Retail Industry Leaders Association’s (R)Tech Center for Innovation and Shoptalk Partner on Shopta
Today the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the trade association of the world's largest and most innovative retail companies, and Shoptalk, organizer of the world's largest conference for retail and ecommerce, announced their continued partnership to focus on creating a global community and conversation for retail and ecommerce innovation. RILA’s premier initiative, the (R)Tech Center for Innovation, launched at last year’s Shoptalk, will integrate several features into this year’s Shoptalk to be held on March 18-21 at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
“The (R)Tech Center is thrilled to continue our partnership with Shoptalk,” said Adam Siegel, senior vice president of innovation for RILA. “This event is activating a community that acknowledges and acts on the retail industry’s disruption. It is the perfect opportunity to build on the Center’s progress since last year’s launch in seizing opportunities to help the industry transform.”
“As the leading trade association that’s embracing the fundamental ongoing shifts in retail and working to utilize them to the benefit of the industry, RILA shares our passion for empowering the ecosystem for a digital age,” said Anil D. Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer of Shoptalk. “We’re delighted to continue our partnership because working together allows us each to have a greater impact.”
The (R)Tech Center will kick off Shoptalk on Saturday, March 17 with a retail “hackathon” at The Venetian. The Center will partner with the University of Nevada Las Vegas to challenge students to the “3D X Challenge” where student “hackers” will design, develop and demonstrate a customer experience using 3D product placement technology. Global Scanning, the market leader in 2D & 3D Scanning Technology will be the lead sponsor of the challenge.
The (R)Tech Advisory Council whose members include Best Buy, Coca-Cola, Energizer, Foot Locker, GameStop, Gap, IBM, Kroger, Lowe’s, QVC, Target, Unilever, Walgreens, Walmart and Westfield will convene at this year’s Shoptalk on Sunday, March 18. The group will focus on the future of the retail workforce and driving open innovation.
Following the meeting, the (R)Tech Center will host a Sunday evening reception with retail executives at the AquaKnox Venetian to announce brand new industry research conducted in partnership with Accenture and showcase the winners of the first annual (R)Tech Innovation Awards. The Center believes that one trend is driving change in the industry more than any other: the trend toward ubiquitous and ultra-personal shopping. The reception will highlight (R)Tech and Accenture’s findings and showcase the award winners, who were hand-picked by America’s leading chief retail executives for their groundbreaking work in promoting the industry’s move towards shopping wherever, whenever.
RILA, together with Accenture, launched the (R)Tech Center for Innovation at Shoptalk 2017. Since its launch, the Center has made significant strides towards helping retailers navigate industry transformation through authoritative research, connecting retailers to innovative technologies and ventures, and assisting the industry in creating cultures of innovation. Specifically, the (R)Tech Center for Innovation empowers retail innovation chiefs and exposes other executives to the technologies and innovations driving change in retail. This powerful platform is launching two new projects in 2018. The first is to build a pipeline of retail-tech talent to infuse new skills into the industry and the second is to create an open innovation engine that can rapidly solve the industry’s most pressing challenges.
To learn more about the (R)Tech Center for Innovation visit www.rtech.org
To learn more about Shoptalk visit https://shoptalk.com/
About RILA
RILA is the trade association of the world's largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs, and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities, and distribution centers domestically and abroad.
About Shoptalk
Shoptalk is the world's largest conference for retail and ecommerce. With an unbiased agenda and the best speaker lineup, we help you get smart about the innovation and trends that continue to transform the sector globally. For three years, we’ve defined the industry’s digital community by bringing established retailers and brands together with direct-to-consumer and tech startups, large tech and Internet companies, venture capital investors, real estate developers, equity analysts, media and others. Join the conversation and community on March 18-21, 2018 at the Venetian in Las Vegas.