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As an experience designer in retail, I'm already aware of the high-level trends shaping retail. I was hoping this would be an opportunity to dig deeply into what other companies are doing, share ideas, and have my viewpoints challenged. Sadly, the format didn't really allow for that. The 20 minute talks provided the barest of glimpses into what others are doing and there was hardly any time spared for questions. There were limited break out sessions to talk in small groups, but this was by far the most useful component of the conference. The energy of the crowd was so low. Maybe it was the lack of music? I was looking for thought leaders to stretch my thinking, but what I found felt like a rehashing of the same old "retail is changing" conversation. I'm not sure if I'll come back next year, but it doesn't feel like a priority at the moment.

Not enough retailers to meet and discuss our solution. They were more focused on the panels and not the exhibits.

The best speakers were the retailers,especially Shilpa Shah, Rosie O'Neil, Ruth Crowly, Cedric Clark, Jennifer Seyller, Brian Gill, and Almira Cuizon. They were well prepared and told compelling stories about real customer experiences and problems to be solved. Some of the younger tech leader speakers were good too. The rest of the talks were challenging to get anything out of. They lacked substance related to the topics described in the agenda, and there was a lot of needless explaining of things we in the industry already know (i.e. Customers have changing expectations, Millennial behaviors, Innovation is important). It would have been better to have fewer, more substantive topics, and more opportunities for audience members to participate. For example, the Shark Tank was basically 20 minutes of the facilitator yelling at the audience about not knowing anything about innovation, then two minutes for the innovators to share about their product, and zero minutes for any discussion. This session was a waste of time. Also, there were many presentation slides that looked hacked together in these talks that could've benefited from help from someone who has visual language skills. Some speakers came across ill prepared, yet eager to do a lot of condescending explaining. Again. the best presentations came from retailers and young tech leaders. On a personal level, as a nearly 40 year old non-Millennial, I didn't appreciate the references about young people not knowing "how to spell newspaper, let alone have read one" and "the swipe right people" made by one of the conference chairs in opening remarks. This conference needs a boost of more creative retailers, and fewer out of touch vendors and consultants if it wants to be taken seriously as a forum for store innovation.

I'd really hoped for a more engaging and futuristic experience. The presentations were light-weight and didn't provide much more than I could have gotten by reading a free McKinsey or MSI article. Also, there was a tremendous amount of redundancy in the slide content from the different presenters. They were filled with lots of the same buzz words with not a lot of meat behind them. In addition, logistically, I thought the conference was poorly managed. I wasn't able to download the app on my phone (galaxy note 8) and the agenda I had printed out at home didn't match a lot of the presentations that took place. The timing was always running 15-20 minutes behind. Super frustrating and irritating. I'd expect that things would have run more smoothly from an organization that has at least 2 conferences per year. This was the first time I'd gone to this conference and I don't think that I'll go back again, even if I were able to get a free ticket.

I was disappointed in this event. I felt that the speakers were not thought-leaders in their space and delivered bland presentations. Also, the format of the breakout sessions were not conducive to facilitating interesting conversations among the participants. Lastly, the vendors were a bit more prominent and overselling was happening making the discussions awkward.