Author

Deborah Patton

Deborah is inspired by big ideas and pursues people, places and events that provide that magical glimpse of brilliance challenging the status quo. When she is not running The Robin Report you can find her hiking and boating in the Adirondacks with her husband Jon; gardening as a volunteer in the Riverside Park Conservancy; helping families, alongside her son Sam, make their original versions of his 44 Daughters dolls; walking the Hudson River Greenway from Battery Park to the Little Red Lighthouse; writing books (The Truth About Transformation), stories, and leadership articles; failing miserably trying to train her two irresistible young English Springer Spaniels; reading with enthusiasm the papers her son Max writes for his Master’s in philosophy; supporting her local museums and gardens—and being intellectually energized by the madness and magic of living in New York City.

Born in St. Louis, she has worked professionally in Los Angeles and New York. Her early career was spent directing marketing and producing events during the golden days at upscale magazines: Town & Country, HG, Connoisseur, Seventeen, Modern Bride. Changing gears, she was editorial director of the Gault Millau America city guides, bringing the iconoclastic voice of Christian Millau and nouvelle cuisine to the American market … and reuniting her with her second hometown Paris, where she went to L’École de Louvre to study art history during college at Pitzer College, the behavioral sciences/social justice school in the Claremont Colleges system. Pivoting to Nielsen Business Media, she ran corporate communications/marketing for their 56 magazines and 86 trade shows. She also pioneered Applied Brilliance, a multidisciplinary, thought leadership conference focused on emerging trends and macro shifts that impact us professionally and personally. The Robin Report connects all the threads in Deborah’s life through the cultural and sociological role that retail plays in our lives.

When Will You Take Back Control?

What business are you in? This has become the existential crisis of retail. Talk to digital natives and they\’ll tell you in no uncertain terms ...
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Nordstrom\’s Love Song to New York

Nordstrom\’s first day in business on Manhattan\’s West Side was a well-behaved, well-dressed mob scene of customers who were making the most of every shopping ...
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The Robin Report - D Patton - Showfields

Immersive Retail

First there was Sleep No More, an immersive production of Macbeth that redefines theater, staged in the multi-storied McKittrick Hotel on West 27th Street in ...
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Field Report on Startup Culture

How do you know when you\’re in the vortex of a retail tech summit? You\’re surrounded by stylishly dressed, enthusiastic, happy millennial-youngish men and women ...
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I Want It Now

We have been reporting about the customer service experience for years – following the arc of the neighborhood store in the 50s where everyone knows ...
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Two Retail Complexes, Two Ends of the Rainbow

Just when you have pretty much given up on having a magical retail experience, you discover Industry City in Sunset Park in Brooklyn. On the ...
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Once Upon a Time in America

The retail industry may be under siege, but when it comes to the holidays, they are the mothership optically for nostalgia, sentimentality and remembrance of ...
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The Joy of Retailing

When you attend Shoptalk, you feel the kinetic energy, optimism and confidence of the startups and investors that are reshaping retail’s future. The guiding principles ...
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