2024 Speaker & Visitor Testimonials

"I've been working in technology over the last 15 years. The future is going to present all sorts of immense new opportunities and challenges, actually understanding how we navigate through these periods of immense societal change, that's something that we can only do by having conversations together. No single company, no single industry certainly has all of the solutions or even a large number of them. So actually I really love getting together with folks who understand different spaces deeply so we can both learn from each other. I think the Retail Technology Show is just a great moment for us to all share together."

"Well, I think for any business leader, selecting the right technology is really, really difficult. And I think to come here where you have so many vendors, so many great speakers, it's great to get an insight into what other brands are doing, other retailers are doing, as well as seeing what are the vendors are offering. And I think ultimately it's a melting pot of ideas in how we try and predict the future of retail."

"And I think it provokes creative thinking, being able to see the tools that are out there, the latest innovations I think gives every retailer food for thought and what is relevant for their customer journey and which are the innovations that they want to adapt.

 

I think being at the show today, you can see some incredible technologies that are coming out, and I think I'm incredibly excited to see how these digital displays and POS are going to revolutionize bricks and mortar retail. So, I think this show is incredibly unique in the fact that it has a huge amount of different people from all elements of retail. You've got every major supplier in retail all in one place, and it allows you to see the latest innovations and meet with some of your customers all in one go. It's a great use of time and really exciting and inspiring."

"There's a number of things that are great about shows like this. Firstly, from a pure efficiency point of view, for me, I've got a lot of vendors I deal with all in one place, so I can get quite a lot done over a two-day period. It's also a really good way to get insight into what's changing in the marketplace. You can see how vendors are moving around, how their focus is moving, how new products came up. And you can see it's very helpful for somebody like me that you get a view of where you've got a vendor that's quite small three years ago and how they've grown and therefore how their impetus in the market. So it's a good validation point from my perspective to understand how things are moving and where I should put my interest. Retail's a small industry, so firstly, you are meeting an awful lot of people that you haven't seen for a little while. It's lovely to catch up with people, but also it's networking and getting a view of what other brands are doing, what's successful, what's not, what they've tried, what they've moved away from, etc. So it's just really helpful to build that community side of things. Yeah, day one kind of leaves me on stage for the first half an hour of it, going into next tomorrow for me is a lot more sort of seeing what's going on. I get some time to wander the halls and just get a view on the pulse of things as to where things are moving."

"It is incredible. I barely could actually get in. It was full of people talking and networking and sharing, and I think this is why shows like this are invaluable when we're all at home using social media, using tech, all of these things, but actually getting together to talk about tech. Well, I can only imagine what's coming out of this show. The Retail Technology Show, I would say, is essential."

"I think these events are so valuable. We have a tendency sometimes as retailers to focus internally and actually really need to get out into the external environment, see what innovations are out there, how they could help us, what are others doing, and it is really important to learn from others as well. So you stand on the shoulders of giants. Well, if you don't come down tomorrow, you're totally missing out. You're going to get massive FOMO. There is so much here, so much to explore, so much to hear, so much insight, so much networking. You've got to be here."

"So the retail technology industry, so dynamic and so diverse, it's absolutely key that we have these large flagship shows where we can all get together, share best practices, share pitfalls and challenges as well as benefits. And also just to showcase what's cutting edge. So often retailers are really, really preoccupied with the bottom line, getting product to the right place at the right time, at the right price so that we buy what we want.

 

Events like the Retail Technology Show, allow them to look up, to pause for breath, and to understand what's going to be important to them two to three years down the line.

Day one at the Retail Technology Show has been, if I'm to be honest, completely exhausting, but that is a testament to how brilliant it has been. I've met so many interesting experts, so many technology developers that can tell me the direction of technology that meet the demand for retailers which ultimately are meeting the demands of their customers. So I've learned a huge amount."

"I think this show is fantastic. I haven't been to it before. I find the whole retail tech side, it drives the business. It is the most important part of the business. Without it, the business just doesn't work. And I think it's great to get people together. I know a lot of our team are here, a lot of our retail, well the tech team are here and they learn a hell of a lot from other people and they see everything under one roof. And it's an amazing experience. First time I've been, as I say, but lots of incredible companies doing all sorts of incredible things, and it really makes me realize that we have to buck up and keep up. The Retail Technology Show is eye-opening."

"The show is about retail. It's for retailers to come and talk about retail and to see solutions and how brands can serve customers. So I think it's amazing that there is so many diverse solution providers and retailers coming together to define what the next year, two years, five years looks like. I think it's a mixture of everything, yes. It's about introducing new technologies. It's a one-stop shop, and it gives retailers the opportunity to talk to each other. We can often be quite siloed and although retailers are willing to share, obviously it's finding the time to physically come together at a show like this and spend some time over a coffee talking about challenges, problems, future-proofing. Oh, absolutely amazing. I believe footfall is up 40% on last year. I think you can see that in how dynamic it is and how many people are here. So, for sure, 2025 is probably going to be far better as well."

"I think this event is incredibly important for the sector. It's one of the few places that retailers can come and understand what the latest technologies are, see the latest trends in technology, and there are two things that are going to drive the success and underpin the success of organizations in retail and the future. One is its people and one is its use of technology to give better service, better customer experience to their clients and their customers.Retail Technology Show 2024 has been an amazing experience for us. It's a delight to be here, get an opportunity to see old friends, but make new contacts as well from across the sector. So I'm sure everyone else has had the same experience that we have as well."

"The show is absolutely amazing. I've been around half of it, there is so much, really. I was just standing here. It's so exciting. You'd stand here and you look at something and you think that could be really useful."

"The Retail Technology Show is a really great event. It's a great opportunity to take a couple of days away from your day job and network and reconnect with so many people in the industry. It really is the one event where you can go to and walk down the corridor and you're going to bump into a client or an old colleague or a friend. The industry, it is moving at such a fast pace, it's incredibly dynamic and there is so much transformation. The industry is really moving to become much more digitally oriented. And I think there's so much learning, it's continuous evolution, and so it's really fantastic again, to be here and catch up with everyone."