Discover education designed to inspire, empower and elevate your retail media expertise. Explore the first look at our featured sessions and the industry leaders set to take the stage at this year’s summit.
In a market where attention is harder to earn and growth pressure is constant, launching and building a successful challenger brand requires expertise and discipline. In this keynote, Eric Skae shares the methods that made start-up Carbone America’s fastest-growing national pasta sauce, drove sales over $100-million in just 5 years, and that earlier helped him build Popcornopolis Gourmet Popcorn and Rao’s Specialty Foods through successful acquisition.
James Masson Director of Integrated Marketing High Liner Foods
Most CPG organizations have invested heavily in retail media, but far fewer have aligned their teams and processes to make it work at scale. As AI and agent-led optimization accelerate decision making and blur traditional roles, existing silos between brand, sales, commerce and analytics are increasingly exposed. This panel brings together CPG leaders who have navigated the challenging internal work: redefining ownership, rebalancing budgets, and resetting expectations around speed, accountability, and performance. Attendees will leave with a clearer view of how organizational alignment–not tools or tactics–has become the biggest determinant of retail media ROI.
Brands and retailers are entering a new era of AI partnerships as consumers increasingly turn to AI to guide their purchasing decisions. This convergence is redefining who controls the customer relationship, revealing new data dependencies and reshaping the future of retail media. This session offers a strategic perspective on what it means to protect the customer relationship when intelligence, influence and commerce flow through AI platforms.
In-store media only works when brands see it as simple, scalable and worth the investment. This session flips the perspective to the brand side: what do CPG marketers actually need from in-store media today? Hear directly from brand leaders on what's working, what's not, and how they assess in-store programs--from speed and creative flexibility to standardized formats and measurable results. We'll unpack how to design in-store media that feels as seamless as digital, drives sales at the shelf, and earns repeat brand investment.
Retail media has scaled rapidly, but today's growth depends on more than onsite activation alone. As brands look to drive incremental sales and reach new and lapsed shoppers, offsite strategies have become a critical extension of retail media plans. This session will explore the growing complexity of the retail media ecosystem and how strategies are evolving to balance scale, performance and relevance. Experts will discuss how onsite and offsite tactics work together, why mindset matters in offsite environments, and what it takes to deliver sustainable, incremental growth as retail media enters its next phase.
Ali Miller General Manager of Advertising Instacart
What happens when media, commerce and creativity become one connected growth engine? The entire retail and advertising ecosystem takes a new shape. In this session, Instacart examines the forces transforming how retailers and brands compete, looking beyond the surface to explore how things like AI, machine learning and closed-loop measurement are turning consumer signals into real business outcomes across digital platforms and physical stores. For leaders focused on what comes next, this is a strategic view of how collaboration, data and technology are converging to redefine the future of connected commerce.
Lori Burns Manager Global Marketing, North America Energizer
Renee Johnson Director of Media & Strategy SheSpeaks
As retail media matures, one thing is clear: shoppers respond most to content that authentically reflects their real needs, behaviors, and moments. In this joint session, Energizer and SheSpeaks pull back the curtain on how they use AI-powered influencer marketing to build high-performing retail media campaigns that impact everything from awareness to conversion. Attendees will walk away with practical insights on how to use AI to identify creators who influence real purchase behavior, translate shopper personas into high-converting creative and optimize influencer content for retail media, not just social.
As in-store retail media networks expand, retailers face a critical tension: maximize revenue from screens, signage and digital touchpoints, or protect the integrity of the shopping journey. This debate-style session brings together varied viewpoints to explore where the line should be drawn between commerce and experience, and what the long-term implications are for brand loyalty, store design and the future of physical retail.
What's hype versus what's actually working? Drawing from new data in the Path to Purchase Institute's 2026 Retail Media Benchmark Report, this session examines where retail media is performing today, the strategic shifts brands and retailers are making next, and how changes in investment, measurement and organizational capabilities signal a turning point for the industry. Get a data-backed look at what retail media is becoming, not just what it has been.
As brands demand clearer performance signals and retailers look to scale monetization of first-party data, convenience retail media is at an inflection point. High-frequency trips, immediate purchase intent and growing in-store digital touchpoints create a distinct opportunity—one that’s often measured through frameworks built for grocery and mass. This session unveils fresh research from the Path to Purchase Institute and Convenience Store News, establishing a shared view of what’s working, where gaps remain and how the convenience channel moves forward.
