Agenda
february 3 - 4, 2026 / fairmont RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
February 3 - 4, 2026
fairmont riyadh, saudi arabia
Click on each session for an expanded overview of the agenda
pre-events 2/2/2026
10.00 – 12.00 > NextGen Retail Challenge Pitch Day
12.00 – 15.30 > Retail Safari
19.00 – 21.00 > Opening Reception in partnership with Kering
10.00 – 12.00 NextGen Retail Challenge Pitch Day
12.00 – 15.30 Retail Safari
18.30 – 21.00 Opening Reception in partnership with Kering
day1 3/2/2026
Welcome Address
Opening Keynote
The Flow of Spend and the GCC Consumer Economy
As the GCC accelerates its integration into global travel, trade, and tourism flows, understanding how consumer spending evolves—at home and abroad—has become a strategic priority. What do shifting inbound and outbound spending patterns reveal about how demand is changing across Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC?
Geoeconomics and the New Consumer Economy at Crossroads
The global economic outlook has shifted, resetting assumptions about momentum, risk, and demand. This session offers a clear read on the global backdrop before turning to the Middle East, where macro trends and consumer dynamics are shifting in real time. It examines how the region’s economic choices are shaping demand and competitiveness, and what signals matter most for leaders navigating this next phase.
Engineering Growth in a Pressured Market
Softening demand, tighter economics, and regulatory shifts are redefining how retailers and consumer-facing companies pursue growth. Market leaders are balancing margin protection, footprint rationalization, and cost discipline with selective expansion, new formats, and sharper, data-led performance models. With volatility now a permanent feature—not a temporary phase—the challenge is to rebuild growth engines that are resilient, capital-efficient, and globally competitive. How can leaders convert pressure into strategic momentum and design growth models fit for the next cycle?
The Changing Economics of Retail Destinations
As new retail formats take shape, destination strategies are becoming more differentiated. The Kingdom’s retail landscape is entering a phase defined by choice, overlap, and sharper consumer expectations. Developers and owners are rethinking catchment logic, brand mix, and experience economics as scale alone no longer guarantees relevance. In a market where not every asset needs to be iconic, which choices create lasting value?
Making Saudi Retail Competitive
Saudi retail is growing fast, but competitiveness will be defined by more than scale or demand. Productivity, logistics efficiency, labor models, compliance complexity, and real estate economics now shape who can win and who cannot. How can policymakers and operators redesign the retail system so Saudi Arabia competes not just on growth, but on performance?
AI and the New Retail Leadership Agenda
Retail leadership is being redefined by intelligence, judgment, and scale. In a one on one conversation, Michael Chalhoub reflects on how CEOs pursue growth, deploy intelligence, and steer organizations through accelerating change while preserving what differentiates their brands.
Cracking the Value Equation for Billions
From India to the Gulf, the fastest-growing markets are redefining how growth is created, distributed, and sustained. Affordability, inclusion, and innovation now shape not just access, but how value is created across consumer segments—from mass to premium and luxury. This prime-time session explores how the industry can crack the value equation for billions.
From Disruption to Impact: How to Reap the Benefits of GenAI
GenAI is a truly disruptive technology—and unlocking real impact requires more than pilots or tools. It demands a deliberate rewiring of the organization: how work gets done, how decisions are made, and how value is measured. This speech shares practical operations examples that move the bottom line, then offers a clear framework to connect strategy, GenAI, and digital transformation to maximize results at scale.
The Business of Conversation
As retail moves from transaction to conversation, messaging platforms are emerging as a primary interface between consumers and brands. This shift raises a fundamental question: how can companies scale personal connection while maintaining trust and authenticity in an age when every message carries commercial intent?
The Platform for Local SME Growth in Saudi
As Saudi fashion talent accelerates, growth depends not only on creativity but on access to localized infrastructure and strategic enablement. This session explores how platforms like Trendyol move beyond sales channels to become long-term growth partners for local SMEs, through collaborations such as the one with fashion designer Nasiba Hafiz.
Cross-Border Commerce at a Turning Point
The GCC’s inbound e-commerce landscape is evolving as new regulatory frameworks take shape and industry players seek more balanced competition. With standards rising and platforms adapting to a more structured environment, this is a moment of strategic recalibration. What progress has been made, what challenges persist, and how should platforms, regulators, and retailers define the cross-border agenda for the years ahead?
Women Leaders and Their Journey in Retail & Luxury
The session brings together women leaders from the retail and luxury sectors to share their personal journeys, insights, and experiences navigating leadership, transformation, and influence. The discussion will explore how women drive change, engage senior stakeholders, and build impact in evolving organizations, while highlighting the challenges faced and lessons learned along the way.
The Visitor Economy and the Making of Tomorrow’s GCC Destinations
GCC destinations are entering a pivotal phase where tourism strategy, mixed-use development, and rising consumer expectations converge. Retail now sits at the center of destination competitiveness, shaping dwell time, perception, and long-term value. As investment and development accelerate, the focus is shifting from attracting visitors to sustaining engagement and repeat visitation. How can policymakers, developers, and operators align to build visitor-first destination experiences that endure?
New Ecosystems of Desire: Building Experiences Through Lifestyle Destinations
As consumers seek meaning, immersion, and emotional connection, lifestyle destinations are evolving beyond collections of stores into places designed to engage and inspire. This session examines how operators, investors, and curators shape destinations as ecosystems of desire, where retail, culture, environment, and storytelling work together to drive engagement and long-term relevance.
Inside the Premium Traveler Economy: Power, Spend, and the New Luxury Battleground
The premium traveler has become the luxury sector’s most influential customer, intensifying competition among brands, airports, hotels, and payment platforms. As experiential travel accelerates and loyalty is rebuilt through AI and personalization, advantage belongs to those who can deliver a seamless journey across borders. And as expectations rise and boundaries blur, one question looms: who will shape the premium traveler’s choices before someone else does?
Mixed-Use Developments of the Two Holy Cities
Makkah and Madinah are entering a new era of mixed-use development, where hospitality, retail, mobility, and services must integrate into one frictionless pilgrim ecosystem. As record visitor growth accelerates and major projects reshape the urban experience, the question is no longer how to build more space—but how to orchestrate value, movement, and spend across it. Which models of design, technology, and multi-operator collaboration will define the next generation of the Two Holy Cities?
The New Pilgrim Consumer
Pilgrims are now global, digitally fluent travelers whose expectations are shaped by both seamless apps and high-quality physical environments. As Saudi Arabia upgrades everything from mobility to mixed-use districts, the focus is shifting from facilitation to value creation. Which collaborations between government, developers, retailers, and platforms will define the next era of trust and spend in the pilgrim journey?
Mixed-Use Developments of the Two Holy Cities
Makkah and Madinah are entering a new era of mixed-use development, where hospitality, retail, mobility, and services must integrate into one frictionless pilgrim ecosystem. As record visitor growth accelerates and major projects reshape the urban experience, the question is no longer how to build more space—but how to orchestrate value, movement, and spend across it. Which models of design, technology, and multi-operator collaboration will define the next generation of the Two Holy Cities?
The New Pilgrim Consumer
Pilgrims are now global, digitally fluent travelers whose expectations are shaped by both seamless apps and high-quality physical environments. As Saudi Arabia upgrades everything from mobility to mixed-use districts, the focus is shifting from facilitation to value creation. Which collaborations between government, developers, retailers, and platforms will define the next era of trust and spend in the pilgrim journey?
Beauty, Scent and the New Codes of Desire
Beauty and scent are being shaped by new expectations around cultural nuance, emotional depth, and the desire for more personal forms of expression. What truly defines relevance when consumers move fluidly between global aspiration and intimate identity? From large-scale houses to heritage makers to multi-brand ecosystems, leadership in beauty is becoming a question of clarity, conviction, and cultural intelligence.
How AI Is Rewiring Retail Organizations
As AI becomes embedded across retail organizations, its impact is shifting from productivity gains to structural change. Decision rights, operating rhythms, and leadership roles are being quietly reshaped. This session surfaces the lessons and blind spots that determine whether intelligence becomes a competitive advantage or just another layer of complexity.
The State of Fashion
A one-on-one conversation exploring how fashion is navigating a period of economic, structural, and cultural reset from an institutional vantage point. The discussion reflects on where the industry stands today, the forces shaping its next phase, and what will ultimately define relevance, responsibility, and competitiveness in the years ahead.
Leading Fashion in the Age of AI
AI is reshaping how fashion houses read culture, elevate creativity, and protect brand identity. Drawing on case studies from leading luxury maisons, this session explores shifts that offer clear parallels for brands and retailers seeking stronger judgment and long-term brand resilience. Which parallels matter most for those looking to learn from fashion’s evolving playbook?
The New Power Play in Multibrand Retail
Multibrand retail is being reshaped by shifting expectations, cultural fragmentation, and the pressure for sharper, more meaningful curation. How do leaders build relevance when consumers have limitless choice and increasingly fluid loyalties? Digital platforms, luxury groups, and lifestyle players are redefining how products and communities come together, pushing multibrand operators to clarify their value before the market decides it for them.
day2 4/2/2026
Day One Recap
Brand Ownership in a Volatile Market
As volatility reshapes retail economics and growth paths diverge, brand ownership has become a central strategic question. In this fireside conversation, Yehuda Shmidman reflects on how control, stewardship, and long-term perspective influence brand value across markets. What does leadership look like when building brands is measured in years rather than cycles?
What Investors Look for Now
Market uncertainty has compressed decision timelines and raised the cost of being wrong. Across consumer and retail, investors are reassessing how they read risk, opportunity, and durability as capital tightens, growth expectations reset, and exit paths become less predictable. How is investment judgment evolving in a market where visibility is limited and conviction matters more than speed?
The Economics of Ambition and the Discipline of Delivery
Not all lifestyle projects are designed to grow in the same way—or at the same pace. From active, high-frequency platforms to concepts built around longer-term cultural and experiential value, this session looks at how ambition is translated into delivery on the ground. How can lifestyle destinations remain distinctive, economically viable, and resilient as they mature, without defaulting to a one-size-fits-all model?
Agentic Commerce and the Next Wave of E-Commerce
AI-driven agents are moving from prototypes into real transactions: surfacing products, navigating platforms, and even completing purchases. For retailers and payment networks, this shift reopens core questions around trust, loyalty, and how cross-border flows will be shaped. As intelligent agents begin to influence discovery, decision-making, and checkout, what will determine who captures value—and how the economics of digital commerce are rewritten?
From AI Hype to AI Infrastructure: Why Adoption Beats Innovation
Retail leaders are facing unprecedented volatility, rising creative demands, and growing pressure to deliver results from AI. This session explores why AI adoption often lags expectations and how that gap can be closed. Drawing on TikTok and ByteDance’s philosophy of AI as infrastructure, not experimentation, we’ll examine why adoption now beats innovation.
The Creator Economy and the Future of Influence
Influence in the Middle East is shifting from celebrity to credibility as consumers gravitate toward creators who have earned their trust. With AI reshaping discovery and accelerating how stories move across platforms, the balance of power between creators, brands, and audiences is evolving quickly. Authenticity and continuity now determine which voices shape culture, launch products, and build loyalty. In a landscape where trust is scarce, who will earn the influence that actually moves people?
The Retail CFO Agenda
Retail CFOs are navigating a new cycle defined by value pressure, shorter planning horizons, and rising expectations on capital discipline. AI is reshaping forecasting, risk visibility, and margin management while broader market volatility forces faster, smarter allocation decisions. Finance leaders are becoming architects of how growth is funded, protected, and diversified. Which capabilities and uses of AI will allow retail CFOs to steer performance through a volatile time ahead?
The Business of Luxury
The global luxury industry is entering a more selective phase as the growth cycle matures and competitive dynamics intensify. In this high-level discussion, two industry heavyweights take stock of where the business of luxury stands today and what will define leadership in the period ahead.
Fashion and the Balance of Power
Fashion is increasingly shaped by decisions around product authority, curation, and access to global markets. As capital, institutions, and brands influence which products endure, the criteria that determine reach and relevance are changing. How do these forces come together to shape the next phase of the business of fashion?
The New Merchandising Blueprint and the Race for Relevance
Merchandising is becoming the defining lever of relevance as demand shifts and competition intensifies. This session previews new insight from the RLC–BCG initiative, showing how leading retailers are rethinking assortment, pricing, and promotional discipline to strengthen performance. It also contrasts regional capabilities with global benchmarks to outline what it will take to stay competitive in a faster, more precise retail cycle.
The Future of Grocery Retail
Shifting demand, regulatory friction, and the rise of discounters are redefining how retailers think about growth. Saudi Arabia’s grocery sector is entering a new phase shaped by value pressure, rising e-commerce adoption, and accelerated format reinvention. The winners will blend efficiency, scale, and sharper consumer insight. Which capabilities and formats will matter most as the market resets?
Real Estate
Forum
The Next Chapter for Retail Real Estate
Retail real estate performance is increasingly shaped by how space is curated and aligned with shifting patterns of demand. As markets grow more complex, leaders are reassessing how brand mix, flexibility, and experience translate into sustained performance. Which choices will keep retail environments relevant as consumer expectations continue to evolve?
From Food Service to Experience and the Next F&B Growth Engine
Food has moved from a supporting amenity to a primary driver of visits, spend, and place identity. As Saudi and the wider region invest in tourism and mixed-use projects, F&B operators, landlords, and investors are rethinking concepts, partnerships, and economics. How can they balance food security and procurement with the creativity and risk taking needed to build formats that scale across markets and sustain growth?
The Changing Role of Retail in Urban Life
The future of physical retail is being shaped as much by cities as by consumers. As urban systems grow smarter, stores are becoming part of broader networks that influence movement, experience, and spend. What does it take for physical retail to remain strategically relevant in how cities now function?
The Global South’s New Luxury Influence
As cultural capital, fast-growing consumer classes, and creative innovation rise across emerging luxury hubs, the Global South is reframing the future of aspiration. From design to distribution to cultural influence, these markets are setting new standards for what luxury represents and who gets to define it. A new luxury influence map is taking shape. What does it mean for brands, markets, and the evolving language of global taste?
What Sustains Luxury Over Time
As luxury brands grow across markets and categories, sustaining trust becomes as critical as achieving scale. This session brings together leaders from heritage brands, design-led luxury, and cultural institutions to examine how craftsmanship, creative authority, and operational scale can coexist—ensuring long-term relevance, legitimacy, and value in a maturing global luxury landscape.
Luxury After the Boom: Relevance, Value, and Growth in a Changed World
Luxury has sobered up after one of the most extraordinary demand cycles in its history. As pricing, globalisation, and consumer trust are being reset, brands face harder trade-offs between exclusivity and reach, scale and meaning. This panel examines what it will take for luxury to win in a world where growth is no longer guaranteed.
The Global South’s New Luxury Influence
As cultural capital, fast-growing consumer classes, and creative innovation rise across emerging luxury hubs, the Global South is reframing the future of aspiration. From design to distribution to cultural influence, these markets are setting new standards for what luxury represents and who gets to define it. A new luxury influence map is taking shape. What does it mean for brands, markets, and the evolving language of global taste?
What Sustains Luxury Over Time
As luxury brands grow across markets and categories, sustaining trust becomes as critical as achieving scale. This session brings together leaders from heritage brands, design-led luxury, and cultural institutions to examine how craftsmanship, creative authority, and operational scale can coexist—ensuring long-term relevance, legitimacy, and value in a maturing global luxury landscape.
Luxury After the Boom: Relevance, Value, and Growth in a Changed World
Luxury has sobered up after one of the most extraordinary demand cycles in its history. As pricing, globalisation, and consumer trust are being reset, brands face harder trade-offs between exclusivity and reach, scale and meaning. This panel examines what it will take for luxury to win in a world where growth is no longer guaranteed.
Homegrown Rising in the Gulf Consumer Market
A new generation of GCC brands is proving that locally designed, directly sourced, digitally native concepts can outperform legacy franchises and global mid-tier labels. This conversation brings together the region’s most successful founders and operators to unpack what’s driving their momentum—design-led speed, factory-direct economics, and a sharper read on local taste. As value retail evolves and competition intensifies across channels, what will determine which homegrown players scale—and which models investors bet on next?
The Algorithmic Consumer and the New Balance of Influence
The modern consumer is not only informed, but increasingly guided. As algorithms shape discovery, desire, and recall, the balance of power between brands, platforms, and people is quietly shifting. What does leadership look like in a market where influence is earned through systems as much as storytelling?
Growth Through Localization and National Champions
Saudi Arabia’s path to sustainable growth is being built through localized production and the rise of national champions. As the economy transitions from import-led consumption to value creation, competitiveness will depend on developing strong manufacturing, branding, and innovation ecosystems. What will it take for Saudi and Gulf-based businesses to move up the value chain by creating, producing, and exporting homegrown value across sectors?
