Agenda Day 2
8:00 am - 8:30 am
EVENT REGISTRATION & COFFEE
8:30 am - 8:40 am
OPENING ADDRESS FROM THE CHAIR
Matt Large -
Data Leader,
UNiDAYS Ltd
8:40 am - 9:25 am
PANEL DISCUSSION: ENABLEMENT VS. EFFICIENCY: THE TWO‑SPEED STRATEGIC ROADMAP
Matt Large -
Data Leader,
UNiDAYS Ltd
Sam Middleton-Bray - Head of Data, The Cotswold Company
Sara Sheridan - VP Data & AI, Beauty Pie
Will Hofmann - Head of Analytics, Ocado Logistics
Miguel Macedo - Head of Data Governance, Farfetch
Retailers need efficiency gains immediately while simultaneously building AI fluency for the long term. Examine how and why other data leaders structure a two‑speed roadmap: fast‑moving automation data products for cost, and capability‑building enablement pathways for scale. Hear how value gates, councils, and disciplined backlogs prevent shiny‑object waste while improving margin impact.
9:25 am - 9:55 am
FIRESIDE CHAT: THE YEAR OF ONTOLOGY: AI CONTEXT MATURITY LADDER
Irina Mihai -
Director Data Foundations, Decision & Data Science,
adidas
As retailers race to operationalise AI, the real differentiator is not more data, but better context. This session explores how ontology, semantic layers and knowledge graphs form an “AI context maturity ladder” – from fragmented data islands to connected, explainable insights. We’ll discuss what each maturity step looks like in practice, how federated and centralised models approach the journey differently, and where to start if you’re still in experimentation mode. Expect pragmatic guidance on resourcing, governance and stakeholder buy-in rather than just another framework.
Global retail organisations are accelerating their data journeys by leveraging modern architecture, automation and skill development. Explore strategies to bridge business and technology and unlock new ROI generating opportunities through real-world use cases.
11:45 am - 12:00 pm
HOT TOPIC PRESENTATION: MANAGING GEO: THE NEW RULES OF STANDING OUT WHEN AI TELLS CUSTOMERS HOW TO FEEL
Niklas Ek -
Group Head of Data, Insights and Analytics,
PureGym
With AIs now guiding customers on what to buy and where to go, even the subtlest operational choices can have outsize impacts. This provocative talk explores surprising ways in which things like equipment choices, vendor decisions, and overlooked operational details can sway AI agents—and the customers who trust them. You’ll gain fresh perspectives on creating resilient, recommendation-worthy brands in a future where machines drive consumer loyalty.
12:00 pm - 12:15 pm
HOT TOPIC PRESENTATION: INVISIBLE INGREDIENTS: DATA READINESS AND HUMAN BIAS IN THE AGE OF AI
Jade Jones -
Metadata & Data Quality Manager, Operational Data Governance,
Sainsbury's Supermarkets
AI promises efficiency and innovation, but it’s built on two fragile pillars: solid data and the people who wield it. This presentation exposes the often-invisible ingredients like data quality, ownership, and governance that determine project success. It also explores the subtle ways human bias threads through every dataset and decision. Practical advice with bigpicture thinking for leaders seeking sustainable, responsible AI adoption.
Jade Jones
Metadata & Data Quality Manager, Operational Data GovernanceSainsbury's Supermarkets
12:15 pm - 12:30 pm
HOT TOPIC PRESENTATION: QUIET DATA, LOUD RESULTS: INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY THE ULTIMATE KPI
Praveen Rajkumar -
Head of Data Infrastructure,
Zalando
Complexity kills productivity. This session looks at how data leaders can simplify and standardize everyday decisions across the retail enterprise. We’ll discuss how to move from ad hoc, expert driven decisions to repeatable, data enabled playbooks that reduce decision time, shrink variance between regions, and free teams to focus on exceptions rather than routine cases.
12:35 pm - 1:05 pm
ONE-TO-ONE BUSINESS MEETINGS & NETWORKING
1:05 pm - 2:05 pm
NETWORKING LUNCH
This session is a collaborative problem-solving think tank. Bring your own pricing challenge to the table for peer-to-peer exchange, rapid experimentation, and collective solution-building—no scripted scenarios, just the toughest pricing realities tackled head-on.
In a market defined by fragile consumer confidence, aggressive price competition, the threat of agent-to-agent retail and uneven AI maturity, data leaders face a new generation of pricing challenges that traditional models and rules simply can’t solve. This session puts you in the driver's seat to tackle the hardest data-driven pricing problems still blocking margin gains.
• Deep-dive into shared unsolved pricing problems alongside peers, examining data gaps, model behaviour, failure patterns, governance bottlenecks, and country-by-country complexity.
• Break down why these issues persist and what you plan to do next to build a pricing architecture that delivers speed and protects profit.
• Trade experiments, lessons, what worked, and what absolutely didn’t, and where agentic or AI-augmented pricing shows real promise.
2:40 pm - 2:45 pm
LIVE POLLS
2:45 pm - 3:15 pm
CASE STUDY PRESENTATION: FROM LEGACY TO CLOUD: TRANSFORMING RETAIL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE FOR AGILITY AND SCALE
Hatem Hamza -
Head of Data,
Hublot
Discover the practical strategies, challenges, and results involved in migrating a legacy data warehouse to Google Cloud Platform within the retail sector. This session examines the complexities of transforming long-standing, on-premises infrastructure—addressing issues such as incomplete documentation, technical upskilling, and change management—while operating under tight timelines and budgets. Learn how establishing a robust cloud foundation unlocks greater efficiency, scalability, and new opportunities for data governance and AI-driven planning. Attendees will gain actionable insights to navigate their own modernization journeys from legacy systems to the cloud.
3:15 pm - 4:00 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION: WINNING THE BATTLE OF THE AGENTS: HOW RETAIL BRANDS CAN EARN THE FIRST RECOMMENDATION IN AGENT-TO-AGENT COMMERCE
Niklas Ek -
Group Head of Data, Insights and Analytics,
PureGym
Nicole Ferreira - Global Senior Manager of Inbound Operations Analytics, QVC
Matt Large - Data Leader, UNiDAYS Ltd
As LLM agents increasingly mediate shopping decisions, “agent visibility” becomes a new competitive front. This session explores how CDOs build structured content, schemas, trust signals, and guardrails that make brands easier for machines to understand—and recommend first. Join the panellists in a heated debate and examine how agent-ready data products create commercial uplift in a margin-pressured landscape.
• Understand what agent-to-agent commerce could mean for retail discovery.
• Discover how peers plan to test and measure their brand’s LLM visibility.
• Explore how panellists recommend to structure content, attributes, and proofs for agent parsing.
• Hear how to build teams, KPIs, and processes for ongoing agent optimisation.
