NRF 2022: To attend or not to attend as Covid cases rise?
The National Retail Federation recently confirmed that its annual US-based industry event, the Big Show, now in its 112th year, will still continue in person as planned, despite rising Covid cases across the country.
NRF 2022 will run from 16th to 18th January, with an opening party on 15th January.
One company due to attend but now weighing up the pros and cons is UK-based retail analytics startup Uncrowd.
In a LinkedIn post, Richard Hammond, CEO at Uncrowd, says: “I love the NRF Big Show. It's always an incredible event and the effort to pull it off each year is herculean. We're due to exhibit. We also had a load of events set up with partners.”
“Through absolutely no fault on the NRF's part, the show is under the cloud of America's new Covid wave.”
He adds: “Should we pull out and save whatever thousands we can in doing so? There's no word from NRF on refunds for exhibit space, and I understand why, but equally the travel and accommodation and a few other costs are fully recoverable.”
Hammond notes that all of Uncrowd’s partners have pulled out of the show. “We've heard too that registrations are disappointing and that even some of those registrations might not convert to actual visitors.”
“We completely understand why this is the case. Having gone through our own Omicron worries here in the UK, with the US being a few weeks behind, this must suddenly all look big and scary there again.”
A spokesperson for the NRF told RTIH: “We are excited to host the 112th annual convention from 16th to 18th January and are anticipating up to 20,000 attendees.”
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