That was the retail technology year that was. Real life events make a welcome return

As 2022 draws to a close, RTIH brings you its key retail tech related takeaways from a hugely eventful year. This time around, we focus on the return of physical events in a post-Covid world.

Virtual events received a huge boost during the Covid-19 outbreak, as restrictions and lockdowns meant that people couldn’t attend their physical counterparts.

There was even talk in some quarters of a brave new world in which all exhibitions and conferences moved online. That, however, didn’t happen.

Back in April, Retail Technology Show proved that there was still a huge appetite for in-person events, as it welcomed thousands of attendees over two days.

They were joined by 200+ technology vendors, exhibiting the latest innovations, and over 90 speakers, who took the biggest debates and hottest topics to the conference stage.  

Matt Bradley, Event Director at Retail Technology Show, commented: “We knew the appetite for the Retail Technology Show would make the event an unmissable one – after the turbulence and radical change of the past two years, the time was right for retail to reunite.”

“And Retail Technology Show proved to be the platform for reuniting the industry, setting a course for the transformational evolution needed for retail businesses to succeed in the new landscape.”

“With the outstanding innovation on display on the show floor, the brightest minds in retail on the conference stages and unlimited networking opportunities that you can only get from large format trade events, we were thrilled to have brought retail home to Olympia.”    

Retail Technology Show returns in 2023, running from 26th to 27th April.

We can’t wait and are also looking forward to NRF 2023, The Delivery Conference, Smart Retail Tech Expo and Shoptalk Europe.

2022 RTIH Innovation Awards

Also this year, RTIH enjoyed success in the physical events arena with the fourth edition of its retail technology innovation awards.

We received a record number of submissions this year across 14 categories (you can find a full rundown of the 2022 shortlists here).

Our winners and highly commended companies were announced during a sold out event that took place in central London on Tuesday, 6th December and was attended by retailers, tech suppliers, members of our judging panel, and sponsors.

Check out the 2022 RTIH Innovation Awards hall of fame here.

Congratulations to our latest entrants!

And stay tuned for more information on the 2023 awards, which will see a move to a bigger venue.