At Shoptalk, one of our goals has always been to ensure that women leaders have prominent roles on the agenda. We take a proactive approach to recruiting women and pay close attention to the percentage of speakers that are female.

• In 2019, over 1/3 of all of our speakers are women — and that figure will continue to grow every year. Our goal is to hit 50% within the next two years, a figure every retail industry event should strive for.

We\’re always thrilled to see events featuring more women leaders on stage — it\’s something our industry could use far more of! However, it\’s also important to avoid relegating women to a corner of the agenda while failing to balance out the gender ratio on main agenda sessions.

• A number of the key Shoptalk sessions feature all-female speaker lineups. However, we do not call them out as \”women-only panels\” because these are the absolute best speakers and leaders in the industry, no qualifiers needed.

Every speaker on these sessions was selected based entirely on her business acumen and accomplishments in the industry. Examples of all-women sessions include:

1. VC Perspectives on Innovation in Retail
2. The C-Suite on the Future of Marketing and
3. Beyond Social Listening: Collaborating with Customers

Below are just a few of the 90+ absolutely incredible women helping shape the future of retail we\’re thrilled to feature in 2019:

• Women leading at established brands and retailers. Our speakers include women who are reshaping the future of traditional retail. We\’ll hear from industry leaders like Helena Foulkes, CEO of Hudson\’s Bay Company, Neela Montgomery, CEO of Crate and Barrel, Daniella Vitale, President & CEO of Barneys, JuE Wong, CEO of Moroccanoil, Allison Peterson, President of Ecommerce at Best Buy, Amy Eschliman, SVP/GM of Ecommerce at Sephora, Cathy Sparks, VP/GM Global Nike Direct Stores and Service at Nike and Justine Chao, Head of Fashion & Luxury, North America at Alibaba. Our agenda will feature five of the most senior women at Macy\’s: Jill Ramsey, Chief Product & Digital Revenue Officer; Paula Price, Chief Financial Officer; Shawn Outler, EVP, Chief Diversity Officer; Rachel Shechtman, Brand Experience Officer, Founder of STORY and Nata Dvir, EVP, General Business Manager, Beauty.

• Women at the helm in marketing. We have a number of women speaking at Shoptalk who are leading the marketing efforts of major brands and retailers. We\’ll hear from Chief Marketing Officers including Jocelyn Wong, CMO at Lowe\’s; Suzy Deering, Chief Marketing Officer, Americas at eBay; Lisa Kauffman, CMO at Perry Ellis International and Suzanne Hader, CMO at John Hardy. Our agenda also features the newly appointed CMO of FedEx, Brie Carere and the Chief Sales and Solutions Officer at UPS, Kate Gutmann.

• Women founding and heading up the next generation of startups. Across the agenda, we have women disrupting every part of retail, from consumer products and experiences to technology. On the consumer side, we\’ll hear from Tina Sharkey, Co-Founder & CEO at Brandless, Shan-Lyn Ma, Co-Founder & CEO of Zola, Amy Errett, Founder & CEO at Madison Reed; Jennifer Goldfarb, Co-Founder & Executive Chairwoman of the Board at ipsy; Amy Shecter, CEO at Glamsquad; Rachel Drori, Founder & CEO at Daily Harvest, Micky Onvural, CEO at Bonobos; Michelle Cordeiro Grant, Founder & CEO at Lively and Jane Lu, Founder & CEO at Australia\’s Showpo. And we\’ll hear from women at the forefront of technology including Shanna Tellerman, Founder & CEO at Modsy; Lihi Pinto Fryman, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer at Syte; Jana Eggers, CEO at Nara Logics; Keren Zimmerman, Co-Founder & President, North America at Personali; May Habib, Co-Founder & CEO at Qordoba and Melonee Wise, CEO at Fetch Robotics.

• Women investing in the future of retail. We\’ll also have a large number or prominent women investors on the agenda at Shoptalk, including Tricia Patrick, Managing Director at Advent International; Rebecca Kaden, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures; Nicole Quinn, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sonya Brown and Lisa Wu, Partners at Norwest Venture Partners; Aileen Lee, Founder & Managing Partner at Cowboy Ventures; Janie Yu, Partner at Fung Capital, Lily Chang, Chief Portfolio Services Officer at Leonard Green & Partners; and Annie Kadavy, Partner at Redpoint Ventures.

• Women covering the future of retail. Finally, we\’ll hear from some of the top voices when it comes to those commenting on and influencing the retail industry. From influential reporters like Courtney Reagan at CNBC to Hilary Milnes at Digiday, and from industry analysts like Deborah Weinswig at Coresight Research to Michelle Grant at Euromonitor, Shoptalk will feature numerous women leading the retail dialogue.

We hope you\’ll join us to hear from these amazing women and more when Shoptalk kicks off in less than four weeks!