Shop! MasterClass

Shop! MasterClass: A Thought Leadership Series

Join us for our MasterClass series, which brings together our industry leaders to discuss topics that are impacting retail design, POP display, in-store experience through technology, and many other issues in the industry.

February 2023

Ken Nisch — Sustainability For Retail: A Fresh Look

Ken Nisch, author of “Sustainability for Retail: How Retail Leaders Create Environmental, Social, & Cultural Innovations,” will lead a panel discussion on evolving sustainability practices at retail. This MasterClass will touch on a number of facets relating to retail sustainability — including recent trends — while offering business leaders practical solutions on how to incorporate sustainability practices in ways that work for everyone.

As the Chairman of JGA, Ken Nisch has focused his efforts developing branded environments and consumer strategies, working with clients including Sundance, Blue Nile, Hershey’s Chocolate World, Sleep Number, Disney, McCormick, Allen Edmonds, H&M, Museum of Arts and Design, The North Face, James Avery, The Clinic, Crabtree & Evelyn, Whole Foods Market; and internationally for Big Bazaar, Westside, LP Jeans, Linen Club, Future Group, Cacau Show, Grupo Cortefiel, Sandals Resorts, and Fantasy World.  JGA creates inspired environments and does so across a variety of venues including entertainment, attraction, and of course, traditional retail.

June 2023

Eric Feigenbaum — Leadership, Empathy, and a Noble Cause

Retail is at a pivot point, and as we look toward the future, brand leaders must ask an existential question: Why are we here? The time is now for courageous retailers to stand up for more noble causes. It’s time to focus on human value rather than monetary worth. It’s time to focus on the capital of caring.

Eric Feigenbaum is a recognized leader in the visual merchandising and store design industries with both domestic and international design experience. He served as corporate director of visual merchandising for Stern’s Department Store, a division of Federated Department Stores, from 1986 to 1995. After Stern’s, he assumed the position of director of visual merchandising for WalkerGroup/CNI, an architectural design firm in New York City. Feigenbaum was also an adjunct professor of Store Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology and formerly served as the chair of the Visual Merchandising Department at LIM College (New York) from 2000 to 2015. In addition to being the New York Editor of VMSD magazine, Eric is also a founding member of PAVE (A Partnership for Planning and Visual Education). Currently, he is also president and director of creative services for his own retail design company, Embrace Design.

August 2023

Carly Hagedon — The Latest in In-Store Retail Trends

While many modern retail trends and buzzwords involve realms outside the physical space, it’s still clear that brick-and-mortar retail is here to stay. But that’s not to say it’s not evolving, as well. Longtime VMSD magazine Managing Editor Carly Hagedon will take you on a trip through the most recent trends she’s seen during the last few years. Discover what trends are being used to create a retail “experience,” how some stores are using tech in a thoughtful, original way, and much more.

Carly Hagedon is Managing Editor of VMSD magazine, a leading retail design magazine for nearly 125 years now. Carly has been with VMSD for 10 years. In addition to her editorial experience in retail design, she is also Co-Chair of the International Retail Design Conference. Carly has also sat on the board of the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) since 2015.

Date TBA

Hannah Grady Williams — Attracting Gen Z Talent

Join Hannah Grady Williams, The Gen Z CEO Advisor, Founder of Analog Academy and author of “A Leader’s Guide to Unlocking Gen Z,” to discover specific ways to attract Gen Z talent through job design, reaching into “Gen Z spheres” to meet them where they are, and speaking their language. You’ll leave with innovative ideas for how to reach the next generation and recruit the best and brightest talent.

Hannah Grady Williams’s story began in a blue pick-up truck when her father handed 12-year-old Hannah the phone and asked her to close a deal on an investment property. After this unexpected introduction to the world of entrepreneurship, she enrolled in college at age 14 and graduated with a degree in international business at age 18. Now, as a 24-year-old Gen Z’er, she has consulted businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies and is on a mission to help 10,000 companies transform the way they work, think, and play, helping them transition from the Native Analog to Native Digital worlds. Hannah’s the host of the Native Digital + Native Analog show, a top-charting podcast on Apple, author of A Leader’s Guide to Unlocking Gen Z, and the founder of ANALOG ACADEMY, where Native Analog leaders become Native Digital fluent.

Questions? Email info@shopasssociation.org or call 212-981-0245.