new connections both through the discussions in the sessions, at fringe events, in the exhibition area and during breaks and drinks parties. Download our networking app, RWL Connect from the App Store to view the attendee list, arrange meetings and organise your day.

Energy

At the end of Retail Week Live we hope delegates will leave with new ideas, deeper insights, new contacts and the sense of perspective that two days out of the office immersed in the big issues affecting the direction of the industry brings.

That sense of energy and fresh look at retail will help attendees return to work with a new sense of vigour.

Join the conversation by tweeting #RWL15.

To book, call: 020 3033 4247 

Book online: Live.retail-week.com 

Email:andrew.falconer-borgars@emap.com