Schuh, Unilever and Specsavers onboard as Retail Technology Show 2025 unveils first advisory board members

Retail Technology Show 2025 has announced the first five members of its advisory board.

These are:

Katya Denike, Chief Product Officer at Holland & Barrett.

Claire Hennah, Beauty & Wellbeing Chief Customer Officer & Digital Commerce Officer at Unilever.

Justin Lodge, Chief Digital Officer at Schuh.

Dean Sanderson-Williams, GM at Specsavers.

Adam Cotgreave, Chief Customer & Transformation Officer at Seasalt Cornwall.

In a LinkedIn post, RTS 2025 said: “Our creators play a pivotal role in curating world class content, ensuring the event delivers invaluable insights and inspiration for retail, leisure, and hospitality professionals. This is just the beginning! Stay tuned for the next wave of stars joining the show.”

Going live

The new Retail Technology Show website recently went live, ahead of the 2025 event, set to take place at London ExCel on 2nd-3rd April.

Retail Technology Show 2024, which took place at London Olympia in April, welcomed over 12,500 retail professionals to its two-day event, an increase of attendee numbers by +28% year-on-year.

Described by Charles Tyrwhitt’s Nick Wheeler as “eye opening”, the organisers (Nineteen) delivered their biggest innovation showcase to date, with 400+ technology providers and innovators exhibiting across two exhibition halls. 

Nourished’s CEO, Melissa Snover, pointed to the sheer breadth and depth of the technologies being showcased this year, commenting: “there’s a huge amount of different people from all elements of retail, and some incredible technologies coming out.” 

The RTS 2024 Innovation Awards saw AI powered workforce solution, Orquest, crowned as the winner at the BIG Retail Party on day one.

With a record numbers of award entries, Orquest beat off stiff competition from a shortlist of ten other standout tech solutions, including Pricer, ProGlove and Shopopop.

The conference programme included Charles Tyrwhitt’s Wheeler, Not On The High Street’s Tucker, and former Chairman of Asos and CEO of MATCHESFASHION, Nick Beighton. 

They joined 120+ other retail leaders and luminaries, including speakers from Primark, Boots, Morrisons, Harrods, adidas and Nobody’s Child, who discussed retail’s hottest topics – from supply chain to sustainability, to leadership and loyalty and from AI to digital marketing and data.

RTS Event Director, Matt Bradley, commented: “Every year, RTS gets bigger and better - with more innovation, more insight and more buzz about the event that is the foremost place to make the connections that matter.”

“2024 was another example of the high octane drive and ambition, delivered not just by our event team but also by our community of supporters -  from retailers and technology providers to industry influencers - that get behind the show and make it the must-attend, standout event in the retail calendar.”

“With some exciting plans already in the works for 2025, we can’t wait to build on that momentum and start planning even bigger and better things for next year – watch this space!”

2024 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

Retail Technology Show is among those sponsoring the sixth edition of the RTIH Innovation Awards, which is now open for entries.

The awards, also sponsored by CADS, 3D Cloud, Brightpearl by Sage’s Lightning 50, and Business France, celebrate global tech innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

It’s free to enter and you can do so across multiple categories.

Key 2024 dates

Friday, 25th October: Award entry deadline 

Tuesday, 29th October: 2024 shortlist revealed

30th October-6th November: Judging days

Thursday, 21st November: Winners announced at the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards ceremony, to be held at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London.