Retail’s New Golden Age: Sophie Wawro on the Real Work Behind Shoptalk 2025

On the eve of Shoptalk 2025, the Las Vegas floor feels surprisingly calm. But behind the quiet, Sophie Wawro is orchestrating one of the most complex event builds in retail—and one of the most culturally relevant.

Now Global President of Shoptalk, Wawro oversees five global shows: three in North America, one in Barcelona, and one in Abu Dhabi. But scale isn’t the headline. This year, she’s focused on redefining the role of live experiences in a retail industry that’s being reshaped by complexity—and technology.

A Theme Rooted in First Principles—and Powered by AI

The official theme of Shoptalk 2025 is Retail’s New Golden Age—and it’s more than just branding.

“We’ve taken a visual cue from that—there’ll be a lot of gold,” Wawro jokes. But the idea goes deeper: what made retail great in its most iconic eras? According to her, it was the personal connection—the feeling of walking into your corner shop and being known.

Now, with AI and other technologies, that level of personalisation is possible again. At scale.

Rather than carving out AI or retail media into dedicated tracks, Shoptalk has intentionally embedded those topics across the program. The idea is to keep the focus on what matters to retailers: not just the tools, but the outcomes.

From Corner Shop to Algorithm: Scaling Hospitality

Wawro sees the core of modern retail as unchanged—just newly enabled.

“We’ve boiled it down to four essentials: hospitality, vision, value, and inspiration,” she says. “They’re timeless. But now, technology mediates them in new ways.”

Hospitality is the one she believes retail talks about the least—and needs the most. She points to brands creating flagship experiences that replicate the feeling of being seen and remembered, but digitally.

In fact, Wawro and Shoptalk’s Joe Laszlo, Head of Insights, will open the event tomorrow by spotlighting a new store in Manhattan’s Financial District that embodies this: the freshly launched Printemps location, designed to deliver both high-touch service and inspiration.

From Trendspotting to Timeless: How the Agenda Gets Built

Behind the agenda is a nine-month build process that starts not with tech, but with people.

Every year, Shoptalk convenes its advisory board—a group of senior retailers and consumer brand leaders—to identify what's top of mind. The team then builds thematic arcs around these inputs, ensuring the program reflects both the near-term and the next five years.

Enter the New Market

This year, one of the biggest additions is The New Market—a “show within a show” that explores how consumer attention and product discovery are evolving in a fragmented digital world.

It’s a response to the shifting shape of retail itself.

“When we launched in 2016, we were clearly defined: retailers and brands on one side, tech vendors on the other. Today? You can’t draw that line,” Wawro says. “Retailers act like media companies. Some are white-labelling their tech. The ecosystem has changed dramatically—and gotten much more interesting.”

The New Market is designed to reflect that complexity: from how partnerships are formed, to how media, product, and purchase moments now blend together.

Engineering Connection: Structured + Serendipitous

Shoptalk isn’t just built for content—it’s built for conversation. While the speaker program is extensive, so is the off-stage activity.

“We call it ‘conversations and connections’—everything outside the sessions,” says Wawro. “It’s just as important.”

The most engineered example is Meetup—a matchmaking program that brings together 7,000 participants for 3,200 meetings across 1,600 tables. It’s a logistical operation most events wouldn’t dare to attempt.

But Shoptalk doesn’t stop at the structured. There’s a new mini-golf event this year, a returning beach party, and space built in for bump-ins and spontaneous introductions.

“You can sit on LinkedIn and research people you want to meet,” she says. “But live events show you people and ideas you didn’t know existed. That’s the real magic.”

More Shows, More Magic

Since joining Shoptalk, Wawro has helped launch two major new shows: Shoptalk Fall in Chicago, and Shoptalk Lux in Abu Dhabi, focused on the premium and luxury retail space.

This year, the flagship Las Vegas edition will welcome 27% more retailer and brand companies than ever before. And while she’s proud of the growth, she’s just as excited about something hanging above the main stage: a 16-foot disco ball.

“I think we may have built the world’s biggest disco ball,” she laughs. “It might be one of my favourite things I’ve ever created for a show.”

It’s not just decoration. It’s a reminder that great events are built on great experiences—and that joy and energy are just as important as frameworks and forecasts.

What Shoptalk 2025 Will Show Us

📌 AI isn’t the headline—it’s the enabler
📌 The real opportunity is scaling trust and hospitality
📌 Retailers are no longer just merchants—they’re media, tech, and content companies too
📌 Connection needs to be designed—not just left to chance

As the doors open on Shoptalk 2025, Wawro’s vision is clear: technology will keep evolving. But the retail brands that lead won’t be the ones with the flashiest tools—they’ll be the ones that never lost sight of the human.

Disclaimer: The above podcast episode was generated using AI based on an interview transcript. While the content remains true to the original conversation, the voices, tone, and delivery were synthesized and do not represent actual recordings of the speakers. This AI-generated format is intended to enhance accessibility and provide an alternative way to engage with the discussion.

Independently Created. Not affiliated with Shoptalk.

ClickZ is a Contentive publication in the Events division