LINK: The Retail Supply Chain Conference
Dallas, TX

Program

All Attendees
Plan to arrive at the hotel before 4:00 PM CST on Sunday, February 25, for the LINK Welcome Reception (5:00 – 6:30 PM). We recommend scheduling your return flight after 1:00 PM to allow ample travel time following the conference conclusion at 10:15 AM.

Committee Meetings – TRIC and SCLC
We recommend an early arrival on Sunday, February 25, to allow time to pick up your conference badge prior to your committee meeting. Your committee meeting start times are listed below.

Retail Golfers
Plan your travel for arrival and hotel check-in on Saturday, February 24. Shuttle buses for the golf tournament depart at 7:00 AM the following morning on Sunday, February 25

Program Agenda

Print Agenda
  • Sunday Feb 25, 2024
  • Monday Feb 26, 2024
  • Tuesday Feb 27, 2024
  • Wednesday Feb 28, 2024
7:00 AM – 3:00 PM

LINK on the Links (Golf Tournament)

This event requires pre-registration through the full conference registration process. Hit the LINKS with your colleagues on Sunday, February 25, for a free round of max score of par style golf at The Golf Club at Fossil Creek. Experience is not required, but enjoying the beautiful outdoors is. Transportation from the Gaylord is provided, starting at 7:00 a.m. with a 9:00 a.m. shotgun start.

Sponsored By
NRS
10:00 AM – 6:30 PM

Registration & Information Desk

Pick up your registration materials here, along with answers to all your questions.

1:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Meeting - Invite Only

  • Committee Meeting
This is a private meeting for RILA members on the Transportation/Logistics Committee (TRIC). We will use this time to update members on the current legislative and regulatory landscape regarding transportation issues, benchmark alongside peer companies and discuss additional industry priorities.

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Supply Chain Leaders Council Meeting - Invite Only

  • Committee Meeting
This is a private meeting for RILA members on the Supply Chain Leaders Council, composed of the senior-most supply chain leaders from the country’s leading retailers—the executives who oversee supply chain planning/strategy, transportation/logistics, distribution, fulfillment, inventory, sourcing, returns, trade/customs, and more. These leaders are envisioning the supply chains of tomorrow, even as they’re benchmarking on the common challenges of today.

5:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Supply Chain Steering Committee Meeting - Invite Only

  • Committee Meeting
  • Committee Meeting
This is a private meeting for RILA members on the Retail Supply Chain Conference Steering Committee. The committee is comprised of top retail supply chain executives, and is charged with the task of overseeing the structure and programming of the LINK Retail Supply Chain Conference.

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Welcome Reception

Join us to kick off the LINK2024 conference at the welcome reception, where you can reconnect with industry friends, network with your peers and enjoy drinks and light fare.

7:30 AM – 6:00 PM

Registration & Information Desk

Pick up your registration materials here, along with answers to all your questions.

8:00 AM – 8:30 PM

Breakfast

Please join us for breakfast and networking before the day begins.

8:30 AM – 8:45 AM

Welcome to RILA LINK 2024: The Retail Supply Chain Conference

  • General Session
Kick off LINK with a look at the most pressing demands facing retail supply chain leaders. The omnichannel retail business demands more from its supply chains with new and variable planning cycles, unique partnerships, and personalized store experiences. From end-to-end, supply chains are more customer facing and retailers must utilize the leading edge in data analytics, AI, and technology to deliver. Join us to begin the most important conversation in the retail supply chain year.

8:45 AM – 9:15 AM

Investing to Meet the Evolving Customer: A Conversation with IKEA

  • General Session
IKEA is expanding its US presence with a significant investment to enable customers to shop and experience IKEA in more ways. This conversation will discuss the realities of this omnichannel vision coupled with the essential changes to the supply chain required to achieve connection to customers and drive the IKEA mission to support people and the planet.

Speakers
Tanja Dysli
Chief Supply Chain Officer
IKEA US
Javier Quinones
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer
IKEA US
9:15 AM – 9:45 AM

Building End-to-End Supply Chains for the New Retail

  • General Session
Customer behaviors have shifted, reshaping the products, services, and experiences that retailers deliver. This conversation will dive deep into what it takes to enable a truly end-to-end supply chain that is responsive to every mode of delivery necessary to help customers get the products they want when they want them.

Speaker
Jennifer McKeehan
Senior Vice President, End to End Delivery
Walmart Inc.
10:00 AM – 10:45 PM 4 Concurrent Events

Breakout Session

  • Breakout Session

Extreme Talent Engagement: Tactics for Solving Labor Shortages

  • Breakout Session
Labor attraction and retention are key problems for retail leaders. Yet, few leaders have developed effective strategies and tactics to reduce turnover and achieve consistent, excellent performance. This panel will share how they have integrated artificial intelligence, labor management systems, performance management principles and continuous improvement tactics to recruit, reward and retain a high-performing and engaged workforce.

How to Make 2024 the Year of Strategic Optimization for Retail

  • Breakout Session
Today’s consumers demand widespread product availability and convenient, rapid fulfillment. McKinsey says “fulfill from anywhere” will become a de facto standard as retailers build models that leverage stores as a competitive advantage to support evolving customer needs. The key to success is using a combination of stores, distribution centers and other fulfillment nodes while providing reliable, fast, high-touch delivery service to the end customer. In this session, hear from retail leaders about the technology and systems they’re implementing to improve operational excellence through expanded fulfillment management functionality, inventory visibility, analytics, AI-powered technology to create operations that are adaptable and resilient while keeping the focus squarely on providing a great experience to customers.

Retailer-Only Roundtable

  • Breakout Session
Retailer-Only Roundtables are your chance to explore a challenging issue with your colleagues across the retail industry. Roundtables will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule and moderated by a retailer to facilitate a meaningful conversation on an important topic. This session is only available to retail and consumer product manufacturer attendees. Limited to 30 eligible attendees.

10:45 AM – 11:15 AM

Snack Shop Break

Stop by the LINK2024 Snack Shop for a morning pick-me-up.

11:15 AM – 12:00 PM 4 Concurrent Events

Financing and Incentivizing Supplier Sustainability

  • Breakout Session
Hear from leading retailers about different forms of supply chain sustainability engagement financing they have participated in over the past several years, including insights from the organizations who helped facilitate the programs. Topics to include incentive program design to help suppliers invest in their own sustainability improvements as well as retail-facilitated aggregated renewable virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs) where suppliers are off takers for the renewable energy.

Predictive Tools for Retail Growth Through Enhanced Door-Step Experience

  • Breakout Session
The ability to predict the future before ever making a promise to their end consumer throughout the shopping journey is critical for modern retailers. These promises are complex in that they consider consumer information, merchant fulfillment and inventory, and carrier data to ultimately construct a delivery promise for consumers up front. Once the delivery promise has been made, the retailer needs to continue to provide an outstanding experience through to final delivery. Learn how retailers, regardless of size, are using data to provide an enhanced final mile and door-step experience to their consumers.

Retailer-Only Roundtable

  • Breakout Session
Retailer-Only Roundtables are your chance to explore a challenging issue with your colleagues across the retail industry. Roundtables will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule and moderated by a retailer to facilitate a meaningful conversation on an important topic. This session is only available to retail and consumer product manufacturer attendees. Limited to 30 eligible attendees.

Supply Chain Visibility: Building Blocks of the Future

  • Breakout Session
Embark on a journey to understand where the current state of supply chain visibility stands and the exciting advancements on the horizon. Discover how retailers are harnessing cutting-edge technology to unlock new dimensions of business value throughout the entire supply chain. Don't miss this opportunity to unlock the full potential of your supply chain.

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Lunch in the Expo Experience

Join us for lunch and networking in the Expo Experience.​​​​ The Expo Experience will remain open until the end of the reception tonight.

12:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Expo Experience Open

The Expo Experience opens now! Join us to network with and learn from the service providers helping retailers meet their supply chain challenges and improve their results! The Expo Experience runs from 12:00 - 6:00 p.m. today.

2:00 PM – 2:45 PM 4 Concurrent Events

Delivering ROI Through Supply Chain Visibility: How the Control Tower Can Unlock the Potential of Your Supply Chain

  • Breakout Session
Retailer access to data and improved visibility continues to proliferate; yet data lakes are only a partial answer. How do impactful supply chain business decisions materialize? In this session, you’ll engage in a dynamic discussion on transforming your control tower from a suite of visual dashboards into an analytics-driven decision support platform.

Embracing Innovation: How Leading Retailers are Turning Tomorrow’s Tech into Today’s Results

  • Breakout Session
What happens when a retailer can harness all of its data, computing power, and AI to make better decisions? The result is better customer experiences, faster responses, higher revenues and profitability. Discover how unlocking access to real-time predictive analytics, enhancing human decision-making, and unifying planning and execution can revolutionize supply chain and commerce. Learn how innovations like Gen-AI, data clouds, and advanced AI and machine learning are making it easier and faster to garner critical insights and take action to deliver exceptional customer experiences and business performance.

Profitability and Sustainability: ESG Partnerships that Unlock Profitable Supply Chain Solutions

  • Breakout Session
ESG is a proven lever to not only enable sustainability progress but critically, to also unlock financial and operational value along the retail supply chain. Hear how leading retailers leverage brand and supplier partnerships and trusted 2-way data sharing, to drive speed, scale, and automation for reduced impacts and profitable collaborative action. Join us for new insights and actionable takeaways to apply to supply chain, logistics, and product flow strategies to chase the waste out of your system.

Retailer-Only Roundtable

  • Breakout Session
Retailer-Only Roundtables are your chance to explore a challenging issue with your colleagues across the retail industry. Roundtables will be conducted under the Chatham House Rule and moderated by a retailer to facilitate a meaningful conversation on an important topic. This session is only available to retail and consumer product manufacturer attendees. Limited to 30 eligible attendees.

2:45 PM – 3:15 PM

Snack Shop Break

Enjoy a Snack Shop break to grab some snacks and refreshments.

3:15 PM – 3:45 PM

Delivering Legendary Customer Service through the Customer-Facing Supply Chain

  • General Session
Meeting the Next Demand requires more than a customer-facing supply chain. It requires effective collaboration between the supply chain team and Ecommerce team. This session will focus on the power of that effective collaboration to deliver best-in-class customer experiences across all customer channels and touch points.

Speakers
Miguel Almeida
President, Digital
Nordstrom, Inc.
Alexis DePree
Executive Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Officer
Nordstrom, Inc.
3:45 PM – 4:30 PM

Strong Ecosystem Partnerships: Collaborative Planning to Tackle Big Challenges

  • General Session
Retailers are leveraging deep partnerships across the supply chain ecosystem to take on their most difficult challenges. This conversation will focus on how collaborative planning and partnership can enable better movement of product, enhanced data sharing, and progress in achieving sustainability goals.

Speakers
Katie Farmer
President and Chief Executive Officer
BNSF Railway
Shelley Simpson
President
J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Expo Experience Reception

Join other conference attendees for this great networking opportunity.

7:30 AM – 6:00 PM

Registration & Information Desk

Pick up your registration materials here, along with answers to all your questions.

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

Breakfast

Please join us for breakfast and networking before the day begins.

9:00 AM – 9:35 AM

Digitizing the Supply Chain: A Journey Toward Unified Commerce

  • General Session
Retailers are seeking to create a seamless shopping experience for their customers no matter the channel. This conversation will focus on the technology and processes leading retailers are investing in to move toward a digitized supply chain that creates that unified shopping experience.

Speaker
Gabriel Arreaga
Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer
The Kroger Co.
9:35 AM – 10:00 AM

Navigating the Turbulent Geopolitical Landscape

  • General Session
The new demands placed on retailers have led supply chain leaders to recalibrate their supply chains from creating greater resiliency to reevaluating source countries. This session will provide insight into major geopolitical challenges and the strategic considerations retail supply chain leaders will need to evaluate as they plan for the future.

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM

The Store as a Strategic Supply Chain Asset

  • General Session
Beyond being a channel for sales and customer experience, stores are increasingly a strategic asset to the supply chain. Join this conversation discussing next level collaboration between supply chain and store teams.

10:30 AM – 11:00 AM

Snack Shop Break

Stop by the LINK2024 Snack Shop for a morning pick-me-up.

11:00 AM – 11:45 AM 4 Concurrent Events

Accelerating Your Transportation Emissions Data Journey (Workshop & Roundtable)

Whether your company is just ramping up efforts at tracking transportation emissions or looking for ways to improve accuracy and reliability of data, you’ll benefit from participating in this discussion with fellow retailers—and industry experts like EPA SmartWay and the Smart Freight Centre’s Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC). Discuss what’s working and what needs improvement with tools and practices retailers (and their partners) are using on the journey to comprehensively assess their transportation footprints and identify collaboration opportunities with carrier and industry partners. Stick around for lunch discussion tables with peers and experts on all things emissions measurement and reduction.

High Velocity Supply Chain Planning

  • Breakout Session
Accelerated supply chain decision making in alignment with digital integrated business planning mitigates volatility in supply chain and demand in marketplace. Day-to-day optimal inventory and replenishment planning tailored for individual retail outlets results in cost savings and higher customer satisfaction. This session will discuss challenges in delivering data at higher velocity to supply chain solutions and how Analytic Process Automation (APA) can help address these challenges.

Stories of Reverse Logistics: Cracking the Code for Program Success

  • Breakout Session
Today, retailers face increasing costs and complexity in their reverse logistics processes that distract from their core business and erode margin. In many cases, the rigor and precision of the forward-focused supply chain is lacking in reverse streams. Consequently, decision-making is not dynamic, processes are undefined or poorly managed, and a lack of adequate tools result in poor program visibility and oversight. In this session, you will hear directly from leading retail executives on how they have built programs which tackle these challenges and drive bottom-line value. Participants will also glean insights into the results from a recent benchmarking study focused on improving recovery and efficiency in reverse logistics, conducted among more than 100 senior reverse logistics professionals.

The Power of Flexibility: Building an On-Demand Workforce of the Future

  • Breakout Session
In an era where labor challenges still persist and gig work is on the rise, today’s supply chain leaders are finding themselves at a critical juncture, one that requires looking at the future of work through a new lens. Imagine a world where you can fill labor gaps with a workforce of vetted people. Think about the opportunity to scale your workforce based on seasonal demand, in real-time, without overplanning. From distribution centers—to the retail shelf, learn how Meijer has built a flexible workforce that enables them to combat turnover, respond to demand and capture cost savings across their entire supply chain.

11:45 AM – 1:00 PM

Lunch in the Expo Experience

Join us for lunch and networking in the Expo Experience.​​​​ The Expo Experience will remain open until the end of the reception tonight.

11:45 AM – 1:30 PM

State of Play: Transport Emissions Technology and Infrastructure Updates

Join us, starting with lunch discussion tables with peers and experts on all things emissions measurement and reduction. Directly following lunch, hear the latest updates on the ever-evolving transport emissions landscape!  Be in the know about what’s happening with alternative fuels, EV truck technology and availability, carrier advancements in truck/ocean/rail, shipper collaboration opportunities, electrification infrastructure development, federal regulations and incentives, and more. Session includes summary deck to take home and share with colleagues!

11:45 AM – 6:00 PM

Expo Experience Open

The Expo Experience opens for it's final day now! Join us to network with and learn from the service providers helping retailers meet their supply chain challenges and improve their results! The Expo Experience runs from 11:45 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. today.

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Distribution Committee Meeting - Invite Only

  • Committee Meeting
This is a private meeting for RILA members on the Distribution Committee composed of the senior-most distribution/fulfillment leaders from the country’s leading retailers.

2:00 PM – 2:45 PM 3 Concurrent Events

Enhancing Community Engagement through Retailer and Supplier Diversity Partnerships

  • Breakout Session
Seeking and building on stakeholder feedback are key tenants of successful supplier diversity and ESG programs. This session will present a variety of successful joint retailer and supplier programs used to strengthen community ties while building positive brand awareness. We will explore important considerations when partnering with suppliers to achieve the co-benefits of strengthening retailer and supplier relationships, developing customer insights, attracting and retaining talent, promoting diversity and inclusion, and advancing the organization’s purpose and values.

Successfully Integrating Your Workforce into an Automated Environment

  • Breakout Session
Join panelists from a diverse group of retailers as they discuss their wins, losses, and lessons learned from their automation transformations, with a focus on workforce impact. They’ll explore topics such as: impacts of automation on attraction and retention, workforce change management and upskilling, and performance management strategies.

Supply Chain Decarbonization Tactics

  • Breakout Session
Over 90% of a typical retailer’s carbon footprint comes from indirect sources of emissions, with most of those emissions linked to supply chains. As extreme weather, regulation, and company target setting continue to heighten the importance of decarbonization, join this session for an overview of the key supply chain decarbonization tactics companies are leveraging to address emissions from logistics to manufacturing. This interactive discussion with case studies will outline the key “need to know” strategies across supply chain decarbonization for retailers looking to address scope 3 emissions now or preparing to tackle them in the future.

2:45 PM – 3:15 PM

Snack Shop Break

Enjoy a Snack Shop break to grab some snacks and refreshments.

3:15 PM – 3:45 PM

Supply Chain Leadership Insights

  • General Session
A panel of Chief Supply Chain Officers will share their personal leadership journeys, including how the role of CSCO is evolving, how they navigate demanding supply chain challenges, how changes in the retail business have impacted their supply chain teams, and offer their best advice to aspiring supply chain leaders.

3:45 PM – 4:30 PM

Preparing a Team to Face the Next Demand

  • General Session
Join a special guest for a conversation about what it takes to build a great team, how to foster durable culture, and defining an enduring legacy.

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM

Expo Experience Reception

Join other conference attendees for this great networking opportunity.

7:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Registration & Information Desk

Pick up your registration materials here, along with answers to all your questions.

8:00 AM – 8:30 AM

Breakfast

Please join us for the last breakfast of the conference.

8:30 AM – 9:15 AM 2 Concurrent Events

Breakout Session

  • Breakout Session

The Path to Building a Strong Culture Focused on Data and Analytics is Often Underestimated

  • Breakout Session
Data-driven cultures are inherent to a modern supply chain but how do you know if your organization is actually a “Best-in-Class” data-driven culture? This retail panel will showcase an organization considered “Best-in-Class,” one in the midst of their journey, and one just starting. The conversation will focus on common pitfalls such as KPI overload, the power of communication and change management when aligning stakeholders on your data first journey, and how to operationalize data and analytics to inform high-level decision-making.

9:30 AM – 10:15 AM

Inventory, Demand Planning and Supply Chains: Getting It Less Wrong!

  • Breakout Session
Inventory issues—too much, not enough, not at the right time, not in the right place—have challenged supply chain operations for years. We will explore these never-ending cycles that ebb and flow through supply chain operations. Leveraging new tools like AI and machine learning aim to help retailers plan (and execute) better, though foundational processes and internal collaboration are also critical. Following a stress-testing period of historically high inventory levels across the industry, hear some key insights from a leading retailer on how they managed the situation. Engage with us in the group discussion to benchmark and share valuable lessons learned!

All times listed in Central Time (CT). Schedule Subject to Change.

Attend the can’t miss event for your supply chain team!

Register Today!