Right after Whole Foods was bought by Amazon in one of the biggest food retail shake-ups in recent years, John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods joined us in Bologna to discuss his thoughts on leadership. 

In the home of Walt Disney himself, we invited President of The Walt Disney Company—EMEA, Rebecca Campbell to the stage to discuss how Disney magic is created. Sharing personal anecdotes Rebecca gave us insight into how Disney has become the biggest brand in the world. 

Steven van Beleghem wowed audiences with the masterclass 'Customer the day after tomorrow' in Bologna in 2018. Sharing his insights on how retailers can win over customers in a world of robots, AI and automation. 
 

Erik believes that creativity is in all of us. We simply need to rediscover the keys that will unlock our potential. In 2018 Erik dazzled audiences with his UNthink interactive keynote experience that pushed audience members beyond their traditional thought patterns.

For the second year in a row, chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver joined us on the second leg of our journey to happiness in Bologna. He held an intimate masterclass for a select number of retailers about boosting the fresh category. Jamie then welcomed all guests to our evening venue and started off dinner with an opening toast. 

Jonah urged retailers to make their messages and ideas tastier to the end consumer by finding the inner remarkability of what may seem like a mundane brand. Through storytelling, we can create great word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth encourages trust and is a highly targeted form of communication. As a result, referred people have a 20% higher customer lifetime value. By turning customers into advocates, Jonah reminded the audience, we can get them to do the work for us. 

Matthew Luhn, a former Pixar animator and story creator, gave some fascinating insights into how to create emotional connections through an authentic, well-structured story. Matthew suggested choosing a universal theme that’s meaningful to everyone – and using a good hook to quickly draw people in. These universal themes trigger our emotions, inspiring us to try something new or make a purchase. In other words, stories are not only appealing, but also commercially effective. 

Following up his thought-provoking presentation at the RLC 2013 in Amsterdam, futurologist Magnus Lindkvist returned to update us all on how consumers are continuing to evolve. While amusingly discussing a variety of predictions from the past, he raised a serious point: we tend to get future technology frighteningly right, but future human behaviour disastrously wrong.