Most events promise “great networking.” But if you’ve been to enough of them, you know what that usually means: packed schedules, rushed conversations, and a lot of interactions that never go anywhere.
Here’s the irony: ask most attendees why they go to industry events and the answer is almost always the same. To meet people. To build relationships. To have the kinds of conversations that don’t happen over email. It’s the number one reason people show up. And it’s the thing most event organizers spend the least amount of time designing for.
That’s not an accident. Relationship-building has become an afterthought because most event business models are optimized for sponsor revenue and session counts, not attendee experience.
At RetailClub, we started with a different question: what would it look like to design an event around how people actually build relationships?
The answer is an environment where every part of the experience creates the conditions for real connection—whether that’s a prearranged 1:1 meeting, a peer-level roundtable, or a conversation that starts over dinner and goes somewhere you didn’t expect. That means:
- Curated meetings that help you find the right people before you even arrive
- Candid peer group discussions where you can speak freely about what’s working and what isn’t
- Ask Me Anything sessions with tech CEOs and retail leaders that give you real answers, not talking points
- Unique experiences that bring together people with similar interests and make connection feel effortless
- Networking dinners and beachside receptions that extend the day’s conversations
- An open, outdoor setting that makes spontaneous conversation easy and performance feel unnecessary
Another critical piece in making an event feel human is focusing on the person behind the job title. Our Level Up stage is a dedicated track built on the belief that the most important investment you can make right now is in yourself. Sessions cover everything from career resilience and redefining your value, to navigating resistance and change inside your organization, to how the executive role itself is shifting.
We’re also excited to partner with Anne Mezzenga, CEO of Retail Field Report, on People Powering AI. This intimate conversation series focuses on the individuals driving retail’s AI transformation. These discussions go beyond strategy to the people behind it: how they’re designing products, refining processes, and supporting the humans working in and around the industry.
None of this—the connections, the conversations, the growth—happens by accident. It happens because of how you design for it. That gap has existed in retail events for too long. RetailClub is built to close it.
Join us and 2,000+ retail industry leaders and trailblazers at RetailClub AI Festival, September 22–24, 2026, Huntington Beach, CA, and be a part of retail’s only AI-native community.
Author
Caroline Farley
Co-Founder & Co-CEO, RetailClub
Caroline Farley is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of RetailClub, the only retail event built on the conviction that AI isn’t just transforming the industry — it’s reshaping the economy, society, and culture that underpin it. She was previously Chief Growth Officer of Shoptalk, where she helped build one of the most recognized events in retail.
Disclaimer: This article was written by me … with the help of AI (Claude Sonnet 4.6, to be specific). If we’re building an event about how AI is transforming retail, we’d be hypocrites not to use it ourselves.
