A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the team at Retail Technology Innovation Hub

As 2024 draws to a close, we want to take this chance to wish you all a happy Christmas and a prosperous 2025.

We hope the year has been good to you.

We’re pleased to say that Retail Technology Innovation Hub had a very successful 2024, with highlights including the 2024 RTIH Innovation Awards.

On Thursday, 21st November, we announced the winning submissions for the awards, sponsored by Vista Technology Support, Scala, CADS, 3D Cloud, Brightpearl by Sage’s Lightning 50, Business France, and Retail Technology Show 2025.

Our 2024 hall of fame entrants were revealed during an event which took place at RIBA’s 66 Portland Place HQ in Central London, and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by comedian Lucy Porter.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “The event is now into its sixth year and what a journey it has been. The awards started life as an online only affair during the Covid outbreak, before launching as a small scale in real life event and growing year on year to the point where we’re now selling out this fine, historic venue.”

He added: “Congratulations to all of our finalists. Many submissions did not make it through to the final stage, and getting to this point is no mean feat. Checkout-free stores, automated supply chains, immersive experiences, on-demand delivery, next generation loyalty offerings, inclusive retail, green technology. We’ve got all the cool stuff covered this evening.”

“But just importantly we’ve got lots of great examples of companies taking innovative tech and making it usable in everyday operations - resulting in more efficiency and profitability in all areas.”

Congratulations to our 2024 winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Lucy Porter, and all those who attended last month’s gathering.

Also in 2024

2024 also saw us once again beat our rival titles to a number of retail tech scoops and interviews, including this one last week. 

And that helped us to significantly grow our social media presence (particularly on LinkedIn where our page is fast approaching 20,000 followers) and boost our website visitor numbers and printed magazine subscribers, strengthening our position as the leading UK-based title for the global omnichannel retail technology community. 

Not bad for a bootstrapped startup that launched just seven years ago!

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

We’ve got big plans for 2025, including an expanded 2025 RTIH Innovation Awards (more on that early next year), and more real life events, including the launch of the AI in Retail Awards, which is now open for entries, with the winners being announced during an event at The Barbican in Central London on Thursday, 3rd July.

To stay up on to date with all things RTIH related, be sure to follow us on Twitter (we refuse to call it X, ’tis a silly name) here and LinkedIn here.

SO HERE IT IS, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wishing our customers, partners, supporters, readers and followers a fantastic festive break, and all the best for the year ahead.

We’re now signing off for a well deserved rest. We will be adding content to the site over the next couple of weeks. And normal service will be resumed on Thursday, 2nd January.