BY: Liliana Rocio, Senior Editor for World Liberty TV

The retailers who matter most are at NRF Retail Week. It’s the must-attend gathering where retail’s decision-makers and influencers come together to learn, share, collaborate, network and inspire.

Surrounding NRF 2022: Retail’s Big Show, NRF Retail Week is a week-long celebration of parties, high-profile partner events, innovative store tours, experiential tech, workshops, educational sessions and more. Preview it all here, where NRF curates and promotes New York City’s must-attend events for retailers.

FQ Equality Lounge. These sessions include conversations from retailers on workplace diversity, leadership, and building brand values as a top priority. Discussions range from strategies for women on how to build and grow professional relationships to addressing the link to achieving equity. The Equality Lounge sessions are open to all pass holders of NRF 2022: Retail’s Big Show.

The Equality Lounge is powered by the Female Quotient, an organization that creates experiential pop-ups at global conferences, corporations and college campuses where people of all races, genders and backgrounds can unite to activate change together.

We were very impressed with NRF, which introduced the Diversity and Inclusion, (DE&I ) at the stage to showcase many people of color who need to be exposed to the retail world. This was the debut of this kind of program and many people we interviewed and saw at this event, mostly people of Color enjoyed this program and wanted to have this added to to NRF’S Annual event.

Some of the Speakers who spoke in the Diversity and Inclusion (DE&I ) and topics discussed included: Investing in your team: Creating opportunities for women at the top, which included the following speakers and Brands participating; Ashley Stewart, Inc., Church’s Chicken, The Female Quotient and Uncommon Goods.

The Compelling Why-Listening, Learning and co-creation in diversity, equity and inclusion, the following organizations participated: Indeed, Brands, National Urban League, Red Helicopter and Target Corporation.

On Monday we did a roundtable lunch event, seeing many vendors showcasing many of their products while many of the successful retailers were speaking with them and letting them know what resources were available for them.

There were Three New Expo Pavilions debuting at National Retail Federation, which were all impressive, we had the pleasure of visiting each one of the  three pavilions .

Food Service Technology Pavilion: You could see the latest food service technology point of sale, back of the house systems, AI Food safety and more! Oracle Stage focused on food service technology and innovation presented by the leaders in the industry. It was sponsored by SHKEL and Pavilion Development partner was ifbta.

Supply Chain Pavilion: You saw the technologies solving the biggest supply chain challenges – from warehouse to delivery, robotics, drones and much more. Sponsored by KORBER and SSI Schaffer.

Ecommerce Technology Pavilion:  Here you explore solutions that will streamline and improve the checkout experience, enhance and innovate personalization and demonstrate how to connect/integrate multiple systems for efficiency. Which was sponsored by Big Commerce, MIRKAL, Orckestra and Syndigo.

World Liberty TV, made its 16^th Appearance at The National Retail Federation (NRF), this show had less exhibitors and people in attendance. Due to the pandemic, I met people travelling from all over the world to be part of NRF, many of them told me they needed to meet people in person and have an human experience.

I like to personally like to thank The National Retail Federation (NRF), Matthew R. Shay President CEO of NRF and whole of his staff team doing a professional job of pulling together a show of this kind, guys a job well done and keep up the good work.

See more about the National Retail Federation (NRF), in our World Liberty TV, Business Channels and blogs by clicking here.