Business View Magazine - October 2016 41
across the United States and works with retailers to
highlight them and their businesses. We communicate
in many different ways.”
The NRF also educates its members - about industry
trends, how they can better run their businesses, what
their peers in the industry are doing, what consum-
ers are doing and buying – “all of the things that they
need to know,” says Cantrell. “And our main platform
for doing that is through our trade shows. Our largest
and oldest is Retail’s Big Show – that’s in New York
in January at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. That
show draws close to 35,000 people. Retailers come
together with service providers for the industry.” The
three-day event features a large exposition floor, key-
note addresses, breakout sessions, meetings, and the
all-important networking opportunities.
The second largest NRF show is the Shop.org Retail
Digital Summit that takes place every September.
“Since all of retail has a digital influence, everyone who
is dealing with omni-channel strategies, how the con-
sumer shops today, what the new trends are – that’s
the show for them,” Cantrell says. The Retail Digital
Summit attracts more than 5,000 professionals who
come together to share the latest digital strategies
and tactics in marketing, branding, and social media,
via the expo floor, keynote addresses, breakout ses-
sions, and meetings.
Cantrell says that the NRF also has a “very significant
research department.” Research is broken into sev-
eral areas: consumer, policy, and industry research.
Studies, presentations, white papers, and webinars
are available to members via the Federation’s web-
site. “A member has the ability to log into nrf.com and
create their own version of the website,” Cantrell ex-
plains. “So, part of it is proactive. They’re registering
and asking for certain information so that they don’t
miss anything, and then they’re capturing the articles
and information that is most pertinent to them.”
Another valuable NRF program is run out of Cantrell’s
office and is called Retail Communities. Retail Com-
munities gives members from different industry sec-
tors the opportunity to share ideas and experiences.
Retail Communities include: chain restaurants, digital,
finance, global retail, human resources, industry part-
ners, loss prevention and security, marketing, mobile,
small business, supply chain, and technology. “We pro-
vide to those groups, those communities, newsletters
once a month that recap some of the research that’s
come out, and what’s going on in their community,”
says Cantrell.
The NRF also has a non-profit arm called the NRF
