Category: Speaking

InternetRetailing Conference 2016 – our 11th annual event

Ian JindalLeave a comment

I was pleased to open both www.edeliveryconference.com and www.internetretailingconference.com and welcome the usual senior gathering of multichannel professionals to our intense multi-track conference and expo.

You can see the write-up of the event and also videos of proceedings on the conference site, but a particular thanks to Tony Rivenell of Halfords who was game enough to do a Q&A on the role of the Chief Digital Officer during our keynote sessions…

Opening presentation for the International Association of Department Stores (IADS.org)

Ian JindalLeave a comment

I’ve long been a great fan of the IADS and have contributed in the past to their events. I was therefore particularly pleased to be invited to open their conference in London on Omnichannel/multichannel on 15 September, 2016.

Department stores have been at the forefront of multichannel development in the U.K. And Europe and so it was interesting to share with them the research from our IREU Top500 2016 report, which created a performance-based ranking of Europe’s multichannel and pure play retailers. With delegates from the EU, Asia and South America it was an international gathering.

While the presentation and discussions were confidential, the IREU report is available from InternetRetailing – www.internetretailing.net/ireu 

Chairing Millennial 2020’s inaugural conference in Singapore

Ian JindalLeave a comment

After the successful launch event in London earlier this year the Millennial 2020 concept is taking shape globally. I was pleased to chair the first Asia event, held at the high-impact Art Science Museum in Singapore, and equally pleased to see London, New York and Singapore dates confirmed for 2017.

The event is a global gathering of brands, retailers, innovators, marketers and entrepreneurs who are focused on engaging with, understanding, selling to and anticipating the global millennial customer. Mind you, a number of the presentations are already focused on GenZ so even the millennial label will change along with consumer demographics, I’m sure.

I chaired the Travel and Hospitality stream and although all of the speakers were really interesting a couple gave me new perspectives.

The Luxe Nomad and What3Words were great, while Victor Cui of OneChampionship had an amazing cross-continental story to tell of martial arts, moving countries, seeing a gap and an enthusiasm to create a broadcast empire.

Shifting to the Future Trends stream the one and only Pep Torres gave one of the most memorable presentations I’ve seen in years. Interesting, inspiring and engaging – he had me mentally ripping up my presentations! I won’t spoil the fun – watch his presentation here.

On the second day the presentation from Ludwick Marishane on ‘a bath with no water’ was both eye-opening and inspiring. This presentation really showed the reach, ambition and global changes underway – a real tribute to the programming of the event.

Some photos below, while info on the next event in New York on 1 and 2 March, 2017 can be seen on the http://www.millennial20-20.com/newyork2017/website.

View of the Arts Science Museum from the Marina Sands Hotel.

Setup of the Economist stage

Great staging and AV

The CNBC studio operating throughout the event.

The Economist brought a taco van – with GM meat…

Pep Torres warming up.

 

 

Closing keynote at IBM’s European eCommerce conference

Ian JindalLeave a comment

I was honoured to be invited to close IBM’s first get-together of its European eCommerce team, bringing together over 400 professionals from across Europe for a couple of days in Windsor to kick off their newly-structured team.

We’ve worked with IBM on a number of editorial projects and I was asked to bring to life some of the themes on the direction of retail and the pressures upon retailers to perform at the highest level.

I’d expected a tired group (I was closing the event on a Friday afternoon, post-lunch… ) but there was a great vibe and I was met with a very warm reception.

The keynote drew on some advance insights from the IREU Top500, InternetRetailing’s new research publication due out in June 2016 and culminated in recounting an approach of ‘TotalRetail’™.

Thanks again for the welcome!

Chairing at Millennial2020

Ian JindalLeave a comment

Congratulations to @RupaGanatra, Viktoria de Chevron Villette and Simon Berger for an impressive debut conference in Millennial 2020.

The conference addressed the business challenge of how to approach the millennial customer, and key themes throughout were insight, authenticity and experimentation. This was brought to life on the conference stage with a real wealth of speakers – I was lucky to chair sessions ranging from the founders of Planet Organic and Ceviche to Pepsico and Fortnum & Mason (yes, I was chairing the food stream!).

Here’s a vid of the session on data…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFh7YNwcWnA

The exhibition area was particularly fun and very hand-on (in true millennial style) with more of a ‘fun fair’ feel than an expo.

I learned a great deal and I’m pleased to see that the concept is already rolling out internationally with events planned in New York – February 2017, London (take 2) in April 2017 and Singapore in September 2017.

You can sign up for info at their website – http://www.millennial20-20.com/

 

 

Brief appearance on the BBC’s ‘Christmas at John Lewis’ documentary

Ian JindalLeave a comment

Provided you didn’t blink in the wrong place you may have caught my contribution to a BBC documentary on how John Lewis prepares for Christmas. I had great fun contributing to a topic that we’ve covered ourselves – namely how the elite retailers prepare for peak. An interesting take within the programme was that #BlackFriday had changed the ‘traditional’ Christmas peak, and further looked at the role of eCommerce ‘pure play’ giant Amazon.co.uk in the competitive landscape for John Lewis.

The programme aired on 23 December, 2015, titled “Christmas Shopping Fever 2015: John Lewis and the Retail Race” and you can see it for a while on BBC iPlayer – http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06t3kqt/christmas-shopping-fever-2015-john-lewis-and-the-retail-race

 

Ian Jindal discussing John Lewis with Cherry Healey for BBC 2's

 

I was really impressed with the research the team did beforehand. We had a number of phone discussions, follow-up questions and a good brief on the ‘arc’ of the show. I had a great time filming my snippets and even though it was a couple of hours the time passed really quickly. I’m sure that TV production crews forget how interesting we find the whole process! Most of the filming I do is around our events and these tend to be one-take-only commentaries. At first I thought that it was a luxury to have more time, but now I simply feel a combination of awe and sympathy at the skill and patience needed to turn hundreds of hours of footage into a coherent, brief broadcast!

My on-screen contribution comprised of a review of the customer expectations on delivery (c 0h24’) and upon the role of SEO in supporting visibility and sales at peak (c0h30’).

We’ve covered John Lewis extensively on InternetRetailing – they’re one of our “Elite” UK retailers in the InternetRetailing Top500. You can see John Lewis’ company listing as well as information on the Top500 on our site.

We also covered BlackFriday and CyberMonday with rolling, on-the-hour information on the performance of the Top23 retailers in the UK and John Lewis’ performance over peak fared well.

Ian Jindal on the BBC's documentary on John Lewis' Christmas, 2015

BlackFriday and CyberMonday comments on BBC Radio

Ian JindalLeave a comment

It’s all go in retail-land with BlackFriday and CyberMonday and I was pleased to be asked to contribute to a fun piece on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, commenting on the phenomenon. Great questions from Paul Marriott on his show, details are here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p037v012

You can hear my clip from the programme on Soundcloud:

Postnord’s E-handelsforum 2015 – video presentation

Ian JindalLeave a comment

I’ve spoken in the past at the well-produced E-Handelsforum by Postnord.se and I was pleased to be invited to their 2015 event.

Unfortunately I was travelling in Australia (speaking on the Westfield World Tour series of events) and so couldn’t be at the event in person. Rather glamorously they suggested I do a video covering my speaking points and – since I’d never done this before – I thought it’d be fun! What followed was a real learning exercise as I was helped and shepherded by a lovely producer and videographer to get my thoughts to camera… The following video was shown at the conference.

Thanks to Arne Andersson and the team at Postnord for making this happen.

These are the links to Arne’s write up and the conference agenda.

Speaking at Gladstone’s customer event

Ian JindalLeave a comment

I was pleased to provide an opening address to Gladstone’s Health and Leisure summit.

I took as my theme some of the lessons that software and services providers to the leisure sector could learn from retail, but as I worked on my presentation it was clear to me that this is not a ‘one-way street’. Gladstone provides the underpinning software for leisure centres, universities and organisations and so is at the sharp end not only of the increasingly digital customer’s demands, but also needs to provide a complex service over time – whether booking and paying for yoga lessons, or accessing your higher education college.

The Summit comprised staff, customers and sector suppliers and we had a great range of interested and challenging questions.

It was an immensely rewarding event and one where my research gave me many new perspectives.

Client: www.gladstonemrm.com

Booked via: https://www.jla.co.uk/

 

[hang1column]

[/hang1column]

Chairing a panel at The Walpole’s Far Eastern Growth Summit on Luxury

Ian JindalLeave a comment

I’m a massive fan of the work that Walpole does in creating a voice and forum for the luxury market in the UK, and especially providing a space to discuss digital developments.

I was pleased therefore to contribute once more to their events, this time by chairing the panel on digital luxury.

Ian Jindal introducing the panel discussion at The Walpole’s Fast Eastern Summit in April 2015, London

 

The panel comprised Ken Ardali, @alibaba_group ; Anson Bailey, KPMG; Thomas Crampton, Ogilvy & Mather; Adrian Moss, Demandware; and Michael Ward @harrods  #WalpoleSummit

You can see a write-up of the event here:

http://www.thewalpole.co.uk/eastern-growth-luxury-summit-2015