Retail's Big Show, or the NRF Annual Convention & EXPO, is the flagship industry event of the

National Retail Federation The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association. Its members include department stores, catalog, Internet, and independent retailers, restaurants, grocery stores, multi-level marketing companies and vendors. ...

(NRF). Retail's Big Show is an annual event held over three days in New York City. It is the world's leading annual retail event, bringing together 35,000 retail professionals and vendors from more than 90 countries for educational and networking opportunities. NRF 2023: Retail's Big Show attracted 35,000 attendees including retail professionals, vendors and 1,000 exhibitors. Retail's Big Show has frequently been ranked as one of the Top 200 events in North America, as well as one of the 50 fastest-growing trade events. NRF is partnering with Paris-based event organizer Comexposium to launch the inaugural NRF 2024: Retail's Big Show Asia Pacific, to be held June 11-13, 2024, at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, six months after NRF 2024: Retail's Big Show in New York City.

Events

Retail, technology and business leaders are among the headline speakers for the event, which has seen over 37,000 retailers from nearly 100 countries gather in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

to address the latest trends, innovations and strategies for transformation. Retail's Big Show went virtual in 2021, its 110th year, with 90 sessions and 300 exhibitors.

History

The

(NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association, with members including department store, specialty, discount, catalogue, Internet, and independent retailers, chain restaurants, and grocery stores. It is also an umbrella group that represents more than 100 associations of state, national and international retailers. NRF began in 1911 as the National Retail Dry Goods Association (NRDGA). This was also the year of its first annual meeting. In 1958, NRDGA was renamed National Retail Merchants Association. In 1990, the association and the American Retail Federation merged to form the National Retail Federation. During all the years, an annual convention was held for members. Today, Retail's Big Show continues to be an annual event held over four days beginning in the second week of January, at the

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect James In ...

in New York City. The EXPO Floor is open each day of the convention and hosts more than 700 exhibiting companies. The EXPO features special sessions produced by the NRF covering a wide range of topics such as sustainability, visual merchandising and the global economy. Exhibitors also offer their own sessions with product demos and case studies titled Exhibitor Big Ideas. The Innovation Lab, added to the show for the first time in 2018, showcases technologies of the future and how they are transforming the way retailers market, connect and serve their customers in immersive and interactive demonstrations. Robotics, personalization, augmented reality, faster checkout systems, spatial recognition and other technologies are on display that are either already in commercial use or at the start-up stage. The NRF Foundation Gala is held each year during the NRF convention. This event raises money for foundation programming, dedicated to shaping retail's future, and honors the 25 individuals named to the foundation's annual “List of People Shaping Retail’s Future.” Many of those on the list also speak at Big Show. In 2021, the event featured sessions focused on helping retailers understand the business changes that happened as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, as well as a focus on how to move forward and best prepare for 2021 and 2022. This included sessions discussing how to stay on top of online inventory and shopping behavior, how to engage with new-to-online shoppers, and many success stories and case studies. The event also focused on the employee side of retail, such as how to best support employees during a year when mental health and stress issues increased. Former Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza "Condi" Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist serving since 2020 as the 8th director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served ...

gave the keynote speech on January 12 for the virtual event. Other major speakers included

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

Chief Customer Officer Janey Whiteside and

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...

CEO

Jamie Dimon James Dimon ( ; born March 13, 1956) is an American businessman who has been the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of JPMorgan Chase since 2006. Dimon began his career as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group. After earnin ...

, and Deloitte's Chief Global Economist Ira Kalish.

References

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Shoptimism: Why the American Consumer Will Keep on Buying No Matter What
'' by Lee Eisenberg. Free Press, 2009. Pages 33–40. Trade shows in the United States