Retailers Take Center Stage at the 2023 CMA | SIMA Conference
Category Management Association
Professional Association helping members drive meaningful category and brand growth by building shopper satisfaction.
November 30, 2022
The CMA|SIMA is pleased to announce the?2023 Annual Category Management & Shopper Insights Conference?taking place at the luxurious Caesars Palace on the bustling Las Vegas, NV strip. The success of our 2022 CMA|SIMA Conference was a testament to our ability to bring back our industry safely and successfully in person to learn, connect and celebrate with the over 220 companies represented. We’ve ensured a healthy variety of retailer representation with speakers from 亚马逊 , 沃尔玛 , Whole Foods Market , 家得宝 Depot, and are featuring an entire track of content on specific retail channels.
This year’s conference theme is “Activating Insights for a Dynamic Future” to reflect the proliferation of data and insights in our industry and how to make that data actionable in an ever-changing retail environment. Loyalty card, panel, eCommerce datasets, and more continue to add complexity to the category management process, and our Conference aims to help our members harness that power. With 5 incredible tracks framing our conference, we are excited to provide a mix of keynotes, workshops, breakout sessions and other learning opportunities. The 50,000 sq ft ballroom will be the center for our Tech Expo Hall and the home for all meals and lots of fun networking opportunities.
In this week’s blog, we’ll take a look at each of the 5 content tracks and let you know what to expect as we continue to reveal our speaker lineup in the coming weeks!
Track 1: Category Management and Shopper Insights Fundamentals
Our first track of sessions is dedicated to the novices and newcomers to the industry, a large cohort at the conference every year. A series of presentations on category management, shopper insights, and eCommerce fundamentals will be included in this track. These include CatMan 3.0 basics, the state of omnichannel shopper behavior, tips for running small/lean teams, and more. We will also feature workshops around storytelling with data and shopper myth-busting in this track.
Track 2: Advanced eCommerce
Now that CatMan 3.0 has been released by the CMA and SIMA, the adoption of omnichannel category management is underway. As eCommerce has grown in importance as a retail channel, these sessions move beyond the basics to more advanced omnichannel principles and best practices. We’ll hear from experts on how to translate the 4Ps to digital, the variety (and evolving) analytics opportunities on Amazon, understanding impulse in the digital word and more. Most importantly, attendees will walk away from these sessions better equipped to practice category management holistically across channels.
Track 3: Retail Channel Specific Insights
Retail channels span mass, club, dollar, drug, traditional grocery, natural, c-stores, beauty, home improvement, automotive aftermarket, and more. Our members regularly tell us they’d like more deep dives on specific retail channels, so this year’s conference plans to deliver. We’ll feature industry experts on the natural channel from SPINS, value/dollar from an ex-Dollar General Vice President/DMM of Merchandising, and more. If you are a retailer or manufacturer exclusively playing in a single retail channel, considering expanding into a new space, or just want to learn, this track is for you.
Track 4: Building the Skillsets of Tomorrow
Our 4th track is grounded in the individual, helping all those in category management and shopper insights further their specific skillset from analyst to director/VP level. Resources to help with career development, manage teams, navigate remote/hybrid work, and more will be featured within this track. We also plan to include hands-on workshops for building your personal brand and putting industry technology into practice.
Track 5: Space Planning
Space Management as a focused discipline does not get the resourcing it deserves in building out content, creating common language and assessments, and sharing best practices that are technology agnostic. ARC, the Association for Retail and Consumer Professionals and parent of CMA and SIMA, has launched a Charter group to provide a community for space planning professionals. Members of the Charter will share technology agnostic best practices to increase space productivity and maximize space in the omnichannel environment, including representatives from Walmart, Home Depot, Whole Foods, and more.
Conference content will be rounded out with experts in “Emerging Technologies” to spotlight cutting edge CatMan and Shopper Insights solutions, including AI/ML (Machine Learning), VR (Virtual Reality), and other exciting developments. Keynotes will include a macroeconomic futurist, head of product management tech at Amazon, the SupermarketGuru Phil Lempert, and more.
We couldn’t be more excited to bring you this incredible lineup of industry leading content at the 2023 CMA|SIMA Conference. Stay tuned over the coming weeks as we begin to reveal our keynote and breakout speakers and sessions for the show!?Be sure and reserve your spot at our 2023 Conference today. Take advantage of early bird pricing before 12/31/22.
Do you have a great case study or solution you’d like to share? It’s not too late! We’re still accepting applications for breakout speakers.?Send us your application today before the final slots fill up!