2024 Conference Programme

The interviewer will ask the interviewee some of the following questions as well as asking the audience to ask some questions of their own:

• Can you tell me a little bit about your role at Harrods?
• What makes you passionate about sustainability?
• How has your supply chain become more sustainable and what have you achieved so far?
• How do you now achieve your scope 3 ambitions and what role does collaboration play?
• You mentioned data, how important is data?
• what does partnership look like in a very competitive retail environment? 
• What key challenges need to be overcome to make a real difference? 
• What are your next steps in this journey? 
• If there was one request or thought that you could leave the audience with today, what would it be?

• Understanding UK consumer trends for sustainability and how to truly engage consumers in your ESG strategies
• Reviewing sustainability progress within UK retail and hospitality and how/why businesses can be a vehicle of change
• Harnessing the power of technology innovation in retail to drive your sustainability efforts further 
• Creating sustainable business models that enable you to balance purpose and profit

The interviewer will ask the interviewee some of the following questions as well as asking the audience to ask some questions of their own:

• Can you give us a quick summary of your career journey so far within supply chain leadership and any highlights that really stand out for you?  
• Why do you think sustainability is such a priority for the food industry currently when they are also dealing with the challenges of cost of living, changing legislation and international wars?
• How can retailers and their partners build frameworks for collaboration in an industry renowned for being hugely competitive?  
• What steps can the retail sector take today to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions effectively? 
• Why is data quality so important for communication and decision making up and down the supply chain within retail and how can this be measured?
• Data can mean many different things to different parts of the supply chain so how do we make sure it is aligned and used effectively? 
• How can smaller retailers with smaller budgets make their supply chain more sustainable?
• How would this work in practice and what does success really look like in challenging times?  
• We know consumers are wanting to make more sustainable buying choices so how can this information help them in this quest?  

• Have ASDA team to give a quick intro of ASDA and themselves.  Areas of responsibilities?
• What were the compelling reasons for adopting item-level RFID in the George stores?
• How is your business utilizing item-level RFID within stores and across the supply chain?
• Can you talk about the hard and soft benefits you have found in the last year since deploying the solution?
• Describe some of the responses from the different stakeholders in the business, from ownership to associate in the store?
• Based on your journey, what 2-3 things would you encourage a retailer to consider before making the transformation to item-level RFID?
• How is your organization looking to utilize the technology to drive more value within the ASDA enterprise going forward - both in-store and throughout the supply chain?

The interviewer will ask the interviewee some of the following questions as well as asking the audience to ask some questions of their own:

• What progress has been made in the UK in getting products delivered by robots? 
• What impact will robot delivery have on a retailers sustainability impact? 
• What costs savings can retailers realistically expect through robot delivery? 
• What is the maximum size of product that can realistically be delivered by robot? 
• How can retailers gain more trust in robot delivery? 
• What are the risks retailers should be aware of with robot delivery? 
• What needs to happen for robot delivery to be rolled out across the UK and who will scale it up? 
• How long will it be before robot delivery is an everyday expectation?  
• What is required to get local councils to buy into robot delivery? 

• Integrating new fulfilment capabilities to deliver seamless convenience, enhanced omnichannel customer experience and increased sales
• Understanding how one-hour click and collect can reduce logistical costs, increase speed to consumer and improve operational efficiencies
• Creating extra capacity and scalability on-demand by turning stores into mini distribution centres
• Using a composable tech stack for speed and customer centricity throughout the supply chain

• Understanding the ever-growing regulations and demands on retailers within sustainable supply chain
• Assessing the current state and reality of Digital Product Passports
• Bridging the gap that needs to be addressed
• Implementing scalable planning and understanding the role of technology
• Communicating the upside and opportunities for retail brands

• Which new innovations should retailers be focussing on to reduce the time from order to delivery? 

• How is delivery changing as sustainability becomes more important to the retailer and customer? 

• How can retailers best embrace robot delivery and differentiate themselves? 

• Amazon has announced drone delivery in the UK to launch in 2024.  How will this disrupt the retail delivery landscape?  

• What innovation lessons can the retail sector learn from the restaurant sector about delivery innovation?

• Which innovations in customer communications throughout the delivery process are driving the most loyalty?  

• Will new innovations is Amazon Fulfilment bringing to the delivery table? 

• Which innovations in delivery are having the biggest impact on cost reduction? 

• How is the delivery from store trend changing the delivery landscape?  

• How is AI impacting the delivery landscape?  

• What efficiencies are we seeing through innovations in route planning for delivery?