Martine Reardon, senior advisor for retail insights and content creation for NRF speaking at Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific.
NRF has successfully expanded its trademark event, Retail’s Big Show, to one of the world’s fastest growing markets: Asia Pacific.
In June, NRF hosted its first-ever Retail’s Big Show Asia Pacific, bringing 7,000 business leaders and nearly 300 technology providers to Singapore’s iconic Sands Expo and Convention Centre for three days of premier programming with the latest industry innovations and insights.
Why Singapore?
Read more on the takeaways from NRF’s inaugural Big Show Asia Pacific.
“One of the considerations was: Where is retail really growing? And Singapore happens to be a mini retail-mecca, if you will,” says Martine Reardon, senior advisor for retail insights and content creation for NRF, on this episode of Retail Gets Real.
For a small island nation of approximately five million people, “the amount of retail that was there was just not to be believed,” she says.
“When you see the strength of retail and how it’s growing, and you see a city with an airport and an infrastructure that is easy for people to get to … and the world of technology that actually exists in Singapore, it was by far the right place for us to start our inaugural event there.”
NRF took many of the same programming components from Retail’s Big Show in New York City and replicated them for the APAC audience — just on a smaller scale. “There were definite nuances to how these shows expressed ways of growing your business that some were similar, some were not so similar,” Reardon says. “When you look at both shows as a whole — lots of common themes, but different outcomes from how a retailer or another business might be using it.”
After a highly successful inaugural year, NRF will be returning to Singapore for an even bigger Big Show Asia Pacific next year, Reardon says. “I’m most excited about the number of people that we’re going to be able to bring in next year and make our exhibit space even bigger and better,” she says.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about the 2024 edition of Retail’s Big Show APAC, including the warm reception and enthusiasm from the Singapore contingent, and more plans for Big Show APAC 2025.
The retail industry impacts everyone, everywhere, every day.
NRF’s podcast features unfiltered, insightful conversations with the industry’s most interesting people. Hear retail executives, industry experts, entrepreneurs and influencers discuss trends, their career stories and the future of retail.
Subscribe to NRF's Retail Gets Real podcast
Apple | Spotify
Related content
