About
The digital revolution has seen the most challenging time in the history of global commerce destroying traditional business models as we know them.
As consumers’ appetite to adopt new innovations at an extraordinary rate of change continues, retailers are struggling to keep up. Only those brave and agile enough to adapt will survive. Those that don’t are not likely to trade past 2020 and this is their biggest fear.
Tech. is the most important two-day festival of digital commerce and the technology driving it in 2019.
Why Attend?
Tech. is the only event in 2019 where retailers, CPGs, DTC, tech suppliers, start-ups, investors and analysts join forces to work out how they not only survive the digital revolution but nail it.
At Tech. we put the most disruptive thinkers under the spotlight - from the companies that are revolutionising their industries, to the tech firms creating the most innovative of products.
We bring together more than 2,500 people and 180+ speakers from 800+ companies across the globe. Tech. provides the biggest and boldest platform for digital leaders in commerce and the smartest minds in technology to shape the future of the industry.
Speakers
The biggest names in the business. Geniuses of commerce technology from the companies leading the way.
Partners
Retailer-supplier collaboration is key to surviving the digital revolution. Meet the companies that are leading the way in tech innovation and retail disruption.
Commerce partners include
What was on
Closing Party
On the evening of day 2 at Tech., this was the industry party of the year. After two days of amazing content, everyone kicked-back with a drink in hand and mingled away.
Discovery
This was a platform for retailers to find the next digital disruption, whilst also giving tech start-ups the opportunity to showcase their innovations to retail leaders from across the globe.
Partners
Our partners brought the latest in tech innovation for guests to see. Attendees got their hands on the latest tech toys and found the products and solutions to help solve all their problems.
What was on: Mainstage Sessions
Store of the future
Ian Massingham and Phil Thompson of Amazon Web Services walked us through a vision for the store of the future and examined how cloud computing, edge devices, artificial intelligence and IoT can accelerate transformation in retail to deliver a smoother, frictionless customer experience, whilst helping bricks and mortar retailers incorporate a more data driven approach long used by e-commerce businesses.
Ian Massingham, Chief Evangelist – EMEA, Amazon Web Services
Phil Thompson, Worldwide Tech Lead for Retail, Amazon Web Services
Ian Massingham, Chief Evangelist – EMEA, Amazon Web Services
Phil Thompson, Worldwide Tech Lead for Retail, Amazon Web Services
The new wave of AI and robotics transforming online retail
AI is going to transform at an exponential rate our industry, our competitors, our B2B customers, our retail customers, our platform, our customer offer, our business and our employees, and this leads to not only a real sense of urgency but also the need to adopt an “AI first” mindset. This session covered how AI pervades Ocado’s end-to-end ecommerce, fulfilment and logistics platform. We discussed related technologies such as swarm robotics technology for building automated warehouses, the lessons learnt, including the importance of harvesting and transforming the data needed to train the AI models, how the cloud has democratised access to AI, and also how it has raised the bar for smartness if you want your applications to be best of breed.
Paul Clarke, CTO, Ocado
Paul Clarke, CTO, Ocado
From start-up to $12 billion: Building a workforce culture of creative thinkers
Digital transformation has us working every minute and attempting to squeeze as much as we can out of a day, we simply can’t just “be more productive”. According to a McKinsey Global Institute Study, we spend 61% of our time managing work and only 39% of the time doing it. Adrienne shared some innovative approaches Dropbox is using to put their team on the path to enlightened working, by unlocking the asset of creative energy:
Adrienne Gormley, Global VP of Customer Experience and Head of EMEA, Dropbox
- Providing the right physical and psychological spaces
- Unlocking the value of collaboration
- Empowering teams through grit and macro-management
- Making time for creative thinking
Adrienne Gormley, Global VP of Customer Experience and Head of EMEA, Dropbox
Tomorrow’s retail: Robots will guide us
Digital technologies transform the very foundation of how we live – and also the way we go shopping. Martin Wild, Chief Innovation Officer of the MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group, showed what retail will look like in the future: how robots will guide us, how augmented and virtual reality will merge on- and offline worlds to an all new shopping experience to help us to find what we are really looking for.
Martin Wild, Chief Innovation Officer, MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group
Tom, Robot, MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group
What was on: Panel Sessions
Meet Generation Z – your future power shopper
To understand the next generation of shoppers better, we brought together an international panel of Gen Z influencers who discussed in depth, how the next generation is interacting with retailers.
Moderator: David Polinchock, Chief Experience Officer, Experiential Advertising Group
Luke Hunter, Gen Z, Montclair Kimberley Academy
Sydney Polinchock, Gen Z, Montclair Kimberley Academy
Henry Patterson, Gen Z/Founder, Young and Mighty
Has anything created a bigger buzz in retail this year than AI?
This session tackled the confusion surrounding ‘AI’ and elaborated on why ‘AI myths’ are stopping retailers taking meaningful action. This panel brought in real world examples from their experience to bust the top ten myths of AI.
Peter Ellen, CEO, Big Data For Humans
Matt Harris, Director - Retail and Consumer Goods Practice Lead, Information Services Group
Gareth Edwards, Principal Scotland, Deloitte Digital
Optimising customer experience in an age of digital retailing
This session got into the nitty-gritty of how to educate the leading retail decision-makers on staying competitive by adopting long-term strategies that provide transparency into customer experiences, and how to use these insights across the organisation.
Shehnaaz Chenia, Director eCommerce Development EMEA, LEGO Group
Ben Harris, CEO, Decibel Insight
Marc van Afteren, CEO, Usabilla
High-tech innovation, robotics and digitalisation
To become competitive, fashion retailers and brands need to embrace new production strategies and technologies, such as data and intelligence, robotics and digitalisation, to use customer data to provide tailored, on-demand items. This session discussed the four key steps to working smarter and faster!
Janice Wang, CEO, Alvanon
Jalaj Hora, Senior VP Engineering and Quality, Burberry
Angela Gaskell, Head of Sourcing, N Brown
Jenny Holloway, CEO, Fashion Enter
What was on: Discovery
Retailers need speed, agility and early innovation to disrupt before their competitors do. This is where the start-up zone at Tech. came into play. Discovery at Tech. provided retailers with a platform to find that next innovation, while giving tech start-ups the opportunity to flaunt their wares to a room full of influential decision makers in retail technology. The perfect opportunity for start-up's who have the technology that is going to change the face of retail to show it off!
What was on: Closing Party
The industry party of the year!
The closing party took place on the evening of day two at Tech., and was a night to remember!
Complimentary drinks, music and plenty of entertainment, made this the perfect opportunity to kick back, relax and mingle with fellow festival delegates following a jam-packed two days at Tech.
It was the perfect chance to meet new people, build connections and establish long-lasting relationships that will make a real difference to your business.
