Agenda Day 2
8:00 am - 8:30 am
Registration
8:30 am - 8:40 am
Welcome & Introduction from the Chair
Chair: Paul Sims -
Advisor,
Equal Experts
8:40 am - 9:10 am
PANEL DISCUSSION: Is Physical Retail Doomed? Revisiting the Fundamentals of Customer Excellence to Increase Footfall
Mazhar Butt -
Group Director of Guest Experience,
The Bicester Village Collection
Dean Herson - Director of Customer Experience - Wholesale, Tapestry
Customers don’t visit stores to analyse the tech stacks and AI capabilities of their favourite brands – they come for memorable experiences which leave them satisfied and excited to return.
9:10 am - 9:40 am
SPONSOR PRESENTATION: Bad Data In. Bad AI Out - Why The Retailers Winning With AI Fixed Their Foundations First
Jack Bunnage -
Account Director,
Treasure AI
Every retailer in this room has invested in AI. Most are underwhelmed by the results.
The problem is rarely the technology. It is almost always the data underneath it — fragmented across systems, siloed by channel, arriving too late to act on. When AI draws from incomplete customer data, it doesn't just underperform. It confidently gets things wrong, at scale.
Drawing on real-world deployments, Treasure AI examines the fragmentation patterns that silently sabotage AI investment and why the brands winning with AI started with a single, trusted customer record — not the algorithm.
Practical, honest, and grounded in what is actually working in retail right now.
You'll leave with:
- A diagnostic for where data fragmentation is limiting your AI outcomes
- The three failure patterns that derail retail AI — and how to avoid them
- A framework for building the data foundation and pursuing AI use cases in parallel
Sponsored by: Treasure AI
Younger generations are reshaping retail with new expectations - they value quality over price, demand seamless experiences across channels, and move fluidly between platforms as they research, compare and purchase.
As frontline roles grow more demanding and customer expectations continue to rise, both physical store teams and phone/live chat agents need tools that can reduce strain whilst elevating the service they can deliver.
11:30 am - 12:00 pm
PRESENTATION: Managing the Implications of Macroeconomic Uncertainty to Remain Competitive
Richard Lim -
Chief Executive,
Retail Economics
News headlines in 2026 are largely dominated by coverage on tariffs, wars and ever-shifting budgets, a backdrop that creates a ‘double-squeeze’ for retailers. As disposable income shrinks, supply-chain pressure increases and margins suddenly become fragile.
12:00 pm - 12:30 pm
SPONSOR PRESENTATION: Proving ROI & Retention Impact to Reposition Customer Care from Cost Centre to Value Creator
Pier Patergnani -
UK GMI Lead,
Elevenlabs
In a world where AI drives the conversation around cost efficiency, many board rooms view customer care as the low hanging fruit.
Sponsored by: ElevenLabs
Customers don’t think in channels, they think in brands. Yet many retailers still operate with siloed digital and store teams, each driven by their own KPIs and disconnected priorities.
1:10 pm - 2:00 pm
NETWORKING LUNCH
2:40 pm - 3:10 pm
SPONSOR PRESENTATION: Repositioning Customer Service From a Reactive Function to Proactive Commercial Engine
Nick Browne -
Partnerships Director,
NiCE Cognigy
For decades, CX has been measured on how efficiently it responds to problems. AI has made that faster — but speed alone is not transformation. The real opportunity is upstream: using AI to detect churn signals before the customer notices, surface upsell moments at the right emotional beat and resolve issues before they become contacts.
Done well, this reframes from CX not as a cost to be managed, but as a commercial engine. This presentation asks CX leaders to consider what it would truly take to make that shift — organisationally, technically, and culturally.
"Every customer contact is a failure of anticipation. The question is no longer how fast you can respond — it's how often you can make the contact unnecessary."
- Where in your customer journey does the biggest gap exist between what AI could anticipate and what you're actually doing today?
- How do you distinguish between a proactive AI outreach that builds loyalty and one that feels intrusive or presumptuous?
- If CX is to be positioned as a value creator rather than a cost centre, what metrics need to change — and who needs to believe in them?
Sponsored by: NICE Cognigy
3:10 pm - 3:40 pm
CASE STUDY: Navigating Unprecedented Incidents to Protect Your Brand and Loyalty
Rhian O'Hare -
Head of Customer Services,
Marks & Spencer
There's no denying that frontline and customer service roles in retail are demanding, carrying a high emotional load and the pressure to resolve issues often beyond their control. When major incidents occur, they are often at the eye of the storm - managing pressure and uncertainty while having little control over the root cause.
In this exclusive M&S case study, hear from Rhian O'Hare, who led their customer service function through a period of intense disruption and oversaw the setup of a new contact centre in just 48 hours to keep every customer connected.
In an era of rising cyber threats and AI-driven change, this session is designed to ensure you are set up for faster incident response and are able to scale support at speed and stay grounded in real customer sentiment to protect trust and loyalty.
- Preparing for the unexpected: designing pathways to deal with incidents before they occur
- Bulletproofing your planning for every eventuality to ensure timely incident management and set-up of support channels
- Remaining in touch with customer sentiment to ensure your incident management responds to what truly matters to your customers
3:40 pm - 4:10 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION: Creating a Customer-Obsessed Culture that Aligns Teams & Fuels Growth
Deborah Honig -
Former Chief Customer Officer,
Samsung UK & Ireland
Andrew Webb - Chief Digital Officer, Screwfix
Stuart Trevor - Founder, ex-CEO, AllSaints
Samuel Jackman - Head of Customer Experience, Hammonds Furniture
A truly customer-obsessed culture doesn’t happen by accident - it’s created, modelled and reinforced within the very fabric of the business.
