Get inspired: Spend the afternoon before we officially kick off Ideation’s educational sessions with an engaging offsite tour at the Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden. Attendees will have a chance to go on a guided  our of “Five Ways In: Themes from the Collection,” through Galleries 4, 5 and 6, featuring more than 100 paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and video installations. Guests are also invited to take a jaunt around the adjoining Sculpture Garden which features the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture. Learn more by visiting walkerart.org.

 In the current retail landscape, it’s important that stores and brands emotionally connect with customers. One of the simplest ways to achieve this is understanding experiences that truly make an impact on shoppers. In this session, presented by Michelle Adams of Marketing Brainology, discover how you can implement “NeuroMarketing,” which utilizes neuroscience tools, and understand how sensory elements are required to trigger our brains and build lasting memories.

Like many retailers, Target’s safety and security approach has evolved greatly with the ever-changing retail environment.  And as retail and external community environments have changed so has Target’s approach to ensure our teams and guests are safe while also making Target an easy place to shop.  As the company continues to expand into more dense urban centers, college campuses and new locations, safety and security has needed to adapt to meet the needs of our guests and team. In this session, Target will break down the current retail safety and shortage environment for stores and how they’re using physical design and technology to mitigate loss.

An “immersive retail experience” has been the buzzword for years, but really what does that mean for physical retail in a digital-first world? Through connected “physical-digital-human” experiences, brands can communicate their unique value in a way that is relatable to customers’ needs, influence purchasing decisions and forge life-long relationships. Join Angela Gearhart, the former VP Connected Retail Experience for Sleep Number, and currently the Executive Consultant at AAG, where she’ll explore exclusive insights into retailers’ vantage points as she navigated the intricacies of developing and scaling experiential technology. Uncover strategies for suppliers seeking to forge lasting partnerships and secure business opportunities.

People shop in stores because they enjoy the experience, but shopping isn’t fun when you can’t afford what you want. Claire Tassin of Morning Consult will take a look at the latest economic trends as it relates to the retail industry. In this session, discover the impact of economic trends on consumer shopping behavior, and learn how to identify critical attributes that keep shoppers coming back to stores.

For today’s consumer, experiencing a frictionless retail journey is paramount: In this session, Liam O’Connell of Envirosell will explain how Big Y – a community minded grocery store – successfully embarked on a goal to better engage and communicate with shoppers. Beyond making things frictionless, the in-store experience needed to be enjoyable, and you can discover how this was accomplished via a new, robust signage strategy. Through examining real data and in-depth findings, explore how customers navigated the store post-refresh and how mobile eye-tracking played a crucial role.