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Shop! Ideation and Retail Challenge took place from Oct. 7-8, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. With a lineup of industry leaders as speakers and the annual Retail Challenge, this year’s program highlighted a variety of topics relevant to the evolving retail industry.

Kicking off the first day of Shop! Ideation and Challenge was the keynote, presented by Brett Townsend. Townsend highlighted how brands evolve to incorporate meaningful storytelling to their campaigns.

Jon Arriaza of Chase Design Group (pictured) and Adam Hanson of Häagen-Dazs then spoke about how Häagen-Dazs incorporated its new brand design.

Hanson (pictured) and Arriaza highlighted how communication to customers was key to the successful rebrand.

After the speaker sessions, the evening started with a networking reception.

Hosted at the Marriott Downtown Kansas City, the reception included cocktails and appetizers.

Attendees of Shop! Ideation + Retail Challenge included retailers, industry leaders, designers, suppliers and more.

To start the second day and the 2024 Retail Challenge, Marcelo Kertész of Manscaped discussed the brand and how it captures attention across in-store and digital platforms.

Manscaped was the focus of this year’s Retail Challenge, and teams would need to blend humorous and creative designs with practicality.

For the third year, Bevan Bloemendaal inspired the teams and helped guide them throughout the day. The winning team will have their project built at Shop! Marketplace taking place April 8-10, 2025, hosted in Charlotte, NC.

With Manscaped, a men’s grooming company, as the subject of this year’s challenge, Bloemendal highlighted a few of Shop! Ideation’s best facial hair.

With eight hours on the clock, the 2024 Shop! Retail Challenge began.

The teams were challenged to create a new, mobile pop-up for the brand.

Each team received help from a representative from Manscaped to answer any questions about the brand and its strategy.

The teams also received Manscaped products to help them in their design process ­– as well as tennis balls to test the products on.

Throughout the day, teams collaborated on different designs, specified details and fixed last-minute obstacles.

The teams could include digital and physical aspects in their final design.

The teams kept the brand strategy of Manscaped in mind during their brainstorming sessions, throughout the design process and in their final presentations.

The teams were helmed by industry leaders and designers, and comprised of retailers, designers, suppliers, researchers and students.

With the teams’ final designs ready, they presented to a panel of judges, and the other teams.

The teams got creative, showing off their understanding of the brand and its products.

The winning team will have their design created at Shop! MarketPlace 2025.

As evening arrived, Shop! Ideation and Retail Challenge closed with dinner, reception and presentation from Bloemendaal who revealed the winning team.

The 2024 Retail Challenge winner is team 4, led by John Carvajal and Jamie Poulos.

Team 1

Eric Daniel, Little Diversified

Candace Kubicek, Lynx Innovation

Leslie Vickery, AT&T

Steve Alexander, MANSCAPED

Gina Walton, CD Companies

Adriana Dika, Tricarico Architecture & Design

Cindy Heigl, ROYAL

Jonathan Glanz, Dynamic Resources

Nick Hughes, Smurfit Westrock

Danielle Marzarella, Visual Elements

Ty Van Cuick, Universal Custom Display

John Tanner, Chase Design Group

Cynthia Granger, OPTO International

Melissa McDowell, Triad Manufacturing, Inc.

Jennifer Kosmide, MBH Arch

Team 2

Jon Arriaza, Chase Design Group

Jimmie Marco, Bish Creative

Heidi DeMers, Target

Henry Arlander, MANSCAPED

Andrea Grist, Florasource KC

Bernice Johnson, Brother Int’l Corporation

Faith Gustin, Oracle Netsuite

Desmond Chan, Visual Elements

Michael Gompf, Smurfit Westrock

Miho Koshido-Downey, DFab

Craig Pierce, Flower City Group

Oskar Kjorneberg, Visual Creations | Rose Displays

Jane Le, Visual Elements Manufacturing

Liz Cooper, Triad Manufacturing, Inc.

Patrick Graf, Great Northern Instore

Team 3

Mat Gurda, WD Partners

Bryan Meszaros, OpenEye Global

Scott Hill, Albertsons

Steven Arteaga, MANSCAPED

Bill Manoliadis, Tricarico Architecture & Design

Tara Hamel, Benoy

Jim Scarpone, Schimenti Construction

Ron Apel, Ex-Sell Canadian Instore Services

Kimberly Guyton, Hera Lighting

Troy Kowalski, Bish Creative

Randy Simmen, Visual Elements

Mike Morrison, WS Display

Jay Long, Visual Creations | Rose Displays

Annie Greenhouse, Sandro & Maje

Team 4

John Carvajal, Brother Int’l Corporation

Jamie Poulos, Opto International

Stephen Valdez, Tori Richard

Eli Everhart, EPS Specialties

Bill Kambol, MANSCAPED

Samantha Zeno, Brother Int’l Corporation

Maximus Coric, VIZEXbranding.com

Ryan Brevda, Ryan Scott, Inc.

Jennifer Gutierrez, The University of Kansas

Nick Harbaugh, Flexecution

Tom Pratt, Marketing Alliance Group

Jeff Van Vactor, Pratt Visual Solutions

Steve Varon, Crown Metal Manufacturing Co

Brian Thibault, MANSCAPED

Team 5

Nadine McLearon, D|Fab

MJ Munsell, MG2

Alison Bardin, Le Creuset

Charlie Wolff, MANSCAPED

Brett Townsend, Quester

Mindi Trank, Chute Gerdeman

Kimberly Capin, Smurfit Westrock

Bill Hawker, Elevate97

David Lee, Oracle Netsuite

Marc Roberts, Marketing Alliance Group

Stephen Hekman, Kingsmen Projects US

Christine Wright, McIntyre Manufacturing Group

Lee Wilkinson, EPS Specialties

Wesley Hooker, Outform

Team 6

David Kepron, Aedifica

Lena Lim, B&N Industries

Ken McQuade, Target

George Povich, Edo Agency

Cynthia Ortiz, MBH Arch

Jillian Kellas, Dynamic Resources Inc.

Christopher Henderson, Visual Elements

Jerry Schiro, OPTO International

Anthony Vitiello, Innomark Communications

Nanci Bergman, MANSCAPED

RJ Dadd, Retail Elements LLC

Michael Fuchs, Great Northern Corporation

Shop! Ideation + Retail Challenge 2024: Photo Gallery

Shop! Ideation + Retail Challenge 2024: Photo Gallery

Shop! Ideation and Retail Challenge took place from Oct. 7-8, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. With a lineup of industry leaders as speakers and the annual Retail Challenge, this year’s program highlighted a variety of topics relevant to the evolving retail industry.