My NRF POV: The Exhibit Hall is Why 40K People Flock to New York every January

When it comes to the annual NRF convention, people in the retail industry are a lot like postal carriers. As engraved on the James A. Farley Post Office just a few short blocks away from the Jacob Javits Convention Center, “Neither snow nor rain nor sleet shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.” Retail industry people are much the same as those immortalized mail carriers: Every year they make their way from around the globe to gather for the retail industry’s biggest event.

What is it about this conference, this “show,” that brings people from far and wide to New York City every January? What compels them to brave the weather, the flight delays, the winter-enhanced turbulence once in flight, the crowds, the traffic getting into the city and the long days spent on their feet?

Is it the content presented on the many stages of NRF? Certainly, that’s part of the draw. NRF represents a unique opportunity to hear (and learn) from some of retail’s most innovative and iconic brands. The agenda this year included sessions from Nordstrom, Burberry, Walmart, Target, Morrisons, Macy’s and Best Buy to name just a few.

While the content is definitely part of the appeal, I suspect content alone isn’t enough to compel 40,000 people to make the trek. Even with one of the stars of Netflix’s “Selling Sunset” on the agenda to attract the interest of some of our more celebrity-obsessed colleagues and peers, I don’t think content alone was enough.

That’s because content is everywhere. We all know how ubiquitous content is today. Just scan your inbox if you need evidence of that. Even some of the sessions on the NRF agenda were promoted as recordings for upcoming podcast episodes. So, if you missed the session live, no worries, the new episode of the pod will drop later in the week! No, it wasn’t just the content.

If not the content, then what? The networking? I mean, sure, the networking is legit. But with more than 310 million active monthly users on LinkedIn, networking isn’t the main draw, either. Networking isn’t enough to get most people to traverse states, countries and oceans for this event.

Instead, I believe that the real attraction of the event for many of those 40,000 people – although few of them will admit it publicly – is the exhibit hall. Yes, the exhibit hall. Where else can one go to find more than 1,000 of the industry’s technology vendors in one place? Well, OK, I suppose you just need to check your inbox again to find many of those 1,000 vendors every day of the week. That’s fair. But other than your inbox, where else can you go to seek out the vendors that have solutions and technologies that are of interest to you right now? Where else can you go to curate a highly personalized agenda of conversations that suit your specific needs at this specific time? Where else can you investigate as many of those 1,000 vendors as time permits?

And what did NRF attendees see as they roamed the many aisles of the exhibit hall? Actually, that isn’t the right question. The right question is, instead, what did attendees experience as they roamed the aisles of the exhibit hall? Because the exhibit hall was full of experiences brought to life for the three days of the show. Experiences that you just can’t get in your inbox. The exhibit hall was full of hands-on experiences with the technology that many of those sessions predicted would drive the near future of retail. These were experiences that gave people an opportunity to touch, feel and sense how these technologies will impact their stores, their customers, their businesses.

At Aptos, we went <all in> to bring the experience of the modern store powered by Aptos ONE, our modern POS platform, to life. We merchandised hundreds of custom graphic tees, trendy trucker hats and tasty Swedish candy in a true-to-life store setting so people could immerse themselves in the types of experiences they could deliver in their stores with the most feature-rich modern POS platform in hand.

We integrated loyalty rewards, omnichannel selling, personalized recommendations and real-time, AI-powered analytics into the experience. We integrated “behind the scenes” content that described the role an integrated enterprise plays in the experience.

And of course we integrated our customers into the experience. Executives from WSS, Cole Haan and The North Face all spoke from within our in-booth theater about their experiences with Aptos ONE in their stores. Our newest Aptos ONE client, Buckle, spent time during the show talking to attendees about why they invested in our modern POS platform.

While I don’t have the space here to describe every facet of the experience, I do have the space to thank all those people who braved the weather and the travel to make the trek to the show. And I hope those who included Aptos on their tours of the exhibit hall felt their experience with us was worth the journey. I hope they scored a fun graphic tee or hat while they were visiting. Finally, I hope we see you again soon, wherever your business calls home.