World Retail Congress Aims to Answer Looming Industry Questions

Every year since 2007, the biggest brands, executives and personalities of the retail industry have met at the World Retail Congress. The 2019 edition of the conference just concluded in Amsterdam, and was by no means a standard retail event.

Lionesque Group Founder Melissa Gonzalez was among the session leaders this year, moderating a discussion titled ‘Think Different: Creating Spaces that Resonate with Customers’. She was joined by Neelandra Singh, Senior Vice President of DTC and Franchises at Adidas, and George Gottl, Co-Founder of FutureBrand UXUS.

The panel explored experiential retail and how brands can create scalable footprints.

Gonzalez passed along these images of her time at the event, which was held in Amsterdam this year.

Other speakers included National Retail Federation CEO and President Matthew Shay, Harrods CEO Michael Ward, Kroger Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen and Walmart International President and CEO Judith McKenna.

For more retail perspective from Melissa Gonzalez, click here!

For more coverage of Retail World Conference, and the latest in retail news, head to our industry page!

 

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

team
When Your Team Becomes the Bottleneck
February 25, 2026

In a candid take on organizational blind spots, Mollie Gaby, Principal at CG Infinity, highlights a hard truth many leaders avoid: sometimes your biggest pain point isn’t your technology or your strategy — it’s your staff. A common red flag is resistance to change. When team members are unwilling to explore new tools, automate…

Read More
asset visibility
Diagnosing Your Capital Asset Health: Why Asset Visibility Is the New Financial Imperative in Healthcare
February 25, 2026

Hospitals and surgery centers own millions of dollars in equipment — but owning assets and having actionable visibility into them are two different things. Most systems maintain inventories, yet many struggle with outdated records, fragmented tracking, and limited insight into useful life or service contracts. With nearly half of U.S. hospitals reporting negative operating…

Read More
CFO
From Public Accounting to CFO: The Leadership Wake-Up Call
February 25, 2026

The CFO seat is being rewritten in real time. Today’s finance leaders are expected to drive growth, lead enterprise-wide systems transformations, and shape AI strategy—while still keeping the close, controls, and capital story airtight. Gartner reports that 59% of finance leaders are already using AI in the finance function, underscoring how rapidly the role is…

Read More
restorative practices
Building Safer Schools Through Restorative Practices
February 24, 2026

School Safety Today podcast, presented by Raptor Technologies. In this episode of Principals of Change, host Dr. Amy Grosso sits down with D’Jon Pitchford, Assistant Principal at Kelly Lane Middle School in Pflugerville ISD, to explore what school safety really means. Pitchford reframes safety as more than physical security—emphasizing trust, restorative practices, campus culture,…

Read More