Podcast appearances and mentions of neil redding

“Connecting possible with practical is where the near future framework is focused.” -Neil Redding In this episode, the host, Ana Melikian, delves into the fascinating intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human potential with guest Neil Redding. Neil Redding, a keynote speaker, author, innovation architect, and near futurist, brings his extensive expertise in spatial computing,… Continue reading Co-Creating a Better Near Future with AI – Neil Redding The post Co-Creating a Better Near Future with AI – Neil Redding appeared first on Ana Melikian, Ph.D..

Follow Neil Redding on LinkedIn and Check out his website!Follow us on Instagram and on Twitter!Created by SOUR, this podcast is part of the studio's "Future of X,Y,Z" research, where the collaborative discussion outcomes serve as the base for the futuristic concepts built in line with the studio's mission of solving urban, social and environmental problems through intelligent designs.Make sure to visit our website - podcast.whatswrongwith.xyz- and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts so you never miss an episode. If you found value in this show, we would appreciate it if you could head over to iTunes to rate and leave a review – or you can simply tell your friends about the show!Don't forget to join us next week for another episode. Thank you for listening!

In this episode, we sit down with Neil Redding, a visionary thinker and strategist renowned for his insights into the future of technology and society. Neil shares his journey from the early days of the internet to his current work in envisioning and shaping future experiences. We examine the intersections of technology, culture, and human behavior, discussing how these elements will evolve and influence our lives in the coming decades. Neil provides a unique perspective on the potential of emerging technologies, the importance of ethical considerations in tech development, and the role of creativity and imagination in designing future solutions. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of innovation, the impact of technology on society, and the critical importance of forward-thinking in our rapidly changing world. Don't forget to subscribe, share this episode with your friends, and stay tuned for more thought-provoking conversations on Future Hacker: https://www.youtube.com/@futurehacker Link to Neil's SXSW: http://bit.ly/neilsxsw2024

Join Paula Macaggi in this exciting episode of OFFBOUNDS as we dive into the transformative power of Apple Vision Pro in the retail industry. Featuring insights from experts DeAnn Campbell, Neil Redding, Carl Boutet, and Jeffrey Roberts, we explore how this VR/AR technology could revolutionize consumer engagement and profitability in retail. From virtual try-ons to immersive in-store experiences, discover the potential challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. As we speculate on the future of retail and spatial computing, we invite you to share your thoughts on whether Apple Vision Pro will lead to a technological revolution or become another passing trend. Tune in to uncover the future of retail in this insightful episode of OFFBOUNDS.Make sure you don't miss any episode!Follow us on LinkedIn or InstagramSubscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts

What do technologies like the Apple Vision Pro mean for exhibitions and experiences? For people who create cultural destinations, the pace of technology has now become so fast it's hard to keep up. AR, VR, AI. What's happening in the “near future” of the technologies that will define our field for years to come? What is spatial computing? Are projection mapping and Pepper's Ghosts early forms of augmented reality? Is the extreme personalization of all digital content causing problems we don't even understand yet? Are museums a potential antidote? Neil Redding (Near Futurist and SXSW Speaker) joins host Jonathan Alger (Managing Partner, C&G Partners) to discuss “The Near Future of Experience Design”. Along the way: self-driving cars, the third era of computing, and getting fidgety about phygital. Talking Points: 1. What is “Near Futurism”?2. Applying Near Futurism to Experience Design3. Are Physical and Digital Converging?4. What is “Spatial Computing”?5. The Near Future of Augmented Reality (AR)6. The Near Future of Virtual Reality (VR) Guest Bio:  Neil Redding is a keynote speaker, author, Innovation Architect and Near Futurist. Neil has worked at the convergence of digital and physical for decades, and is an expert in spatial computing, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), AI and convergent brand ecosystems. As a Near Futurist, Neil focuses on connecting what's possible with what's practical. Neil currently leads Redding Futures, a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to powerfully engage the Near Future. Prior to founding Redding Futures, Neil held leadership roles at Mediacom, Proximity/BBDO, Gensler, ThoughtWorks and Lab49. He has delivered for clients including Visa, Nike, Cadillac, Macy's, NBA, Verizon, TED, The Economist, MoMA, Converse, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Oracle, Financial Times, and Fidelity Investments. He has spoken at numerous conferences including SXSW, AWE, Immerse Global Summit, infoComm, Tech2025, CreateTech, SEGD XLab, A.R.E. Shoptalk, Creative Technology Week, Design+AI and VRevolution. Neil is also editor of Near Future of Retail, author of the forthcoming book The Ecosystem Paradigm, and advises multiple startups at the leading edge of the digital-physical convergence.Show Links: Neil's Email: connect@neilredding.comNeil at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reddingneil/Neil's Website: https://www.neilredding.com  Newsletter:Like the episode? Try the newsletter. Making the Museum is also a one-minute email on exhibition planning and design for museum leaders, exhibition teams and visitor experience professionals. Subscribe here:https://www.makingthemuseum.com

Our final recording, live and in-person, raw and uncut, from Groceryshop 2023 has our hosts, Ricardo Belmar and guest host Jeff Roster learning how to harness the power of spatial computing with returning guest, Neil Redding, Founder and CEO of Redding Futures! Part of our special cross-over event with This Week in Innovation podcast, Jeff and Ricardo sat down with Neil to understand how Auki Labs new product release is redefining retail operations via the benefits of spatial computing and augmented reality, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency for store teams. The trio discuss what the future looks like for spatial computing use cases in retail, attempt to forecast the market for spatial computing, consider applications with autonomous vehicles and robotics, and close the discussion with a fun look at how Apple's mainstreaming of spatial computing might impact the technology's future!We also bring you the latest episode in our "Blade to Greatness" mini-series. In this segment, we invite a retail industry leader to offer one skill or trait that all retail executives need to become great leaders. Whether in stores or at corporate, we'll uncover valuable tips and advice that you can apply to your own retail career path. Ron Thurston, co-founder of Ossy, author of Retail Pride, the Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career, host of the Retail in America nationwide tour and podcast, speaker, advisor, board member, and former retail operations leader at Intermix, Saint Laurent, Bonobos, Tory Burch, Apple, and Williams-Sonoma joins us to share his insights on the issues facing frontline retail workers and retail leaders today.In this episode, Ron talks to us about why it's so important for retail leaders to implement a career development culture as the first step to change their mindset and make change in the recruiting and retention of retail employees!NEWS! We are pleased to announce that the Retail Razor Show is a Vendors In Partnership Awards nominee for The Retail Voice Award at the upcoming NRF Big Show 2024! We're asking all our listeners and YouTube viewers to help us win by showing your love for our show in the voting polls:Here's how you can help by voting:1. Visit https://bit.ly/3QlKr4X2. Register to vote.3. Vote for The Retail Razor Show in The Retail Voice Award category.WOW! As we zoom past our 2-year anniversary on the show, we're honored and humbled to have hit the top of the charts on the Goodpods podcast platform!No. 1 in the Top 100 Indie Management Podcasts of the week chartNo. 2 in the Top 100 Indie Management Podcasts of the month chartNo. 5 in the Top 100 Indie Marketing Podcasts of the week chartWe can't thank our Goodpods listeners enough! We love your support! Please continue giving us those 5-star ratings and send us your comments!About our Guest:Neil Redding is a keynote speaker, author, Innovation Architect and Near Futurist. Neil has worked at the convergence of digital and physical for decades, and is an expert in spatial computing, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), AI and convergent brand ecosystems. Neil currently leads Redding Futures, a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to powerfully the Near Future. Prior to founding Redding Futures, Neil held leadership roles at Mediacom, Proximity/BBDO, Gensler, ThoughtWorks, Auki Labs, and Lab49. Neil is also editor of Near Future of Retail, author of the forthcoming book The Ecosystem Paradigm, and advises multiple startups at the leading edge of the digital-physical convergence.Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, E-Motive, and Swag, Tag, And Brag from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Goodpods: https://bit.ly/TRRSgoodpodsFollow us on Instagram: https://bit.ly/TRRSinstaFollow us on Threads: https://bit.ly/TRRSthreadsFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICasey

ABOUT NEIL REDDING:Neil's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reddingneil/Website: https://www.neilredding.com/Editor, Near Future of RetailBIO:Neil Redding is a keynote speaker, author, Innovation Architect and Near Futurist.Neil has worked at the convergence of digital and physical for decades, and is an expert speaker and advisor in the realms of spatial computing, augmented reality (AR), AI, and convergent brand ecosystems. As a Near Futurist, Neil focuses on connecting what's possible with what's practical — pulling the future into the present through a digital experience lens.Neil currently leads Redding Futures, a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to engage powerfully with the Near Future. Prior to founding Redding Futures, Neil held leadership roles at Mediacom, Proximity/BBDO, Gensler, ThoughtWorks and Lab49.He has delivered for clients including Visa, Nike, Cadillac, Macy's, NBA, Verizon, TED, The Economist, MoMA, Converse, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Oracle, Financial Times, and Fidelity Investments.He has spoken at numerous conferences including SXSW, AWE, Immerse Global Summit, infoComm, Tech2025, CreateTech, SEGD XLab, A.R.E. Shoptalk, Creative Technology Week, Design+AI and VRevolution.Neil is also editor of Near Future of Retail, author of the forthcoming book The Ecosystem Paradigm, and advises multiple startups at the leading edge of the digital-physical convergence.SHOW INTRO: Welcome to the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast.These dynamic dialogues based on our acronym DATA - design, architecture, technology, and the arts crosses over disciplines but maintains a common thread of people who are passionate about the world we live in and human's influence on it, the ways we craft the built environment to maximize human experience, increasing our understanding of human behavior and searching for the New Possible.The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD. VMSD is the publisher of VMSD magazine and brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. The IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience placemakers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing the discourse forward on what makes retailing relevant.You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience. SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.orgIn this episode I talk with Neil Redding Founder of Redding Futures about Near Futurism and Spatial Computing.But first a few thoughts.****************I grew up on Star Trek. And Walt Disney of course.Sunday nights were special my brothers and I would gather together with my father watching captain James T Kirk careening around the universe and battle everything from klingons to tribbles.It gave me a vision of the future and a world of possibility beyond what was known. I think having had that experience, and my father's fascination with the possibility of beaming anywhere, set me on a path for being always curious about the expanse of the universe, the possibility of extraterrestrial life, what would happen when you traveled at the speed of light or entered the event horizon of a black hole. Later on I began to be interested in string theory and tried hard to understand the math and physics of the general theory of relativity.It's equally become important as a practice to hold future thinking in context with present realities. The pandemic offered an opportunity to really understand what it meant to be present -where the future vision for my life that I had established weren't coming to pass - at least in the short term. And so, it became interesting for me to think about the future not as some long far off vision of something that would happen 25 or 50 or 100 years from now but to think increasingly about the near future. It also became clear that the distant future was becoming increasingly difficult to imagine. When thinking about the exponential pace of change it became very clear to me that we were very definitely on the upswing of an exponential curve where moments of significant technological advances would become closer and closer together and therefore the deltas between one significant moment and the next would also become smaller putting us perhaps in the perpetual present, fluidly moving from now and next .And of course, if you do any meditation or have a mind body practice, the whole idea is to find yourself in the present letting go of past and a longing for understanding future. And that's great and I do have a meditation practice each day that helps me stay centered focused on the now, hopefully ridding me of my worries or my regrets from things that I might have done in the past or perpetually longing for a future to be a certain way.But at the same time, there seems to be a paradox - we're not naturally good at staying in the perpetual present because we need to rely on past for learning and we often long for understanding our future perhaps because we want some sense of predictability in in otherwise largely unpredictable world. And so I began to think a lot about this idea of near future - not lingering on the past, though hoping that I bring lessons learned from those experiences forward to make me smarter and help support the decision making in the present and not completely alienating myself from future.I've come to think of this a matter of a proportioning of my daily brain power - how much time am I spending thinking about what was or has not yet come to pass. And so when I reconnected with Neil Redding in an online conference that I see saw him speaking at, I was fascinated with his concept around near futurism end other subjects like spatial computing. Things that has focused his profession professional path on over the past number of years since our first meeting in New York over a decade ago.When we met then we shared a stage at a Society for Graphic Designers event and I had just published my book Retail (r)Evolution and was talking about the emergence of a new experience seeking cohort of shoppers focused in the digital world and what the emergence of digital media, as a medium for interacting with customers, would mean.Then I was talking about Google Glass which had just come on to the market and I saw it as a potentially new way of engaging in experiences of our physical environment.I explained to my sons that I was selected to be a beta tester and their remark to me then was “dad, you're not actually gonna put that thing on your face are you?”Google Glass ended up not gaining traction and faded away. But that didn't mean that companies developing augmented reality headsets head disappeared they were just perhpas waiting for a time where general adoption of the tech would become more robust. I happen to think that augmented reality is a better solution than virtual reality because augmented reality keeps us in the present it keeps us in a place where we are actively engaged in a mind body way with the environments that we're in.Augmented reality offers us an opportunity to have a digital overlay on those experiences and it draws from our Hansel and Gretel trail of digital ones and zeros that suggest our preferences, our desires, our need for certain kinds of information so that products and places could be customized by us. Augmented reality also offers us the opportunity to share in the expereicne of place.Both myself and a friend or family member could visit a store, a museum or even a National Park standing side by side and through our augmented reality headsets or glasses, we could at the same time, share in the experience and also have it equally customized to our individual preferences. The idea of augmented reality actually isn't new. L Frank Baum, who wrote the Wizard of Oz, actually described a headset in his 1901 book “THE MASTER KEY”.There he previewed the invention of the Taser, a hand-held PDA with Google Glass-like capability, including live video /AR and a wireless phone.The Master Key: An Electrical Fairy Tale, Founded Upon the Mysteries of Electricity and the Optimism of its Devotees, describes the adventures of a 15 year old boy who experiments with electricity. The young lad accidentally touches "the Master Key of Electricity," and comes into contact with a Demon who bestows upon him various gifts.  One of these gifts is a "Character Marker" which is described on p. 94:"It consists of this pair of spectacles. While you wear them everyone you meet will be marked upon the forehead with a letter indicating his or her character. The good will bear the letter 'G,' the evil the letter 'E.' The wise will be marked with a 'W' and the foolish with an 'F.' The kind will show a 'K' upon their foreheads and the cruel a letter 'C.' Thus you may determine by a single look the true natures of all those you encounter."Sometimes I think people like L Frank Baum and others like Nicola Tesla knew, long before they actually came into common usage, where our technology would finally bring us. It just seems like the actual evolution of digital technology was simply lagging behind our imagination.Tesla for example was quoted in in 1926 Colliers magazine article as saying “when wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will become converted to a huge brain, which in fact it is. All things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole... and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared to our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket” and then he goes on to say that we'll be able to communicate with each other independent of geography.About a decade ago there was a Time magazine article called “Never Offline” where they described wearables - meaning the digital interfaces that we would put on our bodies from smartwatches to things like Google Glass or augmented reality goggles. In that article they suggested that “…wearables will make your physical self visible to the virtual world in the form of information, an indelible digital body print, and that information is going to behave like any other information behaves these days. It will be copied and circulated. It will go places you don't expect. People will use that information to track you and to market to you.”Now I suppose one way of taking this view would be that it aligns with the often dystopian vision of a future where information is used without our knowing and perhaps to our detriment. On the other hand, things like wearables and spatial computing devices can be used to augment experiences to the benefit of people. One of them which seems to be Ground Zero for the application of augmented reality or spatial computing is in the retail world. It's easy to imagine shopping experiences that are already difficult to navigate - because retailers cram their spaces with so many products that it makes choosing and navigation of the assortment difficult - could be alleviated through the use of smart devices like an augmented reality headset of some kind. Signage could be clearer, information leading to better decision making could be better and navigation through a complex maze of products in any store could also be made more efficient.Wearable technologies have not disappeared since Google Glass came on the market and then faded away. Compnaies have been spending time refining technologies allowing our ability to collect, parse and share data.The introduction of artificial intelligence and natural language processing has also become more part of our everyday world. And this is where spatial computing becomes increasingly interesting. What if we can talk to our devices as we navigate space what information could we call up that would help us make decisions or be better informed?What visual clutter could we remove from our streets and highways? that instead of having large billboard structures lining highways that that information could simply be a visual virtual overlay that we see through our dashboard or through the glasses we're wearing on our face.Or maybe it offers up the opportunity for things that are specifically related to me like what restaurant I'd like to go to and how far it is away because my personal preferences are already loaded into the algorithm. Perhaps our actual 3D environment becomes less littered with this type of visual noise and the work of providing that kind of information is provided through a set of glasses and an augmented reality overlay.So having this conversation with Neil was interesting because he's actually doing this sort of thing.Neil Redding has worked at the convergence of digital and physical for decades, and is an expert speaker and advisor in the realms of spatial computing, augmented reality (AR), AI, and convergent brand ecosystems. As a Near Futurist,Neilfocuses on connecting what's possible with what's practical — pulling the future into the present through a digital experience lens.Neil currently leads ReddingFutures, a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to engage powerfully with the Near Future. Prior to foundingReddingFutures,Neilheld leadership roles at Mediacom, Proximity/BBDO, Gensler, ThoughtWorks and Lab49.He has worked for companies including Visa, Nike, Cadillac, Macy's, NBA, Verizon, TED, The Economist, MoMA, Converse, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Oracle, Financial Times, and Fidelity Investments.He has spoken at numerous conferences including SXSW, Immerse Global Summit, infoComm, Tech2025, CreateTech, SEGD XLab, A.R.E. Shoptalk, Creative Technology Week, Design+AI and VRevolution.Neil is also editor of Near Future of Retail, author of the forthcoming book The Ecosystem Paradigm, and advises multiple startups at the leading edge of the digital-physical convergence. ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582bWebsites: https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.comTwitter: DavidKepronPersonal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/Bio:David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why', ‘what's now' and ‘what's next'. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott's “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation's Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.He has held teaching positions at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com. ************************************************************************************************************************************The next level experience design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

For years, retail industry experts discussed augmented reality (AR) at a high level. Now, we're finally seeing the technology being used in creative and innovative ways. During this episode of Retail Remix, our host Alicia Esposito speaks with Neil Redding, Head of Product at Auki Labs, about how AR can drive the entire customer experience, from discovery to conversation. Neil also shares how his company is fueling AR innovation by helping people, technology and AI interact in physical spaces to drive the future of shopping. Listen in to learn:  Where the industry currently embraces AR and how other unique companies are experimenting with AR in their shopping experiences; What needs to happen to bring digital information and data into stores successfully; and How Auki Labs is helping retailers think more creatively and innovatively in leveraging AR in stores. RELATED LINKS Connect with Neil here! Learn more about Auki Labs. See the technology in action. Read Auki Labs' stance on augmented reality. Learn more about augmented reality trends at Retail TouchPoints.

How will retailers embrace immersive commerce? Will it be via AR or VR or both? To answer this question, we meet our latest Retail Transformer – Neil Redding, head of product at Auki Labs. Plus, we welcome special guest host back to the show, Jeff Roster, host of This Week in Innovation podcast. Together we explore why AR and spatial computing may be the answer retailers are looking for to give digital assets a physical presence in the shopper journey. We also examine the impact of Apple's new Vision Pro mixed reality headset and how this both legitimizes and forever changes the AR/VR landscape. Join us for a unique discussion where we unpack why and how this matters for retail – our conclusions may surprise you!We're at number 19 on the Feedspot Top 60 Best Retail podcasts list – if you enjoy our show, please consider giving us a 5-star review in Apple Podcasts and help us move our way up the Top 20! Even more accolades! We're feeling the love on the Goodpods podcast player! After our Season 3 launch with Generative AI, this past week we hit these major milestones on the Top Charts:Top 100 Business Podcasts - at #26 and Top 45 Indie Business Podcasts – at #15Top 25 Management Podcasts – at #5 and Top 8 Indie Management Podcasts – at #3Top 47 Marketing Podcasts – at #7 and Top 17 Indie Marketing Podcasts – at #6Thank you Goodpod listeners! Keep it coming and post your comments!Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023, 2022 & 2021, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and director partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock, and RETHINK Retail Top Retail Influencer for 2023. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked and E-Motive, from the album Beat Hype, written by Hestron Mimms, published by Imuno. The Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Goodpods: https://bit.ly/TRRSgoodpodsFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCasey

The VR/AR Association podcast continues its Immersed Global Summit Recap Series. This week's episode is the final episode of our recap of the amazing talent and individuals at the Immerse Global Summit in Miami, Florida at the beginning of December last year. Our guests span a wide range of professionals in the VR/AR space, each sharing with us a small window into their industry knowledge and experience. Listen Here: http://thevrara.com/podcast-posts/immerse-global-summit-2022-part3 Check out these links if you want to dig deeper after listening to the episode. Monica Ares https://about.meta.com/   Neil Redding http://neilredding.com/   Follow us on Social Media: Monica Ares: LinkedIn Neil Redding: LinkedIn / Twitter Tyler Gates: LinkedIn / Twitter Sophia Moshasha: LinkedIn / Twitter   VRARA DC: LinkedIn / Twitter   Subscribe to the podcast wherever podcasts are found or listen to past interviews at www.TheVRARA.com/podcast Do you have an interest in being a guest on our podcast or have a guest recommendation?  Email vicki@thevrara.com and let us know! Visit the VR/AR Association at www.TheVRARA.com for more information about how you can get involved with this worldwide organization to help gain exposure and share ideas and best practices with other experts in the industry. The Everything VR/AR Podcast is produced & sponsored by the DC Chapter of VRARA, in conjunction with Brightline Interactive.  

“There is a fundamental way in which the world is connected, even if we don't understand it intuitively.” Neil Redding Neil joins us today to discuss the deep connectedness of the world and why being aware of that connection matters. He explains the power of words to create an emotional experience and how inclusive language […] The post Everything Is Connected with Neil Redding appeared first on Ana Melikian, Ph.D..

This week, we're exploring why it behooves businesses and business leaders to look at their users, consumers, customers, etc., as humans first. Slightly shifting perspective to consider the humanity behind purchasing decisions can lead to greater loyalty, more frequent use, and genuinely happier users, all of which add up to more business success and better outcomes for the world. Together with my guests, we discuss how human-centric decisions apply to various industries and how you can build better relationships that lead to success for all of humanity. Guests this week include Charlie Cole, Neil Redding, Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Ana Milicevic, Cathy Hackl, Marcus Whitney, and David Ryan Polgar. The Tech Humanist Show is a multi-media-format program exploring how data and technology shape the human experience. Hosted by Kate O'Neill. Produced and edited by Chloe Skye, with research by Ashley Robinson and Erin Daugherty at Interrobang and input from Elizabeth Marshall. To watch full interviews with past and future guests, or for updates on what Kate O'Neill is doing next, subscribe to The Tech Humanist Show hosted by Kate O'Neill channel on YouTube, or head to KOInsights.com. Full Transcript Kate O'Neill: When you buy something, you're a customer. But — to paraphrase a line from the movie Notting Hill — you're also just a person, standing in front of a business, asking it to treat you like a human being. Over the last two decades plus working in technology, I've often held job titles that were centered on the experience of the user, the consumer, or the customer. In fact, the term ‘customer experience' has been in use since at least the 1960s, and has become so common that a recent survey of nearly 2,000 business professionals showed that customer experience was the top priority over the next five years. And while generally speaking this emphasis is a good thing, my own focus over the past decade or so has shifted. I've realized that the more macro consideration of human experience was a subtle but vital piece missing from the discussion at large. Because when we talk about experience design and strategy, no matter what word we use to qualify it—customer, user, patient, guest, student, or otherwise—we are always talking about humans, and the roles humans are in relative to that experience. In order to refocus on human experience instead of customer, you have to change the way you think about your buyers. You owe it to yourself to think not just about how people can have a better experience purchasing from your company, but also what it means to be fully human within the journey that brings them to that moment, and the uniquely human factors that drive us to make decisions leading to purchase or loyalty. A recent piece by Deloitte shared in the Wall Street Journal echoes this idea and offers five ways to be more human-centric in business: 1) be obsessed by all things human, 2) proactively identify & understand human needs before they are expressed, 3) execute with humanity, 4) be authentic, and 5) change the world. That's what today's episode is about: using empathy and strategic business-savvy to understand what it means to be human, and how that intersects with the worlds of technology and business. Neil Redding: “When you look at everything that has to do with buying and selling of things, it's so closely tied with what we care about, what we value most, value enough as humans to spend our hard-earned money on. And so, the realm of retail reflects something really deeply human, and profoundly human.” Kate: That was Neil Redding, brand strategist and self-described “Near Futurist” focused on the retail space. He's right—buying and selling things has become deeply entwined with humanity. But when we purchase something, it's not because we think of ourselves as “customers” or “end users.” We buy because we have a need or desire to fulfill, and sometimes that need is purely emotional. A ‘customer' buys your product—a human buys your product for a reason. 84% of consumers say that being treated like a person instead of a number is an important element to winning their business. It does seem like business professionals are catching on, as 79% say it's impossible to provide great service without full context of the client and their needs. But understanding something isn't the same as putting it into practice—only 34% of people say they feel like companies actually treat them as individuals. One major difference is the question of framing. Customer experience frames the motivator as, ‘how effectively the business operates the events related to a purchase decision.' It drives companies to focus on improving their own metrics, like bringing down call center wait times. These may yield worthwhile outcomes, but they're inherently skewed to the business perspective and aligned to the purchase transaction. Focusing instead on human experience shifts the perspective to the person outside the business, and what they want or need. It allows consideration of the emotional state they may be bringing to the interaction, which leaves greater room for empathy and context. A human experience mindset suggests that each individual's unique circumstances are more important than aggregate business metrics, because the reason why that person is interacting with your company probably can't be captured by measuring, say, how long they might have to wait on the phone. You could bring that wait time to zero and it still may not have any impact on whether the person feels heard, respected, or satisfied with the outcome — or whether they want to engage with you again. But as fuzzy as it is to talk about human experience, we know that measurement is fundamental to business success, so we have to find a way to define useful metrics somehow. For each business, that number is likely a bit different. So how do you know whether your customers feel like they're being treated as humans instead of just numbers? Charlie Cole, CEO of the flower delivery website ftd.com, believes one answer is obsessing over customer satisfaction metrics. Charlie Cole: “The best way to win this industry is just kick ass with the customer. We obsess over NPS scores, uh, as kind of leading indicators of LTV scores.” Kate: If you're not familiar with the acronyms, allow me to decipher: NPS stands for Net Promoter Score, which measures how likely the customer is to recommend the business, and LTV in this context means ‘lifetime value,' or the amount a customer may spend at your business over the course of their lifetime. Charlie Cole: “But remember, it's not the receiver's lifetime, it's the sender's lifetime. I mean, think about it. My stepmom is—just had a birthday April 9th, and I sent her a plant. If I went on a website and picked out a Roselia, and she received an Azelia, she's gonna be like, ‘thank you so much, that was so thoughtful of you,' and I'm gonna be pissed, right? And so like, we have to make sure we optimize that sender NPS score. It was shocking to us when we looked into the NPS, when we first got to FTD, our NPS, Kate, was in like the teens! My CTO looked at it and he goes, ‘how is this possible? We send gifts, who doesn't like receiving gifts?' And so we were looking at this stuff and we realized like, this is how you win. And I think when people look at the world of online delivery, there's very few companies that are extremely customer-centric… and in our world it matters. It's births, it's deaths, it's birthdays, it's Mother's Days… it's the most emotional moments of your life that you're relying on us for, so I think that gravitas just goes up to the next level.” Kate: Net Promoter Score offers directional insight about the customer experience, but it still isn't quite measurement of the broader human experience. The typical NPS question is phrased, “How likely is it that you would recommend [company X] to a friend or colleague?”, which forces customers to predict future actions and place themselves into hypothetical or idealistic scenarios. It is also measured on a 1-10 scale, which is pretty arbitrary and subjective — one person's 9 would not be another person's 9. A clearer way to ask this and gain more useful human-centric data would be with simple yes/no questions, asking people about actual past behaviors. For instance, “in the past 6 weeks, have you recommended [company X] to a friend or colleague?” Other alternative measures include PES, or Product Engagement Score, which measures growth, adoption, and stickiness of a given product or service, and doesn't require directly asking customers questions about their past or future habits. Instead, data comes in in real-time and allows for a clear measurement of success relative to a product's usage. While these metrics are useful in various ways, one thing missing from them is emotion. As humans, we are animals deeply driven by our emotions: research from MIT Sloan finds that before humans decide to take an action—any action, including buying something—the decision must first go through a filtering process that incorporates both reason and feelings. Reason leads to conclusions, but emotion leads to action. And if a customer feels frustrated by the customer service they're experiencing—perhaps they feel like they are being treated like a number, and not a person—they'll file a complaint, share on social media, and tell their friends and family to avoid the business. These actions can be quite time-consuming, but people will give up their time to right a wrong they feel they've experienced. All this is to say that if you want to retain human loyalty or attract new people to your business, you have to create a positive emotional response in your customers, which means understanding more about who they are than simply what product they might want. Many businesses have discovered that one of the best ways to create an emotional connection with people is through branding. A great brand image can forge a permanent bond with someone who feels strongly that the company shares their values and practices what they preach. Once someone has connected a brand to their own identity, it becomes much more difficult to convince them to switch to another company—even if that company provides the same product at lower cost—because switching companies feels like losing a part of them. Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, Director of the Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team at Twitter, explored the concept of branding with me when she came on my show last year. Rumman Chowdhury: “Human flourishing is not at odds with good business. Some of what you build, especially if you're a B2C company, it's about brand. It's about how people feel when they interact with your technology or your product. You are trying to spark an emotion. Why do you buy Coke vs Pepsi? Why do you go to McDonald's vs Burger King? Some of this is an emotional decision. It's also this notion of value. People can get overly narrowly focused on value as revenue generation—value comes from many, many different things. People often choose less ‘efficient' outcomes or less economically sound outcomes because of how it makes them feel. A frivolous example but an extreme example of it would be luxury brands. Apple spends so much money on design. Opening every Apple product is designed to feel like you're opening a present. That was intentional. They fully understand the experience of an individual, in interacting with technology like a phone or a computer, is also an emotional experience.” Kate: If you're able to understand what people connect to about your brand, you can invest into magnifying that image. If your customer loves that you invest into clean energies, it becomes less important how much time they spend on the phone waiting for a service rep. Operational metrics can't show you this emotional resonance, so instead you have to think about what makes you stand out, and why people are attracted to you. Sometimes, however, human emotion has nothing to do with the product or brand in question, and more to do with the circumstances surrounding it. There's perhaps no better example of this than flowers, which can be given for myriad reasons, and usually at the extreme ends of the emotional spectrum. I'll let Charlie Cole explain. Charlie Cole: “For us, it's buyer journey by occasion. So, you are sending flowers for the birth of a newborn. You are sending flowers for the tragic death of a teenager. You are sending flowers for the death of your 96 year old great grandfather. You are sending flowers for your wife's birthday. I would argue that even though the end of all those buyer journeys is ‘flowers,' they are fundamentally different. And you have to understand the idiosyncrasies within those buyer journeys from an emotional component. You have to start with the emotions in mind. You're buying running shoes. The buying journey for like a runner, for like a marathoner, a guy who runs all the time, is emotionally different than someone who just got told they need to lose weight at the doctor. Someone who travels for business all the time versus someone who's taking their first ever international…travel. Like, my wife retold a story the other day to my aunt about how her first European trip was when she won a raffle to go to Austria when she was 17. And her, like, single mom was taking her to Europe, and neither of them had ever been to Europe. That's a different luggage journey than me, who used to fly 300,000 miles a year. And I think that if you take the time to really appreciate the emotional nuance of those journeys, yes there's data challenges, and yes there's customer recognition challenges, so you can personalize it. But I would urge every brand to start with like the emotional amino-acid level of why that journey starts, and then reverse-engineer it from there. Because I think you'll be able to answer the data challenges and the attribution challenges, but I think that's a place where we sometimes get too tech-y and too tactical, as opposed to human.” Kate: Another challenge unique to flowers and other products usually given as gifts is that there are two completely different humans involved in the transaction, each with different expectations and emotions riding on it. Charlie Cole: “There's two people involved in every one of our journeys, or about 92% of them: the buyer, and the receiver. So how do I message to you, I don't want to ruin the surprise! But I need to educate you, and oh yeah, I'm a really really nervous boyfriend, right? I wanna make sure everybody's doing it right, and it's gonna be there on time, and I need to make sure it's going to the right place… So the messaging pathways to the sender and receiver are fundamentally different. If you kind of forget about your buying journey, and imagine everything as a gifting buyer journey, it just changes the messaging component. Not in a nuanced way, but darn near in a reciprocal way.” And while some businesses struggle to connect emotionally with the humans that make up their customer base, the tech industry—and specifically social media companies—seem to fundamentally understand what it is that humans crave, in a way that allows them to use it against us. They thrive because they take something that is quintessentially human—connecting with people and sharing our lives—and turn it into a means for data collection that can then be used to sell us products that feel specifically designed for us. Like most of us, Neil Redding has experienced this phenomenon firsthand. Neil Redding: “We spend more and more of our time in contexts that we are apparently willing to have commercialized, right? Instagram is kind of my go-to example, where almost all of us have experienced this uncanny presentation to us of something that we can buy that's like so closely tied to… I mean, it's like how did you know that this is what I wanted? So myself and people close to me have just said, ‘wow, I just keep buying this stuff that gets presented to me on Instagram that I never heard of before but gets pushed to me as like, yeah it's so easy, and it's so aligned with what I already want. So there's this suffusion of commercial transaction—or at least discovery—of goods that can be bought and sold, y'know, in these moments of our daily lives, y'know, so that increasingly deep integration of commerce and buying and selling of things into our self-expression, into our communication, works because what we care about and what we are willing to buy or what we are interested in buying are so intertwined, right? They're kind of the same thing at some deep level.” Kate: Part of the reason this works is that humans crave convenience. Lack of convenience adds friction to any process, and friction can quickly lead to frustration, which isn't a mind state that leads to more business. The internet and social media has made keeping up with friends and gathering information incredibly convenient, so an advertisement here or there—especially one that looks and feels the same as everything else on our feed—doesn't bother us like it might in other contexts. And when those advertisements have been tailored specifically to our interests, they're even less likely to spark a negative emotion, and may in fact encourage us to buy something that we feel is very “us.” The big question for business leaders and marketers then is how do you digitize your business so that it emphasizes the richness of the human experience? How do you know which technologies to bring into your business, and which to leave aside? There are plenty of established and emerging technologies to choose from: Interactive email helps marketers drive engagement and also provides an avenue for additional data collection. Loyalty marketing strategies help brands identify their best customers and customize experiences for them. Salesforce introduced new features to help humanize the customer service experience with AI-powered conversational chatbots that feel pretty darn close to speaking with an actual human. Virtual and Augmented Reality website options allow customers to interact with products and see them in their hands or living rooms before they buy. With all the choice out there, it can be overwhelming. And t oo often, businesses and governments lean into the “just buy as much tech as possible!” approach without thinking integratively about the applications of said technology. Many companies are using that technology to leverage more data than ever before, hoping to customize and personalize experiences. David Ryan Polgar, a tech ethicist and founder of All Tech Is Human, explains why this method may not yield the results you think—because humans aren't just a collection of data points. David Ryan Polgar: “Are we an algorithm, or are we unique? I always joke, like, my mom always said I'm a, a snowflake! I'm unique! Because, when you think about Amazon and recommendations, it's thinking that your past is predicting your future. And that, with enough data, we can accurately determine where your next step is. Or even with auto-suggestion, and things like that. What's getting tricky is, is that true? Or is it subtly going to be off? With a lot of these auto-suggestions, let's say like text. Well the question I always like to think about is, how often am I influenced by what they said I should say? So if I wanna write, like, ‘have a…' and then it says ‘great day,' well, maybe I was gonna say great day, but maybe I was gonna say good day. And it's subtly different, but it's also influencing kinda, my volition. Now we're being influenced by the very technology that's pushing us is a certain direction. And we like to think of it, ‘well, it's already based on you,' but then that has a sort of cyclical nature to actually extending—” Kate: “Quantum human consciousness or something.” David: “Exactly! Exactly.” Kate: “Like, the moment you observe it, it's changed.” Kate: It's so easy, especially when you work with data, to view humans as output generators. But we're living in an age where people are growing increasingly wary of data collection, which means you may not know as much about the people whose data you've collected as you think you do. Becoming dependent on an entirely data-driven model for customer acquisition may lead to faulty decisions — and may even be seen as a huge mistake five years from now. Instead, I always talk about “human-centric digital transformation,” which means the data and tech-driven changes you make should start from a human frame. Even if you're already adopting intelligent automation to accelerate your operations, in some cases, very simple technologies may belong at the heart of your model. Here's Neil Redding again. Neil Redding: “Using Zoom or FaceTime or Skype is the only technology needed to do what a lot of stores have done during COVID, where their customers expect the store associate interaction when they come to the stores, they just create a one-on-one video call, and the shopper just has this interaction over videochat, or video call, and kind of does that associate-assisted shopping, right? And so you have that human connection, and again, it's nowhere near as great as sitting across a table and having coffee, but it's better than, y'know, a 2-dimensional e-commerce style shopping experience.” Kate: As a parallel to video conferencing, Virtual Reality has opened up avenues for new human experiences of business as well. Cathy Hackl, a metaverse strategist and tech futurist, explained a new human experience she was able to have during COVID that wouldn't have been possible without VR. Cathy Hackl: “I'll give you an example, like with the Wall Street Journal, they had the WSJ Tech Live, which is their big tech conference, and certain parts of it were in VR, and that was a lot of fun! I mean, I was in Spatial, which is one of the platforms, hanging out with Joanna Stern, and with Jason Mims, and like, in this kind of experience, where like I actually got to spend some 1-on-1 time with them, and I don't know if I would have gotten that if I was in a Zoom call, and I don't know if I would have gotten that in person, either.” Kate: Virtual Reality and video technologies have also opened up new avenues for healthcare, allowing patients to conference with doctors from home and only travel to a hospital if absolutely necessary. Marcus Whitney is a healthcare investor and founder of the first venture fund in America to invest exclusively in Black founded and led healthcare innovation companies; he explains that these virtual experiences allow for better happiness, healing, and comfort. Marcus Whitney: “Going forward, telehealth will be a thing. We were already on the path to doing more and more healthcare in the home. It was something that they were trying to stop because, is the home an appropriate place for healthcare to take place? Lo and behold, it's just fine. Patients feel more secure in the home, and it's a better environment for healing, so you're gonna see a lot more of that. I think we're finally gonna start seeing some real breakthroughs and innovation in healthcare. Most of the lack of innovation has not been because we didn't have great thinkers, it has largely been regulatory barriers. Remote patient monitoring was a huge one that came up in the last year, so now we have doctors caring about it. What moves in healthcare is what's reimbursable. They were always trying to regulate to protect people, but then they realized, well, we removed the regulatory barriers and people were fine, so that regulation makes actually no sense, and people should have more choice, and they should be able to do telehealth if they want to.” Kate: And that's just it: humans want choice. We want to feel seen, and heard, and like our opinions are being considered. There's another technology on the horizon that could give people more power over their technology, and therefore freedom and choice, that will likely cause massive change in the marketplace when it is more widely available: Brain-computer interface. Cathy Hackl explains. Cathy Hackl: “So I'm very keen right now on brain-computer interface. The way I'm gonna explain it is, if you've been following Elon Musk, you've probably heard of neuro-link—he's working on BCI that's more internal, the ones I've been trying are all external devices. So I'm able to put a device on that reads my brainwaves, it reads my intent, and it knows that I wanna scroll an iPad, or I've been able to turn on lights using just my thoughts, or play a video game, or input a code… I've been able to do all these things. And I'm very keen on it, very interested to see what's going on… I think the biggest thing that's stuck with me from studying all these technologies and trying them out from an external perspective, is that my brain actually really likes it. Loves the workout. Like, I'm thinking about it, and I'm like, the receptors here, pleasure receptors are like lighting up, I'm like ‘ohmygosh!' So I'm still sitting with that. Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing? I don't know, but I think these technologies can allow us to do a lot of things, especially people with disabilities. If they don't have a hand, being able to use a virtual hand to do things in a virtual space. I think that's powerful.” Kate: That story also illuminates the fact that there are many different types of people, each with different needs. Digital transformation has given people with disabilities a new way to claim more agency over their lives, which creates a brand new potential customer-base, filled with humans who desire freedom and choice as much as the next person. Now, let's talk about some companies who are doing at least a few q things right when it comes to the digital transformation of human experience. Starbucks, for instance. One of the worst parts of shopping in-store was waiting in line, and then the social pressure from the people behind you wishing you would order faster. If you weren't a regular customer, the experience could be overwhelming. When they launched their mobile order app, it tapped into a number of things that made the experience of buying coffee faster and easier, with all sorts of fun customization options that I never knew existed when I only ordered in-store. Now, even brand new customers could order complex coffee drinks — meaning in that one move the company may have brought in new customers and allowed the cost per coffee to increase — all without people feeling pressure from other shoppers, and without the inconvenience of waiting in line. Then there's Wal-Mart, who during the pandemic instituted ‘Wal-Mart pickup,' a service where people can shop online and pick up their goods without ever having to step into the store. The service is technically operating at a financial loss, but Wal-Mart understands that solid branding and convenience are worth more to their company's bottom-line in the long run than the amount of money they're losing by investing into this particular service. Of course, some businesses are better suited for the online-only world than others. As more companies attempt to digitize their businesses, it's incredibly important to tap into the human reasons that people wanted to engage with your business in the first place. In some cases, businesses have failed to make this connection, assuming that “if people liked us as a physical product, then they'll continue using us when we're digital,” or worse, “if we simply make people aware of us, they will become customers!” This assumption ignores human nature, as Ana Milicevic, a longtime digital media executive who is principal and co-founder of Sparrow Digital Holdings, explains. Ana Milicevic: “To be relevant in this direct to consumer world, you also have to approach awareness and customer acquisition differently. And this is the #1 mistake we see a lot of traditional companies make, and not really understand how to pitch to a digital-first, mobile-first consumer or a direct subscriber. They're just not wired to do it that way, and often times the technology stacks that they have in place just aren't the types of tools that can facilitate this type of direct interaction as well. So they're stuck in this very strange limbo where they are committed to continuing to acquire customers in traditional ways, but that's just not how you would go about acquiring a direct customer.” Kate: Acquiring those direct customers requires an understanding of what humans want—a large part of which is meaning. And how people create meaning in their lives is changing as well. Long before the pandemic, trends were already pointing toward a future where we live more of our lives online, but those trends have also been accelerated. So beyond digitizing your business, it may also be useful to invest time, money, and energy into discovering how the humans of the future will create meaning in their lives. Cathy Hackl discussed some of the trends she's seen in her own kids that show how today's children will consume and make purchasing decisions in a very different way than most modern businesses are used to. Cathy Hackl: “Something else that I'm noticing… y'know we're going to brick and mortar, but we're going to brick and mortar less. So you start to see this need for that virtual try-on to buy your makeup, or to buy clothes, and it's also transitioning not only from the virtual try-on into what I'm calling the direct-to-avatar economy. Everything from virtual dresses that you're buying, or custom avatars, y'know you're starting to create this virtualized economy. And this is the reason I always talk about this now, is my son recently did his first communion, and when we said, ‘hey, what do you want as a gift?' he said, ‘I don't want money, I want a Roblox gift card that I can turn into Robucks,'—which is the currency they use inside Roblox—'so that I can buy—whichever gamer's skin.' And, y'know, when I was growing up, my brother was saving up to buy AirJordans. My son doesn't want that, y'know, he wants Robucks, to buy something new for his avatar. This is direct-to-avatar; is direct-to-avatar the next direct-to-consumer?” Kate: Our online avatars represent us. We can customize them to directly express who we feel we are. Part of the reason this idea is so attractive is that many people—increasingly so in the context of online interaction—seek out meaningful experiences as our ‘aspirational' selves. We gravitate to the communities that align with facets of who we wish we were. And perhaps less productively, we may also choose to present the idealized version of ourselves to the world, omitting anything we're embarrassed by or that we feel may paint us in a negative light. But honestly, all of this makes sense in the context of making meaning, because humans are generally the most emotionally fulfilled when we feel empowered to control which ‘self' we present in any given interaction. With this much freedom of choice and expression, and with the complications of the modern supply chain—which I will talk about more in depth in our next episode—it's important to acknowledge that creating convenience and improving human satisfaction aren't going to be easy tasks. Behind the scenes, there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into providing a satisfying customer experience. Let's go back to the example of flowers and see what Charlie Cole has to say. Charlie Cole: “If it's too cold they freeze, if it's too hot they wilt, if UPS is a day late they die. And then, the real interesting aspect—and this isn't unique to flowers—the source is remarkably centralized. So the New York Times estimated that 90-92% of roses that are bought in America for Valentine's Day come from Columbia and Ecuador. And so, if anything goes wrong there, then you really don't have a chance. Imagine the quintessential Valentine's Day order: A dozen long-stem roses, New York City. Easy, right? I used to live on 28th and 6th, so let's say Chelsea. Okay, I've got 7 florists who could do it. Who has delivery capacity? Roses capacity? The freshest roses? The closest to proximity? The closest to the picture in the order? Who has the vase that's in the order? Did they buy roses from us? Because I like to be able to incentivize people based on margins they already have. And so without exaggeration, Kate, we have about 11-12 ranking factors that educate a quality score for a florist, and that's how it starts the process. But then there's all the other things, like how do we know somebody didn't walk into that florist that morning and buy all the roses, right? And so there's this real-time ebb-and-flow of demand because our demand is not ours! They have their own store, they have their own B2B business, they might take orders from some of our competitors. They might have their own website. We have no idea what any given florist happens in real time because they are not captive to us. What we've learned is the place we have to get really really really really good is technology on the forecasting side, on the florist communication side, and the customer communication side. Because I can't control the seeds on the ground in Columbia, but I can really control the communication across the entire network as far as we go, as well as the amounts the we need in various places.” Kate: Creating that small-scale, emotional human moment where someone receives flowers requires immense computing power and collaboration between multiple businesses and workers. Which is part of why Charlie Cole also believes that in some cases, the best way to help your business succeed is to invest in helping other businesses that yours interacts with. Charlie Cole: “Small businesses… I think it's our secret sauce. And I think COVID has shined a light on this: small businesses are the core of our communities. Right? They are the absolute core, and I think it was always nice to say that, but now we know it. And so here's what I think we do better than anybody else: we've invested more in helping our florists run their own small business independently of us than we have about optimizing our marketplace. We launched new POS software. We launched a new local website product where we're like the first person ever to become a reseller for Shopify because we made a custom platform for florists. We're just their website provider. They're actually competing with FTD.com in a lot of ways—but I think that's where we're gonna differentiate ourselves from all the other people that are perceived as, by small businesses, (their words not mine) leeches. Right? I think to actually effectively run a marketplace which is fulfilled by small businesses, you need to invest as much in helping them win their local market independent of you.” Kate: You could make the case that there is no more evolved human experience than choosing to help others. So if your business is engaged in activities that allow other businesses—and therefore humans—to thrive, you may also be building your brand in a direction that creates more customer loyalty than any exit survey or great service interaction ever could. Beyond understanding human emotions and needs, you can help your business by leaning into understanding how we create meaning. At our core, we are compelled to make meaning. Whether we realize it or not, meaningful experiences and interactions are the driving force behind many of our decisions, financial or otherwise. Meaning is different for everyone, but having it is vital to our happiness. If you are able to engage with potential customers in a way that helps them create meaning, or allows them to use your product to make meaning on their own, you are aligning your success with your customers' success, and that bodes well for the long term. At the end of the day, making any of these changes starts at the very top of your business. Leadership needs to set the tone, creating a culture that allows room for workers at every level to engage more meaningfully with customers, and with each other. (By the way, for more discussion on creating or changing work culture, you can check out our last episode, “Does the Future of Work Mean More Agency For Workers?”) Your effort will benefit not only your business, but society as a whole. Remember the Deloitte piece in the Wall Street Journal I mentioned at the start of the episode, with ways to be more human-centric in business? Number 5 on that list was “change the world,” and research from Frontiers suggests that the well-being of any society is directly linked to how the people living within it feel about their lives and purpose. How we do that may be as simple — and as complicated — as helping people to experience meaning at any level. While the technologies around us keep changing, the opportunity becomes increasingly clear for people who work around creating customer experiences and user experiences to open up the aperture to see humanity through a fuller lens. This way, as you set your business up for longterm success, you also advocate for making human experiences as meaningful as possible — and you just might be changing the world for the better. Thanks for joining me as I explored what it means to think of customers as human. Next time, I'll be exploring the supply chain and how, despite the vast technology involved, the closer you look the more you realize: the economy is people.

S1E2 – The Retail Avengers & The Future of Frontline Staff, Part 2Welcome to Season 1, Episode 2, the second ever episode of The Retail Razor Show!I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar, a RETHINK Retail Top 100 Retail Influencer, RIS News Top Movers and Shakers in Retail for 2021, advisory council member at George Mason University's Center for Retail Transformation, and lead partner marketing advisor for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.And I'm your co-host, Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock and slayer of retail frankenstacks!Together, we're your guides on the retail transformation journey. Whether you're thinking digital and online, mobile, or brick & mortar stores, there'll be something for you!In episode 2 we dive into the future of retail frontline workers, with none other than Ron Thurston, author of Retail Pride, The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career. Ron joins our Retail Avengers team on Clubhouse to talk about the impact of AI and automation on store teams and how retailers can, and should, equip their frontline staff with technology. Plus, Ron gives us a preview of his latest project, kicking off in 2022 – Retail In America!For more information about Ron, and how you can Take Pride Today in your retail career, visit Ron's website: https://www.retailpride.comThe Retail Razor ShowFollow us on Twitter: https://bit.ly/TwRRazorConnect with us on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/LI-RRazorJoin our club on Clubhouse: http://bit.ly/RRazorClubListen to us on Callin: https://bit.ly/RRCallinSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/RRShowYouTubeSubscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/RetailRazorShowRetail Razor Show Episode Page: https://bit.ly/RRShowPodHost → Ricardo Belmar,Follow on Twitter - ****https://bit.ly/twRBelmarConnect on LinkedIn - ****https://bit.ly/LIRBelmarRead my comments on RetailWire - ****https://bit.ly/RWRBelmarCo-host → Casey Golden,Follow on Twitter - ****https://bit.ly/twCaseyConnect on LinkedIn - ****https://bit.ly/LICaseyRead my comments on RetailWire - https://bit.ly/RWCaseyTRANSCRIPTS1E2 Retail Avengers & The Future of Frontline Staff, Part 2[00:00:20] Ricardo Belmar: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. No matter what time of day you're listening. Welcome. Welcome to season one, episode two, the second ever episode of the Retail Razor Show. I'm your host, Ricardo Belmar, one of RIS News top 10 movers and shakers in retail for 2021 and lead partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods at Microsoft. [00:00:42] Casey Golden: And I'm your co-host Casey Golden, CEO of Luxlock obsessed with the customer relationship between a brand and the consumer. I spend my days slaying franken-stacks.[00:00:52] Ricardo Belmar: So Casey, how many franken-stacks have you slain since our last episode? [00:00:55] Casey Golden: I can't even count right now. [00:00:57] Ricardo Belmar: Okay. No worries. I think maybe our listeners are gonna want to start keeping track though, since we keep, , talking about it, maybe, maybe they'll start tweeting out to us, their guesses on how many between episodes.[00:01:06] Casey Golden: I love a good tweet storm. [00:01:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, me too. So any listeners out there who want to tweet a guess on how many franken-stacks Casey has slain since episode one. Be sure and tweet your guess and tag the Retail Razor account so we see it. We'll be sure to give a shout out to whoever [00:01:20] comes the closest next time we record our episode, right Casey?[00:01:24] Casey Golden: I guess I'm going to have to start keeping count myself. [00:01:26] Ricardo Belmar: There you go. [00:01:29] Casey Golden: So regarding the last week we kicked off the show with our friend, Ron Thurston, author of retail pride, and he's joining us again this week [00:01:36] Ricardo Belmar: that's right. This is part two of our Retail Avengers and the Future of Frontline Staff session. Last week, we focused on the current state of frontline workers in retail and how tech will become more and more of an integral part of that experience.[00:01:49] And this week we tackle a few of the biggest issues that concern the retail workforce, around automation and AI versus the human staff, how to best leverage technology in the hands of store associates. And we take on some interesting questions from the clubhouse audience on digital versus analog experiences and in the human connection in retail.[00:02:08] Casey Golden: These are tough topics. I'm a big proponent of human augmentation, but let's face it. We gotta automate the things we don't want to do. [00:02:16] Ricardo Belmar: That's right. Yeah. , I totally hear you. And I completely agree. So [00:02:20] many people are getting scared of the automation that's coming, but I think that's the wrong way to look at it.[00:02:25] And we'll, talk about that in this session, because there's so many benefits to having that automation do exactly what you just said, right. To get rid of all the tasks that are not the interesting fun ones and let's face it, not the ones that make the customer experience better. [00:02:39] Casey Golden: Exactly. We've got to enable the heart of our business, which is that engagement between the consumer in the brand and the consumer never walks into corporate, you know, they walk into the stores and that's where their experiences. So I really believe, you know, scaling that part of the business and making sure that the heart has software. It's going to be able to just move everything further.[00:03:11] They're not spending any time doing admin work. And there's ways to, for them to focus on what's really important to the business and what's important to the [00:03:20] consumer. [00:03:20] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I totally agree. And even when we're talking about basic things like we're going to get to in this session about store associates, getting mobile devices to use when they engage with customers [00:03:29] Casey Golden: Yeah, I love talking about frontline staff and Ron is one of the best people to dive into this topic. So glad he'll be joining us after we listen to the clubhouse recording, let's go get to it. [00:03:39] Ricardo Belmar: You got it. So without further delay, let's give a listen to the Retail Avengers and the Future of Frontline Staff, Part 2.Clubhouse Session[00:03:54] Ricardo Belmar: Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us here in the retail razor club room, we're continuing our conversation with special guest Ron Thurston, and about the future of frontline retail staff.[00:04:04] So let's do some quick introductions. I'll start with our special guests, Ron Thurston, author of retail pride, and Ron, I know you have some special announcements that I'll let you share about what, you're going to be doing.[00:04:16] I think then you've also got some special activities happening in New York this weekend share with us. So let me give you a moment to introduce yourself and tell us about those two things. [00:04:25] Ron Thurston: Awesome. Thanks so much, Ricardo. I really appreciate it. So yes, I'm the author of retail pride, the guide to celebrating your accidental career, which is why I love to talk about everything, frontline worker retail related, and I'll start with myself.[00:04:39] So yes, until last week I was the head of stores of intermix, as part of kind of their sale to private equity and such. It was a great time for me to launch my own brand. So I'm launching an umbrella, brand under Take Pride [00:04:54] Today, which will be consulting. And I'm speaking opportunities, additional books under the umbrella of retail pride.[00:05:01] And I'm really excited to get this started, kind of building out the infrastructure for what that will look like. So thank you for, for helping me, get that out into the world. [00:05:10] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Thank you for that, Ron. Appreciate it, [00:05:13] Trevor welcome. Why don't you introduce yourself? [00:05:15] Trevor Sumner: Hi, I'm Trevor Sumner. I'm the CEO of perch. We do interactive displays at retail.[00:05:21] And what's cool about them is they use computer vision to detect which products you touch. So it's like minority report, it touch a product. And literally the shelf starts talking to you about the product ratings, reviews, videos, augmented reality, all that kind of stuff. [00:05:33] Ricardo Belmar: All right, fantastic. And move on to Shish. [00:05:35] Shish Shridhar: Hi, good morning. Good afternoon. I'm the retail lead, with Microsoft for startups and essentially create a portfolio of retail tech, early stage retail, tech startups, I'm, on the lookout for innovative startups in the space. I'm always meeting up with [00:05:54] startups and learning a lot as well in that process. I've been in retail for about 20 something years, 24 years in Microsoft.[00:06:02] And about 15 of those years, working very closely with the top retailers around the world. Looking forward to the conversation today. Thank you.. [00:06:11] Ricardo Belmar: Thank you, Shish. Brandon. [00:06:12] Brandon Rael: Hello everyone, my name is Brandan Rael.. I've been in around the retail industry, both within retail companies, across a variety of merchandising and planning.[00:06:21] And I love that that role but I'm mostly on the other side now, currently I'm one of the transformation leaders at Reach Partners a boutique consultancy that works with the retailers, CPG companies, DTC companies to not only, stay ahead of disruption, but self disrupt themselves to really pivot their organizations and, provide an amazing customer experiences, both in store and online and, happy to be here. [00:06:46] Ricardo Belmar: All right, thank you, Brandon. And Jeff. [00:06:48] Jeff Roster: Hi, Jeff roster, a former Gartner and IHL retail sector analysts. Now, sit on several advisory [00:06:54] boards as well as the co-host for This week in Innovation podcast.. [00:06:57] Ricardo Belmar: Thank you, Jeff and I'm Ricardo Belmar. I founded the Retail Razor Club here on Clubhouse. I've been in retail tech for the better part of the last two decades, working for a different technology providers and service providers in retail, currently at Microsoft as a senior partner marketing advisor for retail and consumer goods.[00:07:15] Recap of Part 1[00:07:15] Ricardo Belmar: So let me do a quick recap of what we discussed at the last session. We've focused then on what new roles may emerge for frontline workers. We had an example of Levi's talking about, skills training and data science. We talked about new skills for clientelling supporting self-checkout and click and collect operations at the store. We came to a conclusion there was going to be a strong focus on supporting convenience services and experiential retail, which in this case led to a prediction that there will be more segmenting of staff into specialists or subject matter expert areas so that you won't see [00:07:54] a frontline position description might not just be as a sales associate, but it may include things like being a live streamer or doing something else around a particular area of product expertise based on what the store sells.[00:08:06] And that segmenting is something that should lead to an embracing of uniqueness and diversity in the staff. And then we also covered some interesting new retail tech, that we thought front lines are going to be enabled with around collaboration, assisted selling, other store operational tools, things that would support fulfillment, particularly stores that may operate sort of a micro fulfillment area, in part of their footprint.[00:08:30] And that led us to also talk about what the perception of roles would be. Ron had brought up an interesting point about frontline workers asking, what do I call my role? Because it was becoming much more than a traditional sales role. And again, that tied back to the area of segmenting. [00:08:47] This week we're going to dive into a couple of different areas.[00:08:50] The main one is going to be what the impact of [00:08:54] AI and automation will have on frontline staff. And we're also going to touch on things we think retailers could be doing to improve that work environment for front lines, but both in and out of the automation conversation. So for example, before we dive into those, I'm going to pose a question for the panel , we learned that Walmart is buying 740,000 Samsung smartphones for their frontline workers, that's going to include a very special integrated app. That's supposed to help them with all of their daily work tasks and, and managing everything related to being on the job essentially.[00:09:27] And also they're going to give their frontline staff the option of adopting that device as their personal device. And the claim from Walmart is that they are not going to have any visibility or access to any of those personal data areas, on the device should you choose to use it that way.[00:09:44] So I'm sure everyone has some thoughts on that. My question do you see this a, is this a trend? You know, we we've always talked in the past about how this was going to be the [00:09:54]year of associate enablement, whether it was technology or training.[00:09:57] And it seemed every year that we would start the year talking about that, but we wouldn't see a lot of evidence from most retailers to do anything about that. And here comes Walmart with what I've seen, some calculations posted online that, depending on what Samsung's price was for these devices, it's easily a 350 to 380 million investment.[00:10:16] Mobile Devices for Store Associates Trend[00:10:16] Ricardo Belmar: Is this a trend? Is this a sort of a turning point that we're going to see retailers put frontline workers, in a better light and really focus on equipping them with the technology they need to put them on par with the technology, customers are walking into the store with, or is there some other meaning to this?[00:10:33] For example, one of the app functions, is an AI based tool called ask Sam, which Walmart says has been heavily used in, trials already where workers can ask just about any question to this AI sort of a chat bot, I suppose, that helps them find answers and help customers. So with my long explanation there, Ron, [00:10:54] I'll start with you.[00:10:54] What do you think of this? [00:10:55] Ron Thurston: Thanks Ricardo. So I I'll approach it from two different sides. I think from the, from the Walmart side. And as, as someone who was kind of deep into also providing tech to employees, there, there are so many legal implications about the idea of offering you. I know the pilot was about bringing your own device and let's pilot this, but it's become increasingly difficult from a legal perspective to ask anyone to do anything off the clock as they shouldn't.[00:11:25] And so when you think about the majority of these employees, significant majority are hourly employees, the ability for then Walmart to provide things like scheduling tools requesting time off, probably putting in something around like vacation days. You can do all of that on this device actually is really helpful for them to be able to just control the control the data control the, the use.[00:11:53] It [00:11:54] sounds like it is only enabled when they're in the store. It's probably connected to the wifi, which is, pretty normal. And so I actually think it's a fantastic way for Walmart to have a recruiting advantage because that's also a huge call-out today of how do we attract and retain top talent, or, at least be able to fill all of our open jobs.[00:12:15] And this is a great way to do that. And secondly, provide The opportunity for, kind of data collection data use and be able to provide tools that the employees have access to, where normally in scheduling, you'd have to kind of come into the store and make a phone call and you can't ask an employee to check their personal email, or even use their personal email accounts when they're off the clock.[00:12:38] There's so many legal implications. And on the employee side, it's a huge perk for a low hourly frontline worker to have something you could use for your personal device, whether you think the company is, is tracking you or not, this is [00:12:54] TBD, but the benefits, I could see huge benefits on both sides.[00:12:57] And I, applaud them for making the move. And I think it's the first of many, many to come in this, in this arena. And, I'm excited that they were the first to move. [00:13:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, thanks, Ron. I agree with you , , I see this as a overall positive move, although certainly with plenty of potential gotchas and, I suspect Trevor has a few things to say about some of those gotchas. [00:13:18] Trevor Sumner: I have I've, I've lots of things about many gotchas. I Ron, I think that's a really interesting point about, you know, kind of compliance and risk mitigation and, you know, even, making sure that off the clock, you have a device that they could use and could log and could track.[00:13:34] And so they are properly compensated for such. And I don't know if they're going to start that it doesn't sound like they're starting there yet to be connected to wifi, but they may end up going in that direction. In terms of greater compliance, as we, continually kind of do CRM and one-to-one marketing and for sales associates outside of store, [00:13:51] I think this is. There's [00:13:54] something else at play. Like I think this is great. And you know, there's no reason you can't have most of the utilities that they talked about in the release on, some type of web based app or, or support both iOS and Android and basically hit everything anyway. So why provide your own devices?[00:14:10] And I think, you know, part of it's like the controlled environment it's access, but I also think the data play is really interesting. So I think about, like ask Sam and other tools that, I think voice interfaces are highly inefficient. A lot of these technologies need to be refined. A lot of data needs to be collected to optimize things.[00:14:27] And all of a sudden you've got, basically you can track every sales associate in the store and where they are at all times. You can track if they're using ask Sam, you can look at the most common queries you can, you know, do a bunch of voice recognition. You can give yourself an advantage. Like one of the things that, Google, had a voice recognition advantage over a lot of people is that they already had all these voice recordings and all this voice data.[00:14:49] So I think there's a data pipeline play here that they're going to use and, to [00:14:54] test bed different applications before they release them to consumers and, and use the sales associates as a testing ground, to improve the UX, the UI and the underlying technology, for everything that they do.[00:15:04] And I think that that ultimately is the value because that makes everything they do from a technology perspective that they eventually released to the, to the end consumer, to be a much more mature. And well-vetted. [00:15:15] Brandon Rael: No to add to that point, I think, there probably rarefied the amount of companies that can make these significant investments in digital technologies and sales associate enablement via technologies like mobile devices.[00:15:28] So, it's can take, , such an investment like from a Walmart or potentially a Target that can actually, , invest in these capabilities, but also do the training necessary to empower store associates, to really make these a value added asset of what providing a, an outstanding associate experience, which w you know, Ron and others know, will translate over to a outstanding customer experience, then it, to help them enhance that relationship and enable the store associates to keep up with it, with, evolving [00:15:54] and always informed, and always empowered a customer who has a mobile device in their hands and access to information, review his competitor information prices.[00:16:03] Why not empower and enable your store associates keep up with that changing paradigm.[00:16:07] Shish Shridhar: I kind of think this is actually a very interesting move for Walmart. I've been, following the space and working on that space and empowering employees for a couple of years. And one of the points that Ron made about the legal implications, that was one of the big barriers in the past where they wanted, you know, The ability to control it, where the information and the task list and the ability to read work-based information outside of hours was a big concern.[00:16:38] And today with the capabilities available of controlling that I think it is becoming more of a possibility. Then it was maybe about five to 10 years ago. And that is, I think one of the drivers as well. And the other [00:16:54] aspect is, if I look at it from a startup perspective, oldest startup are in the space.[00:17:00] There's a lot of interesting technologies that are, that are being deployed. A lot of retailers are experimented with it primarily because the looking at, one, the more empowered the employees are, the happier customers are going to be. And also the other aspect of it, you know, when we look at it from the perspective of the future of frontline staff, And the, the evolving role of the frontline staff.[00:17:25] This is an important element of that. And I think it is the start of that journey where a frontline staff is going to be empowered, but a lot of information that they need, as they grow into, into that new role of being subject matter experts, into that role. Really fitting into a higher level of customer expectation.[00:17:49] So the features like the ask Sam, those are things that I'm seeing a lot of [00:17:54] where store associates can connect to real time information that can connect to conversational systems and be able to ask questions, get responses very quickly so that they're better informed and are able to help customers as a result.[00:18:11] They know exactly whether a product is in stock than not. They know if it's in the back room. So that quick access to information is an important element of that evolving role of the, of the frontline worker. And I think this is, this is huge in a way. I've been working with companies like Theatro, for example, that use a headset based system.[00:18:35] There's a company called Turnpike that is deployed in H and M. That is using wearables for companies that feel that, you know, a mobile device looks like a bit of a distraction. There is, other companies that use mobile devices and working with natural gourds that are using mobile devices. So there's multiple [00:18:54] formats that startups are experimenting with and also, what appeals to different types of retailers.[00:19:00] And, and in my mind, this is actually the beginning of that journey of evolution for, for the frontline worker, where they become empowered and also become subject matter experts, not necessarily to knowledge they have, but the connection to the backend knowledge that enables them to be far more effective and, and cater to the, the evolving expectations.[00:19:24] Trevor Sumner: Shish that actually just, inspired something, connecting the dots. When you talked about all these new startups doing interesting things, there's a startup out of VRA where I mentor, and they're called RilaVoice. And what they do is they mic up sales associates and they listen to every conversation they tag.[00:19:41] They look at the most common questions they can provide compliance on whether sales associates are answering questions well, using the right keywords, et cetera. But, again, I focus on the sheer scale of [00:19:54] this network. And what if, Walmart couldn't do that with your own device, but they couldn't do that.[00:19:58] I mean, we, we joke about how face you say something and all of a sudden you see Facebook ads for that thing. Like, there's no reason that Walmart couldn't enable these devices to listen all the time and start recording conversations and use that information in an interesting way. There's just so many tremendous opportunities to leverage this.[00:20:16] Ron Thurston: Yeah. And it's Ron, I was going to jump into about what Shish said, because this kind of idea of being enabled and encouraged and empowered, I think what was likely happening is that customers were engaged in. With frontline asking questions and they were pulling their own phone out of their back pocket.[00:20:35] And, and probably going to the website, probably looking at pricing, trying to do whatever they could to do that. And that there's legal risk put into that. So the idea of say, we're providing you all of these resources, we're empowering you with information and data. We're giving you everything that you need and let's leave your [00:20:54] personal phone in your locker when you get to work.[00:20:56] Like there's a lot of, there's a lot of potential, kind of positive and positive employee sentiment doing something like this that can really help from a recruiting standpoint to,[00:21:08] Brandon Rael: I also think to Ron's point, this generation is ready for this, these technologies and tools and solutions. We have a generation that's grown up, the next wave of retail, frontline workers who know nothing but digital. So why not empower these gen Z or, or the younger millennials to truly take on , and run with it because, when the guy came up with a customer who is light years ahead, so it's all about empowerment, it's all about enabling.[00:21:32] It's all about trusting your associates and given the tools and capabilities and need to provide an experience that's extraordinary and really helped our discovery [00:21:42] Ricardo Belmar: for the customers [00:21:42] and isn't there an element of consistency , too? [00:21:44] Because you want that experience to be consistent across associates, across stores, across customers.[00:21:50] I'm just thinking of Ron's example of the associate pulling their own device [00:21:54] out of their pocket to try to answer a question for a customer. That just seems like it's always going to lead to inconsistency, right? Because you're not providing the associate with the right tool for the job to get that consistent response.[00:22:06] And I have to believe that, if I'm Walmart, I want that consistency because what's my brand value to the customer. It's part of it is that consistency of experience that any Walmart you walk into, you know you're going to get this experience and if I'm not providing the tools to the staff, then how can I deliver that?[00:22:23] Shish Shridhar: That actually reminds me of the conversation I had with the retailer couple of years ago, where, we found when we were working with that retailer, every one of the stores had a Facebook group for having internal conversations. And this was mainly because the company hadn't provided a platform for store associates to have those conversations, to sort of standardize it and not go rogue.[00:22:46] And, and they kind of found that when they were able to provide that platform, there was sort of a control place, [00:22:54] but things could happen. This is secure and it's not out in the public. Many of these sites were actually out in the public and you could go into these Facebook groups, look at all the internal conversations and bright the was going on, within, within the store itself.[00:23:09] That was, again, I think one of those things where companies decide we need to standardize and provide a consistent interface. Thank you. [00:23:17] Trevor Sumner: Well, not just consistency, something that you can monitor. Right. And, that's one of the values and, and, and I thought the earlier point is great. It's like, let's be honest that a lot of Walmart, you know, sales associates, they're making minimum wage or close to it.[00:23:31] So the notion of having, free phone service and a free device that's meaningful. Right? And if you think about the data rates that are probably pre negotiated by Walmart, they're probably getting a very good deal.[00:23:43] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I think that speaks back to Ron's point earlier about the incentive as a recruiting incentive, right.[00:23:48] To find more as we've heard, certainly in other rooms and in clubhouse at another news stories, there's [00:23:54] a big difficulty right now for a lot of retailers to recruit enough staff as stores have reopened and customers are coming back. So I think I do agree that that serves as a good incentive. I think Trevor, your point is right about that.[00:24:06] I'm going to ask Jeff, you've been quiet and listening to everybody's comments. If you had anything that you disagreed with or wanted to add to this? [00:24:13] Jeff Roster: Yeah, so really interesting. First, first thought is we've been waiting forever to really get into the BYO D discussion, bring your own device in this case, it's really not a BYO D it's a, B Y B Y CD.[00:24:25] Bring your own company device. So there's gonna just be some amazing learnings that are going to come out of this huge fan of, of having associates have to have the tools, probably everyone in this, in this conversation. And obviously everyone on clubhouse has, has a powerful, a smartphone that they're using.[00:24:40] Why shouldn't our, our store associates have it, that I pop on my loss prevention hat and think what happened. And so I agree with Trevor that there's some crazy interesting voice technology that's coming out, sentiment analysis, how, you know, tone of voice, all that sort of stuff. Before [00:24:54] listening to the conversations to help in that.[00:24:56] What happens when you can recover some loss prevention problems, two associates, maybe, maybe talking a about stealing something or whatnot. What do we do there? Is there a privacy concern there? How do we turn that device off? When store associates have the expectation for, for a private conversation, don't have the answers, but this is going to be fascinating to watch.[00:25:16] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I think that's a good point. It is absolutely going to be interesting to watch the deployment of this. I think it's gonna be fascinating to see what percentage of employees decide to use this device as their personal device. [00:25:26] One of the things that I think is interesting in, in a couple of us touched on this . So, the ask Sam app is an example of that.[00:25:33] AI Impact on Frontline Workers[00:25:33] Ricardo Belmar: Where else do we see AI based technologies, stepping in whether in that case being billed as an augmentation or something to assist in associated, or you could see this as well in a clientelling scenario, and compare that with other automation technologies. And is this going to be competition for [00:25:54] frontline workers?[00:25:54] Is it going to be an assistance? Is it a combination of the two there there's certainly a perception out there that certain types of automation technology are a threat to frontline jobs. Certainly if you start talking about robotics, you get lots of folks who will come back and say, the robots are going to take those jobs away from frontline workers.[00:26:13] And if you think about a grocery store scenario where you're using a robot to do shelf counts, for example, people start to think there may be some truth in that statement. In other scenarios, you, you might respond to something like that and say, well, what's really happening is we're shifting the tasks.[00:26:27] We're trying to eliminate the more mundane, repetitive tasks that don't really add to the employees. Productivity don't necessarily help that frontline worker help a customer and free them up to do those jobs. So we're, we're shifting tasks, not necessarily shifting labor. There there's arguments on all sides of this.[00:26:46] I want to open up the discussion now to that point. Where do you see this, dividing line between. AI [00:26:54] technologies, automation, technologies being a threat versus it assisting frontline workers. And Ron, I'm going to start with you again, putting you on the spot. [00:27:03] Ron Thurston: This is the complicated question, but you got to thank you. I mean, here's what, what I would say is that there, there has always been, and there will always be a high demand and a high expectation of people who are exceptional every day and committed to delivering great customer experiences.[00:27:24] And, and maybe as the types of our businesses evolve and scale in different ways and you know, kind of evolution continues in retail. There will always be that side of it that needs great people who have incredible human interaction skills and they, they are unaffected by all of this because what they're hired for and what they're celebrated for is their ability to connect and sell.[00:27:51] And then I think that there's a whole other [00:27:54] side of the pendulum that says, could some of these things be automated and, put through machines and done differently. Absolutely. Yes. And I think that that's fine, but when I look at it, I say, well, then there's an enormous training opportunity and ability to take, to up-skill people who may potentially frontline workers and then build their careers in retail, through training, and that they can become that person that becomes really invaluable to companies because of their ability to connect, because that's, what's bringing people back to stores today.[00:28:28] And so that's how I kind of look at it of like the ultimate machine and the ultimate, lack of machinery that is entirely human. [00:28:38] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. And, you know, I think that's really an interesting point because especially as you look at this pandemic and who did really, really well, Walmart target best buy all these guys took e-commerce share from Amazon because in part, because there's this identity of being local, being part of a local [00:28:54] community.[00:28:54] And even as we talked about the 740,000 devices. Maybe that's a way that Walmart's looking at creating communities of its workers and those workers are a significant presence in the community. So I think this focus on community is absolutely right, whether it's, you know, sales associate to customer, whether it's sales, associate and worker to worker, I think there are new opportunities that are going to be uncovered as we create some of this automation to, to connect the connect the world.[00:29:20] Brandon Rael: And I think a retail and especially the luxury sector, which can't wait to hear Casey's perspective on is the battleground to win the hearts and minds of consumers. That retailer's always going to be a blend of the arts and sciences. Yes, automation, AI, machine learning, artificial intelligence, everything, augmented reality that really adds to the value of the customer experience matters.[00:29:44] But also the in-person engagement that Ron has alluded to that sense of community. The sense of togetherness all matters. And if it can be personalized by knowing your customers, by having the data [00:29:54] first customer first strategy that all the better, and it will make the store associates empowered, then have a really defined career path that's built on data and analytics [00:30:03] Casey Golden: a hundred percent. This is Casey. I think being able to separate what builds value versus administration work and how we can automate more administration work and streamlining the processes so that sales associates or retail associates can focus on things that create value to the customer and to the company.[00:30:25] I mean, how much time do you spend with customers and selling versus doing all of the paperwork or logging. And measuring everything that you need to do to, to be able to pick up that conversation again, or to create more value or to follow up. There's a lot of sales associates that either have no software or they have to use three or four pieces of software.[00:30:49] And I think that can cause a lot of, just it's more work that great, we got technology, but [00:30:54] now they have so much technology that's not connected or not helping them. It's just creating more work. But social media has, has really been at the pinnacle of building relationships and being able to have that sense of community, clubhouse is a perfect example of that.[00:31:10] In store experiences can facilitate it, but retail hasn't really facilitated that on e-commerce, or built their own community. A lot of retailers have relied on other social platforms to build their community on. And at the end of the day, they don't have access to their customer because it's on somebody else's platform.[00:31:31] So I think the more we can kind of bring those experiences and connect them to the brand, consumers will be able to start feeling what brand loyalty is supposed to like, why they would want to be loyal to a brand.[00:31:42] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, I agree. To build that loyalty, right? It requires people. I don't think you can. Claim you'll accomplish that by just automating every interaction. It makes me think about, the typical customer service [00:31:54] scenario that every comedian will talk about, right.[00:31:56] When they're trying to reach a retailer to return something, for example, and they have to get through the chat bot or they have to get through the AI before they can reach a person. It's not too many years ago when the jokes used to be about, IVR phone systems where you'd call in and you'd have to keep, press nine to get through this menu, then press seven, then press five.[00:32:14] And everyone tried to figure out what's the special key. You have to press on the phone to get out of the automated part and get to the person. And it's in some ways, right? From a customer experience, point of view, that doesn't change that, that human component of it doesn't change. And that's why you need people.[00:32:30] Casey Golden: Yeah. a subscription to a company called Billy and their, a, razorblade like subscription for women. And I picked them because there were a startup, a New York startup. I liked the founders. I signed up for it. I've been on a reoccurring for probably three years.[00:32:47] I liked them, but they just magically show up in my mailbox. I don't engage with the brand. I never go to the brand's website. I don't [00:32:54] touch anything. They just arrive in my mailbox every other month. Which is nice and convenient and I never have to shop for them, but I also never say the brand out loud.[00:33:02] I never think about the brand. I never think about the company ever. I'm never engaged with the company whatsoever. So I think there's a, there's a difference between seamless building brand loyalty and also. What kind of brand loyalty am I, am I loyal to the brand or am I loyal to the fact that they just show up every other month?[00:33:20] And I never think about the brand. It could be anybody. [00:33:23] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. And so I think it's dangerous to say like, yes, there, there are always going to be sales, some sales associates, but what if we removed half the sales associates or half the warehouse pickers, or, half that's a pretty significant reduction.[00:33:37] And I think it's, we just have to be careful about being reductionist here. I think technology and automation is going to reduce a lot of the repetitive tasks. And ultimately the question is, can we find new tasks that are valued at minimum wage or higher that add enough value [00:33:54] to be competitive? And, you know, certainly at a luxury, like a Gucci or Chanel, there are plenty of ways that you can surprise and delight, and they'll always find new ways to differentiate, but at a Walmart or target where convenience is really kind of, and the affordability value is the key. I think you're going to see significant reductions in staff and that's I think, does anybody disagree with that? Like when I say significant, let's call it 20% [00:34:21] Ricardo Belmar: i'll give you another example, along those lines, Trevor. Cause I'm not going to disagree with you. In fact, let's go beyond the mass merchandisers, but let's think about a franchise businesses like QSRs, where, you also have a scenario with limited staff, lower wages and no business running on an extremely slim margin, right? So if that's your scenario and let's face it in, in a franchise QSR, the highest cost that franchise owner has is their labor costs. So anything they can do, that's going to cut that in some way, without hurting the customer [00:34:54] service, you can bet I think that franchise owner will pursue it. What I think happens is that there's a mix here, right? There's yes. There a reduction. I don't think you can get away from that. In fact, I could, I won't name the brand, but I can give you an anecdotal story from a brand in Europe where over a lengthy period of time, many years, they actually reduced kitchen staff across their restaurants, by as much as 40% because of automation.[00:35:19] And of course, this isn't something you heard about in the news. You're not, it's not something they would publicize, but they did. In fact, create new positions and new roles in their restaurants when they did other things that were more front of house customer facing. Did those new roles displace all of the kitchen staff reduction?[00:35:38] Probably not. So there is an aspect here of eliminating the. Let's call them more mundane jobs because they're very repetitive, and not necessarily the more enjoyable tasks that get eliminated by automation. The [00:35:54] efficiency brought from that has distinct business advantages for the business owner.[00:35:59] Of course not so much for the frontline worker who's at risk of losing that job. This usually leads to discussions which we kind of touched on in our last session, but the example of Levi's wanting to train frontline workers in areas like data science and trying to create those new roles and areas.[00:36:15] And you are, as Ron described last time, those new segmented skill sets that can allow them to stay on in a different capacity, perhaps in a different wage or different salary, but not completely risk losing all of those jobs. I think that's what we've seen throughout history, right. You know, once upon a time we had people that operated elevators and then the elevators got buttons that automated the process.[00:36:36] What happened to all of the elevator operators?[00:36:38] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're talking about, I think you're going to have fewer, potentially fewer sales associates who are superpowered. And can summon products and inventory and help you do omnichannel delivery, you know, at will. But you're going to have fewer of them. They'll [00:36:54] probably be slightly higher paid because to Ron's point, there'll be even better at customer service.[00:36:58] And in the back of the house, you're going to see a gutting in terms of number of people. I mean, we're not even talking about self-driving trucks, right? There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the U S like, I don't know how you turn a truck driver or a warehouse worker into a premier sales associate at an Uber echelon, kind of value where it's even more highly competitive.[00:37:21] The expectations are higher. Your ability to adopt technology is more critical. I think, we're really going to struggle with what that looks like. [00:37:30] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, as a Walmart and a Target implement more things that automate and reduce workforce at. I feel like at the same time, we've got premium brands that need to increase their workforce because Gucci still has 10 million pieces of monthly traffic.[00:37:49] How do you provide that high touch service to all of those people? I think there's going to be a [00:37:54] massive need to flux the skillsets and hopefully it can become more of a career again, that stable, I only time will tell, [00:38:03] Brandon Rael: Casey and everyone would the, the fact that the intangibles that matter as well, especially luxury and fashion, as it relate to the customer and the emotional intelligence that is needed in the marketplace, to understand the customer's needs to have empathy, to build community, to build relationships that extend beyond just an AI/AR.[00:38:22] Machine learning model, but that's certainly it can be there, but, end of the day, it's about relationships and one-to-one personalized selling whether it's through digital channels or in person, and that's not the Walmart model, but for sure, but for the luxury market, it's great. [00:38:36] Ricardo Belmar: That's a good point, Brandon. [00:38:38][00:38:38] How Do We Use Digital to Solve Analog Problems?[00:38:38] Ricardo Belmar: We brought a couple of folks up to the stage with a, hopefully some questions for us. Michael, welcome to the stage. No stranger to the retail razor club.[00:38:45] Michael Zakkour: Hey Ricardo. Hey guys. The only thing I want to posit is. [00:38:51] That technology is the means to the end. It's not [00:38:54] the end. Right? So when we think about the frontline worker and the empowerment that technology data, AI, VR, AR will give them in the workplace. Ultimately, I go with what Ron's saying it's to empower great frontline employees, great frontline workers who want to move up through the organization. The technology is about applying digital means to solve analog problems. So when I think about what's going on in the rest of the world today. You look in China where somebody sits down at the salon and they sit in the hairdresser's chair and they're looking at an AR extended reality, augmented reality mirror.[00:39:39] And they can see their head with every kind of color cut style, whatever they go through a million permutations. Ultimately that technology is empowering the hairdresser to better serve the frontline consumer.[00:39:54][00:39:54] And I just wanted to chime in and say, it's not an either, or for me it's how do we use technology and how do we use AI and data? How do we use digital to solve analog problems? That's what this is about for me.[00:40:07] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah. I think an excellent point. I'm going to put it to the panel here, Ron and everyone went, what do you think.[00:40:13] Casey Golden: I'm going to, I feel like there's a lot of solutions out in the marketplace, but at the end of the day, they have to be implemented and sold in. I have had several conversations with people saying, this is exactly where we want to go. We've loved this, but we're not there yet. We're still working on basics and it's like, why are you spending money on basics instead of spending money on things that generate revenue and value and fill in the basics afterwards, we can build basics while you're making revenue.[00:40:48] That's the biggest struggle of any of these tech companies. Being able to create these solutions is to be [00:40:54] able to have proof of concept and run at scale. And it's really hard for a lot of them to get in, and, and actually adopt and roll out the entire software.[00:41:07] Brandon Rael: I think Casey, you touched on a critical point, change management and organizational change are the most critical components of any adoption of any innovative technology solutions that will drive a better associate experience or customer experience. And, it's been a challenge in my field as an advisor and consultant a critical part of our, our transformation work is around change management.[00:41:29] And without that adoption rates. Be very minimal and most transformations fail for that matter. The cultural obstacles and challenges of the companies are not ready to change or understand the imperative to change. So the why is that they can pick and pull it there. [00:41:44] Casey Golden: Yeah. I mean, we need to be able to build with customers and with real use case scenarios and do AB testing. And I feel like a lot of brands expect [00:41:54] everything to have already been done and working, even though they haven't had the chance to do it in real time with those brands that have real use cases.[00:42:05] So it's hard to have innovation and technology go when the sales cycle is too slow or traction numbers are too slow because. That's how you build tech, right? I'm not building just to sit on my server. [00:42:16] Ricardo Belmar: No one ever said it was easy. [00:42:17] Trevor Sumner: Yeah. And what I think is really interesting is I think that kind of COVID has, is because retailers and brands have had to more fiercely collaborate around data inventory, supply chain, because of the need to create, you know, omni-channel delivery and BOPIS and all these different things that we actually do need real-time data on a per store basis about what's going on at a product level.[00:42:40] I actually do need all the products and the skews and all the data about those products to be available and, have integrity and I think what's really interesting to me is that some of the foundations that we're missing to [00:42:54] be able to execute on this plan are now starting to be in place so that we can get to these kind of higher level experiences, these higher level technologies and you know, given all the money flowing into retail right now I think there's going to be the cash to actually do [00:43:06] Casey Golden: I agree the next two years is going to be, really fun [00:43:09] Ricardo Belmar: absolutely, absolutely wildly it's going to happen and the embracing of technology to facilitate that change.[00:43:16] What I like to say is that it's finally expected to happen in a way that's not going to be technology for the sake of technology. It's going to be technology with the purpose and ideally technology that's seamless and as well as transparent. So it doesn't get in the way it just helps accomplish something.[00:43:32] So with that, let me move on to Neil, I think you were the next one up on stage. You had a question or comment for us.[00:43:37][00:43:37] Is Tech Disrupting Human to Human Connection? [00:43:37] Neil Redding: Yeah. Thanks so much, Ricardo. [00:43:39] It's great to be here I'm Neil Redding. I run a boutique consultancy called Redding futures, which is really focused on creating holistically integrated digital and physical ecosystems around brands. And we've done a lot of work for retail clients over the years. Ron and I had a [00:43:54]conversation this past week where I think I just expressed my fundamental enthusiasm about technology in this whole context.[00:44:01] But what's funny to me is, earlier in the conversation, listening to the discussion about Walmart deploying all of these phones into the hands of store associates, I felt actually a little bit sad because I also am super passionate and just love the quality of human interaction that comes when technology is not a mediator.[00:44:24] And I've been thinking a lot during this conversation about, and I guess I'm also excited about the next few years about how technology can fade a bit into the background when we are physically together. And I suppose I'm old enough to not find a. Being on my smartphone, but someone standing next to me on their smartphone, you know I find that sort of a substandard kind of quality of interaction at the human level that I I'm excited to see how [00:44:54] yeah, AR and sensors and spaces and various other kinds of technologies and gather the data that's needed, that we've talked so much about in this conversation and provide access to, all this cloud-based information about products and services, inventory, and so on.[00:45:10] Well also getting out of the way the allowing humans to have when they're physically together have a really rich interaction. So I guess if there's a question in there, I'm curious about those of you who are paying close attention to having phones in hands. You know, when you're a store associate at a customer, is there any thought going in yet to that context or that use case to how that can be done?[00:45:34] While minimally disrupting the human to human connection, you know? [00:45:37] Shish Shridhar: So, so that's one of the areas that have been working with a bunch of startups that have alternatives. And specifically for the scenario that you described, where many retailers are reluctant to have the store associates walking around with the phone and using the phone [00:45:54] appear distracted and not interested in the customer.[00:45:57] And you're right. It creates that barrier. Between the customer and the store associates and makes them unapproachable. And as resolved, they're looking at alternatives to bonds that have seen headsets is one of them, which is still a question of whether that makes you unapproachable.[00:46:12] And the one that I particularly like is from a startup called Turnpike, and they use thing variables, which is the watches, but they can get information. It is discreet in a way where there is constant information flow on tasks and, and aisle clean ups or replenishing products and all those things keep coming in, but they're not, holding a phone or appear distracted.[00:46:37] And I see other technologies coming in as well as we progress that will kind of make it sort of invisible. And I think it's all about that, the best technologies invisible and they are heading towards that direction, moving away from [00:46:54] a device that is, making the store associates unapproachable and creating that barrier. [00:47:00] Ron Thurston: Hi Neil. I would just add, I don't think the challenge, isn't the technology and using it. The challenge is great store leadership as someone that can spends a lot of time in stores and coaching leaders, a great leader on the floor manager on duty, whatever terminology you want to use, you're observing the interactions, you're coaching the team.[00:47:20] You're seeing who's paying attention and who who's not, you're fully engaged, which comes from great training, but I've actually liked to provide the opportunity for the technology when necessary, but at the same time kind of be involved as a leader and coach and, and say it's time to put it away and time to bring it out.[00:47:41] And I, I love that idea that we can actually do both with well-trained leaders in our retail space. [00:47:47] Ricardo Belmar: I think that really underscores the point that the ability to really recognize what [00:47:54] frontline workers mean to the brand really does start at the top of the management chain.[00:47:58] Just like the corporate culture that's established in any organization also starts at the top. And if those things don't align, then you're not going to get the results that you want to see from that frontline staff, because they're in turn, not going to recognize what you're hoping will recognize out of the organization, because you're just not delivering it to them in the first place.[00:48:18] So you can't get what you don't give back. And in a sense, and I think that's pretty much reflected there. [00:48:24] Casey Golden: Hundred percent. [00:48:24] Ron Thurston: Yeah. I don't want to give Cathy the floor, but I'm looking at the, my homepage on LinkedIn. The number two story is why retail workers on why they fled. And I clicked into it and the stories are horrendous about the way they were treated, , from their leaders and quotas.[00:48:40] And yeah, I mean, it pains me to even read these when I think about the power of retail, but it's the number two story on LinkedIn. Like we have so much work to do as leaders. I put it back on the, I put it back on all of us that work in [00:48:54] stores. Our responsibility is to lead these teams in a way that engages and that they're proud to work for who they work for and the leaders that are around them.[00:49:03] And they're getting trained and they're being inspired and they're doing better every day. These stories are, and they're from a variety of different brands. They're terrible. I mean, God forbid you go on Glassdoor. That's even worse, but I mean, just. The story was posted on LinkedIn and now it's trending, it really pains me and we can do better.[00:49:23] We have to do better. And this is, this is the future of our industry tech or not these stories about how retail employees are treated is the future of this growth and all this money that's being fueled into it, or the continued bad news and high turnover rates. It's really like this just put me in a spin right now, but I think it's really critical.[00:49:47] Casey Golden: Or what is it titled? Is it on your LinkedIn? [00:49:49] Ron Thurston: Yeah, it's, it's on, you know, where it says LinkedIn news. It says retail [00:49:54] workers on why they fled. [00:49:55] Casey Golden: Okay. I've just been hearing some horror stories myself. I interview about a hundred people every two weeks. We have these massive rooms and then everybody breaks out into segmented, next group interviews and it's been absolutely horrendous. [00:50:10] Some of the things that I've heard and there's been a lot of highlight lately on wellness and a lot of corporate culture and brain culture around wellness and providing services to your employees and things of that nature. But it's only for corporate it's for corporate employees.[00:50:27] It's not for the retail associates that work in the stores. They don't get summer Fridays. They don't get the wellness program. They don't have access to so much. That's part of corporate. It's like, they're all, they've always been like the ugly redheaded stepsister. That's just kind of been used in a lot of ways.[00:50:45] And they're, they're brilliant. They've got so much information. I really think that this is the time where they're able to get the recognition and support that they've [00:50:54] deserved for the last 50 years. And start being part of corporate. [00:50:57] Ricardo Belmar: Ron I know you get asked this question all the time, but as you raised a moment ago, it does require the right leadership for these things.[00:51:08] And you have to start asking why don't we see more leaders come out and say the things that you're saying about frontline workers and giving the reasons why we need to change the way we look at the front line. And I know they're out there. I know they exist. I've talked to other retail leaders who agree in principle, what's executed is not always aligned with the principle of what they believe, but I have to say that, the evidence makes it seem that there just aren't enough of those leaders.[00:51:36] Why do you think that is?[00:51:37] Ron Thurston: Yeah, I I think often by the time. you've. Maybe ended up in those positions where you're, you are the decision-maker you were likely didn't come from stores. And so I don't know that you have a full grasp of actually what it means to do this work [00:51:54] every day and to experience it and, spending a few days a month or sometimes less just doing store visits, which is, always the show and the entourage as we used to call it, is that that's not enough to know what's going on.[00:52:09] And so I think more of more people like myself that grew up from sales to heads of stores, we have to be the ones that speak because we understand it. And sometimes that's not always the case, but even if you didn't the ability to find your voice and speak for all of them, that can't, that don't have that voice or the ability to influence change again, I'm sure all these Walmart employees are really happy. And most of them, I should say, but they can't influence change the decision makers influence change, and we have to be able to listen and learn and make the tough decisions sometimes, which is in the benefit and, and the cost investment of doing the right things for our store [00:52:54] teams.[00:52:54] And I, want to be someone that actually encourages other heads of stores to talk about it because that's how we'll make a difference in our industry for all of these people writing these things about their experience working in retail. [00:53:06] Ricardo Belmar: Yeah, you're absolutely right. It does require all of us to, in a sense fight for the industry and raise the issues that need to be raised and also highlight the positives that, that just don't get highlighted enough in order to shift the mindset.[00:53:19] How Does Adoption Factor Into Successful Tech Deployment?[00:53:19] Ricardo Belmar: All right. Let me have a couple more folks up on the audience, Cathy welcome to the stage.[00:53:23] Cathy McCabe: Hi. Hi, good to see everybody. I'm Cathy CEO of Proximity Insight, and we're a clienteling and a tool really to sort of do all of those things about connecting and helping stores to connect and transact with their customers. [00:53:38] There were a couple of points around adoption. And obviously because we have a tool that's very much there to, to help, to deliver sales associates, to have as much information at their fingertips as possible so that they can serve the customer more adoption is absolutely key.[00:53:53] And there are [00:53:54] definitely ways in which you can ensure that adoption and onboarding is as seamless as possible and is easy for the store teams. To be embraced, from the top down and you have to be able to also share the successes.[00:54:07] And if you don't, you know, if it's not just a project that you stick in and then walk away and move on to the next project, it has to be something that becomes your DNA and part of what you're doing as a brand and very sort of your purpose, your values that you wrap around the tools and the tools aren't there.[00:54:24] It's not the tech, the tech is gives you the capability, but you have to deliver the why, why you're using it, what it's there for, how you're, how you're going to use it. [00:54:34] And I think one of the other things that I just wanted to say, cause it's, there's so many points that resonated. Really interesting point. We're actually seeing some of our brands investing in more people on the shop floor now because they're giving them tools to be able to connect to not just the person that's in the store, but also [00:54:54] the people that you know, that the customers that are online and therefore, you know, the demand is there to be able to actually speak to a person, to show them the product, to, sort of talk about their expertise and share their knowledge and information, and to be able to, find those items that someone's looking for.[00:55:12] And actually now we're seeing that they're actually investing more in their teams. So. All of the automation that AI that goes into the backend of the tool and is then surface to help the store teams to, to connect more and ultimately to transact more, you know, we're seeing them actually investing more on the sales floor, which is a great, a great place to be.[00:55:32] Ricardo Belmar: Thanks Cathy for those comments. I agree. I think this, as, many of us now on the stage have said, and this is a really great industry and there are so many positives to be drawn from it and so much that it contributes to, so many other industries. And I think it's just unfortunate that we don't necessarily all say collectively do enough to highlight the benefits and the positives.[00:55:53] I

Neil Redding is the Founder and CEO of Redding Futures.  His forward thinking method, the Near Future Framework allows companies to innovate in time of uncertainty and test ideas quickly and easily before implementing

About this episode's guest: Neil Redding is Founder and CEO of Redding Futures—a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to engage powerfully with the Near Future. His rare multidisciplinary perspective draws on the craft of software engineering, the art of brand narrative and expression, and the practice of digital-physical experience strategy. Prior to founding […]

The Tech Humanist Show explores how data and technology shape the human experience. It's recorded live each week in a live-streamed video program before it's made available in audio format. Hosted by Kate O’Neill. About this episode's guest: Neil Redding is Founder and CEO of Redding Futures—a boutique consultancy that enables brands and businesses to engage powerfully with the Near Future. His rare multidisciplinary perspective draws on the craft of software engineering, the art of brand narrative and expression, and the practice of digital-physical experience strategy. Prior to founding Redding Futures, Neil held leadership roles at Mediacom, Proximity/BBDO, Gensler, ThoughtWorks and Lab49. He tweets as @neilredding. This episode streamed live on Thursday, October 15, 2020.

EPISODE 010 SHOW NOTES: Episode 010 covers XR in Retail and features an interview with Ed McCabe of Zebra Technologies, who discusses how AR headsets are improving efficiency in warehouses, the use of AR for picking and stocking, how XR is driving immersive brand experiences, and what consumers might expect to see this 2019 Holiday Shopping season. Also discussed are Neil Redding and Tony Parisi’s Near Future of Retail Project and small businesses getting started in AR. Augmented Reality Experiences Will Save Brick and Mortar Retail by Tom Emrich SnapChat Lego Wear Store Near Future of Retail at Medium Neil Redding, Near Future of Retail, Redding Futures The Top 10 Technology Trends In Retail: How Tech Will Transform Shopping In 2020 by Bernard Marr at Forbes How to Afford an Augmented Reality Solution as a Small Business by Nar Poghos Katelyn Coghlan, Mezmos, The Glimpse Group Ed McCabe Zebra Technologies NFL Next Gen Stats Call Recording: Anchor Podcasting: Anchor Recording: Logic Pro X Music: "Christmas Shopping" by Buck Owens and His Buckaroos Hosted and Produced by Liam James O'Malley at Mars & Mercury --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The way we interact with computers has transformed, from the classic keyboard-screen combination, to touchscreen and latterly — with the advent of digital personal assistants — to voice. These changing interfaces bring with them new challenges in creating software. In this episode, regular co-hosts Alexey Villas Boas and Mike Mason are joined by Neil Redding and Barbara Wolff Dick as they explore the impact of innovation in our computer interfaces.  

Tonight we listen to Taz Brian Grant and his band the Taz Band live on IPTV's Studio Three.  I am not sure of the date, but I would put it in the  mid 90s.  It features Taz on guitar and vocals with Ed Eaves on bass, Missy DeYoung on saxaphone, Jeff Ward on trumpet, and an unknown Neil Redding on drums and Bryan Martens on keys.   This show features Taz's feel good hit of the Summer of 94 You Take My Blues Away as well as many others.   Please like, subscribe, share, and comment.  If on podbean please follow.   THANKS!!!!

Food Talk with Mike Colameco is brought to you by the following generous underwriters: This week on Food Talk with Michael Colameco, host Mike Colameco welcomes Ariane Daguin of D’Artagnan and Eugenia Bone, author of “The Kitchen Ecosystem.” Ariane tells Mike her thinking behind starting D’Artagnan. Since 1985, D’Artagnan has been dedicated to putting the finest meats, mushrooms and truffles on the tables of American gastronomes and was really one of the first of its kind to introduce high end ingredients to the masses. Mike and Ariane reminisce on the New York scene at D’Artagnan’s start and also chat about what’s on the horizon for the iconic food purveyor. After the break, Mike chats with author Eugenia Bone about the New York Mycological Society’s upcoming banquet. Along with her are Neil Redding and Chef Ben Walmer, who will be responsible for some of the cooking at the society’s annual banquet. Talking all about cooking with quality mushrooms, Mike gets a preview of delicious dishes to be served at the banquet plus other interesting things that the New York Mycological Society does throughout the year. “There are two ways of doing free range: the cheap way of doing it in quantity and the right way. We think about that constantly at D’Artagnan. We want to grow but don’t want to compromise anything.” [25:00] —Ariane Daguin on Food Talk