NRF ’24 is retail’s big show!

LET THE SHOW BEGIN

The National Retail Federation brings retailers, clients, innovators, vendors and more to NYC every January.  I was excited to spend a week with my Proximity colleagues from around the globe, to not only represent Proximity at the big show, but also connect with our NCSA based clients and partners.

Image: Inside NRF 2024

TROPHY TRIUMPH

The fun started on Friday January 12th, with Cathy, Teodora and I attending the North America Vendors In Partnership Awards ceremony at Gotham Hall.  We connected with old friends, former colleagues (I was happy to see Ron Thurston who I consider to be one of my mentors), and peers throughout the awards dinner.

We heard a fabulous keynote from Manley Feinberg II about Exponential Commitment, and what it means to truly commit.  I’m also super proud to report we won the Best Retail Insights award at the ceremony too!  The award win, a testament to the vision and commitment of the team, was a great kick off to the week ahead and so nice to see our hard work recognized amongst industry peers.

Image: Cathy McCabe, Teodora Filipovic, Nicolette Dority winning Best Retail Insights award at the VIP Awards ceremony

A SHOW TO REMEMBER

Fast forward to Sunday and Monday with super freezing temperatures descending on NYC for the week!  NRF kicked off and it was the busiest I’ve seen the show – there were dynamic keynotes, and the main buzzword from the event was of course AI.  It was very interesting to see how innovators are using AI to enhance the client and store experiences.  At our booth, we met with some amazing retailers from global brands.  It is always fun to demo our tool, and share the capabilities of our Retail Super-App and show how Proximity can be the solution for a wide range of use cases for many different brands around the world.

Image: Some of the team including Chris Wood, Teodora Filipovic, Cathy McCabe, John Wright, John Liebler, Blair McVicar on the Proximity booth at NRF.

PRIORITISING CONNECTIONS

Aside from supporting the Proximity team in our NRF booth, my focus for the week was connecting with our NCSA clients.  Continuing to build relationships with and getting to know our retail partners is one of my favorite parts of what I do!  On Sunday, we welcomed some of our clients fresh off the plane from Montreal, Canada.  We had a fantastic lunch with great views and excellent conversations at Electric Lemon.

On Tuesday we had a NCSA team dinner at Tommy Bahamas – a wonderful opportunity to connect with all my global colleagues stateside.  Because our team is spread throughout the country (and world!), it’s always great to catch up IRL.  I’m thankful that Proximity always places importance on connection – with our team and with our clients.

Image: NCSA Proximity team dinner

Wednesday was a busy day – in the best possible way!  We started the morning with a Client Breakfast and fireside chat at Soho House.  It was an inspiring morning catching up with our clients (and our NCSA clients having the opportunity to connect and share with other retailers who are using our app).  We also had the pleasure of having a talk by John Douglas, CTO of Gymshark, and learning about Gymshark’s amazing journey.

Image: Client & Partner breakfast at Soho House, New York

THE POWER OF PERSONAL

The rest of the week was filled with client meetings, events and store visits, where we celebrated the successes of our partnership, and discussed ways to continue to build and grow in 2024. Being able to hear personal stories from the store teams first hand was amazing, because you get to hear where your hard work goes, how the teams are using our app, and it gives us insight into how we can continue to make our Super-App stronger for the end user.

Image: Team photo following a store visit with Blair McVicar, Teodora Filipovic, Nicolette Dority & Cathy McCabe

IN CONCLUSION

This was my second NRF week, and it did not disappoint!  It’s a great opportunity to connect, learn and be inspired, and i’m already  looking forward to next January!