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Hello, good morning, good 
afternoon, good evening. 

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Welcome to the retail podcast 
and Reef before before I get to 

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you I I forgot there's a there's
a there's a back story to my 

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journey to to here. 
I was at NRF in a press 

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conference, I think it was last 
year where the Singaporean 

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Minister of Tourism was talking 
about how they want to bring 

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retail to Singapore. 
And NRF will be that event that 

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will sort of kick off this 
retail festival, if you like, in

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in Singapore. 
So when I heard that, I was 

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like, whatever happens come hell
or high water and I need to be 

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#1 be there and #2 if I can get 
an inside track. 

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What's going on? 
How are you putting it together?

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And so Reef Quail, thank you so 
much for giving up your time to 

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to meet with us. 
We're in the world. 

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Are you ready? 
Women, Sydney, Alex, thank you 

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for the opportunity. 
By the way, I'm in Sydney at the

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moment and it's actually not 
very Sydney. 

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Like it's dark and gloomy and 
radio outside, which is very 

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unlike Sydney at the moment. 
So I'm not sure. 

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I'm not sure I wanna be in 
Sydney. 

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I'd rather be back in Singapore 
at that at this time point in 

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time with me. 
Yeah. 

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Well, especially when you see 
the tourism videos or the video 

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that we just watched. 
So Reef, you're the Managing 

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Director and I guess you're 
responsible for putting this 

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phenomenal agenda and event 
together in one of the biggest 

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regions across the world. 
If not, it is not one, it is the

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biggest region across the world.
So I've got some questions to go

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through with you, if that's OK, 
that's great and we'd love to do

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we we have a global audience who
sort of TuneIn as as I go to 

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different events around the 
world and they're always you 

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know looking at what are the 
next big things, what is 

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happening. 
And I noticed one of the things 

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that you've gone to great 
lengths at is to make sure that 

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retailers can sort of fast track
their their success by attending

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the event. 
But I was curious, I'd love to 

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get your thoughts on what fast 
track your success, what is it 

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and how can retailers extract 
the most value from NRF Asia? 

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Ohh, thank you. 
Thank you for that Alex. 

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For me, the fast track, Essex 
Fast track, your success is the 

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theme of the show, yeah. 
And it's pretty much well, it is

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very linked to the launch as is 
the inaugural event. 

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And the reason why we've taken 
that road with the theme is, you

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know most retailers are focused 
domestically on their markets. 

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Some of them are globally 
expanding. 

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But the really the, the thing 
that's going to fast track 

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people's success is to meet a 
collection of peers from across 

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the region and across the world 
all in one place. 

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There are great minds when great
minds in retail come together. 

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It's a fantastic industry 
because, you know, a hardware 

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retailer can talk to a beauty 
and a fashion retailer and 

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they're not competitors, so 
they're able to share a lot of 

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information. 
And by sharing and working with 

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colleagues and peers, you can 
solve problems in your business 

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and solve problems you didn't 
even know you had. 

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So when you go back to your 
office, go back to your 

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business, you can fast track 
your career and fast track your 

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business and basically 
turbocharged things because 

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you've come back on a whole 
bunch of insights from a diverse

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group of peers that you wouldn't
normally have engaged. 

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Reef, I was taking a look at the
agenda and and the the level and

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quality of speakers that you've 
got from around the world, which

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is interesting because part of 
me felt that you know there 

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would be maybe a focus in one 
region in Asia. 

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But I notice you've got speakers
from India, you got speakers 

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from China, Australia, literally
from every single region. 

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But I I'm just curious what are 
the key takeaways that attendees

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can anticipate from attending 
the the talk tracks. 

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And I don't know if you've got, 
you know, top of mind any of the

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of your speakers, but I'd love 
to sort of just sort of focus a 

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few minutes on that if that's 
possible. 

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Fantastic. 
Thank you. 

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For me, there's a, there's a 
whole bunch of really 

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fascinating stories. 
I mean we've got Uniqlo, Unico 

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speaking, Takehiro, he's, he's 
gonna talk about how our friends

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at Uniqlo are taking are taking 
their retail mark to the world. 

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We have obviously fair price in 
Singapore, which is their big 

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supermarket brand. 
We have Lottie supermarkets 

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coming out of Korea. 
We have we have Nike out of the 

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US talking about digital 
transformation and that's going 

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to be a fascinating story. 
We've got Lauren Boyd Evasi, 

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who's the president of APAC 
speaking who's from Moet 

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Hennessy, uncorking, uncorking 
luxury retail experiences. 

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We have a huge array of 
speakers, both DC across 

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categories. 
We have the associations having 

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to say and of course we've got, 
we've got some sessions on 

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sustainability with with Amazon 
and humour, but and also people 

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like Simon Miles, who's ex Coke,
who ran their global retail 

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media strategy around the world.
So there's some really 

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interesting stuff coming through
it and and as as I said to you 

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before, this has been an 
incredibly self indulgent 

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journey if content. 
Now I've met some absolutely 

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fantastic retail leaders and 
people and for me it's been a 

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wonderful, enjoyable journey. 
Where I've, I mean I've grown as

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a as in when my knowledge 
because every time I have an 

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encounter I walk away richer 
from the experience. 

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So I really hoping that when our
delegates set up on stage, 

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they'll have to take as much 
pleasure from this pieces of 

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content as I have putting them 
together. 

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Yeah, I I look the the energy 
comes across just from talking 

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to you and having a sort of 
meeting you and seeing the 

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agenda. 
I sort of get where that come 

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that general passion and and 
light for for the industry and 

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helping attendees leave. 
You know and I think you you 

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mentioned this actionable 
insight rather than just 

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insight. 
I think there's a lot of 

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conferences I've been to where, 
yeah, you get a lot of insight, 

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but you think you have had, am I
gonna use that right instead of 

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like actionable insight, which I
think is the key thing that I'll

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definitely be looking for. 
Yeah, it has to. 

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I mean, things have to get 
landed. 

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So there's there's for many 
retailers need to be able to as 

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if we're going back to our theme
and fast tracking our success, 

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what are the Nuggets, What are 
the things that retailers can 

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grab hold of in these fantastic 
retail leaders and go well, I 

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can take that back to the 
business that's applicable to me

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in my career and what I'm doing 
today. 

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That's the exciting part of it, 
and the commonality between the 

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countries within the region is 
there, despite being sometimes 

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unrecognisably different. 
But the commonality is, is 

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there, and the energy for retail
is there, and the passion with 

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these people is there. 
And so through that enthusiasm, 

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I think people will find their 
opportunities, find their 

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moments and find their Nuggets. 
They'll take back to their 

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businesses to really fast track 
their success. 

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Yeah, I as as I, I mean we we 
sort of keep going back to this 

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is when when you use words like 
region or area as you said 

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people sort of imagine one 
jurisdiction area and whereas I 

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don't know how many 
jurisdictions you have across 

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across Asia. 
One of the things I noticed 

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about the show and at the big 
show in New York there was also 

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a big focus on innovation on 
actual store tours and and 

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bringing that to life. 
But one of my favourite things 

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store design and obviously how 
technology plays a part in that.

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I notice that that's actually a 
big part of the agenda and the 

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experience of just, I don't know
if you can sort of give some, I 

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don't know if it's an external 
company that's doing it for it. 

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You guys are doing that 
yourself. 

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But I'd just love to get your 
thoughts on, you know, the the 

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whole Safari event that that 
you're running. 

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Well, there's a couple of things
that we've got going and we have

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some fantastic special 
programmes that really are the 

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accents on the show. 
The 1st is the Innovation Zone. 

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And the Innovation Zone We work 
with a partner who allows us to 

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curate via the VC community 
globally some of the most 

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forward thinking and progressive
technologies and solutions. 

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Wow, they're coming at retail 
and that's called our Innovation

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Zone. 
And we'll have 24 of those. 

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And we've got retail tech 
companies from Singapore, from 

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from Europe, from the US, from 
Australia, all around the world 

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who are breaking them all. 
And they are, they apply to be 

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there. 
How can we have lots of 

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applications. 
So we they and they apply to be 

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there. 
And so that's really exciting. 

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And the same group we use, we 
work with in the US as well with

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the big show in New York City. 
And so it's a very global look 

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at some of the best technologies
that are available to retailers 

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and it's mind-blowing. 
It's, you know, it's it's 

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immersive tech where you've got 
the augmented reality type 

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stuff. 
It's a really wonderful use of 

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AI. 
It's robotics, it's, you know, 

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drone and last mile delivery. 
It's all sorts of things that 

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are you know that are going to 
be mind bending in the way we 

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consumers engage with retail 
going forward. 

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It's it's so for me it's sort of
a little glimpse into the future

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for many years because you know 
we're finding now in many cases 

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that technology arrives and it 
turbocharges a section of the of

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the of the industry. 
I mean retail media is a good 

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example of that. 
Retail media always existed, but

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when the technology arrived and 
and the plumbing came together 

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that that whole element of 
retail of our retailers business

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took off. 
So I'm hoping to see more of 

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that through our innovation 
zone. 

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The other thing we're doing and 
it's very much part of the US 

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show, but also we're doing here 
is that our retail to us, Yeah, 

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And we're partnered with 
Singapore Retail Association, 

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they've been a. 
Fantastic. 

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So retailer, so Singapore 
Retailer Association. 

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And they've taken on the task, 
yeah with gusto to run retail 

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tours around Singapore. 
And Singapore is a fantastic hub

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because the the, the the way 
that the pillar of strategy that

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the Singapore Retailers 
Association had is that they 

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they look to bring international
retailers to the regional, land 

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them in Singapore and then 
expand them through the region 

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and help them really. 
But the Singapore becomes their 

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launchpad for Asia Pacific. 
Solutely. 

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Yeah. 
And what's great about that is 

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it then you see as a result a 
lots of wonderful flagship 

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retail experiences which are 
really amazing from global 

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brands, but also some really 
fascinating local style and 

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heritage and heritage style 
retail experiences. 

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You know, because Singapore is a
huge melting pot of colonialism 

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plus inbound inbound inbound 
tourism, plus also a greatly 

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interesting diversity of ethnic 
mix, which makes the experience 

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really dynamic and really 
interesting when you when you 

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engage in retail, when you walk 
the streets to Singapore, you 

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think you see a lot of 
interesting, cool stuff. 

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Yeah. 
And I can make and and it's 

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really interesting that you you 
sort of highlight that because 

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when when you look at 
international retailers, they 

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are struggling with global 
communities that are are 

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expanding, not shrinking. 
Globalisation is going to 

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continue and I think retailers 
are sort of how do we build 

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those future experiences. 
And it's interesting like a side

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note about how for example live 
shopping in in in APAC has been 

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a shopping as entertainment has 
been a thing for a long time. 

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Whereas you know that's just 
sort of people are getting their

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heads round of what does 
shopping as entertainment mean 

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and all of the diverse elements 
from the store to online to 

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ecommerce, the digital. 
And so you know I'm, I'm super 

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excited to come to the home of 
live shopping basically, right. 

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That's and see what's going on 
there. 

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Absolutely. 
Have you got a precincts like 

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Orchard Rd in Singapore? 
It's just. 

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It's it's it's an incredible 
experience because you've you've

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got, you've got a very, very 
warm hot city. 

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It's it's not it's not cool in 
Singapore, yeah. 

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So the the malls are with the 
air conditioning are very 

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enticing. 
But then you. 

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Literally, you can get lost in 
the place. 

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It's got, you know, it's an 
amazing experience and it's and 

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and and people come to Singapore
not just to shop. 

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The locals are passionate about 
those those precincts, but you 

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know, people come to Singapore 
to see what's possible. 

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Yeah, no, absolutely. 
I think you sort of mentioned 

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some of the technologies, but I 
can also imagine networking. 

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Given such a diverse group of 
people coming together, how do 

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startups or newcomers into the 
field? 

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What's the best way for them to 
network? 

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Are you Are you running 
networking events? 

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How are you approaching 
networking? 

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Well, we're always good at 
networking, Alex. 

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But look, let's start, let's 
start with all the key things. 

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So this show, fundamentally this
show will be no paper. 

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So everything will be on the 
app. 

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And when you're on the app, 
you'll be able to see who's 

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there. 
You'll be able to message in 

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between people within the app. 
Obviously, the, the trade show 

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and Expo is all about networking
and they'll be functions like 

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the opening night party on on 
day one on the Expo floor. 

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So there will be plenty of 
opportunities to rub shoulders 

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with people. 
But for me, I think I really 

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would encourage retailers to 
take the bit between the teeth 

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because if you want to expand 
your business through the Asia 

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Pacific region, yeah, it's quite
hard to do it without partners. 

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So if you're an Australian 
retailer and you want to go into

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Malaysia, you can't do it 
without a Malaysian partner. 

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Yeah, it's just you need, you 
need some stewardship in each of

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the markets. 
So for me what's exciting is you

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not only I would encourage 
retailers to seek out partners 

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in those markets they desire to 
enter, but for me what's 

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exciting if that happens in two 
and three years time, we're 

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gonna see the the fruits of 
those discussions come to light.

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Yeah. 
And and that's what that's what 

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gets out of bed in the morning. 
So we're we're hell bent on 

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trying to make sure that 
retailers find their partners 

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both from a supply point of view
but more importantly from a from

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a networking point of view. 
One of the one of the speakers 

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we've got is a gentleman by the 
name of Chris Chong who's CEO of

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Capital. 
And so they are Raffles malls 

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and they run properties all 
around the region and mall 

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experiences. 
So one of the good partners you 

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can help to expand your business
if you will is to go with the 

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property partner and that helps 
you achieve that outcome. 

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So there's just one example of 
of ways to expand to the region 

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and people retailers should seek
out to help them expand. 

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Well, the number of retailers 
that I've spoken about that are 

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focused on growth and where 
future growth is coming for 

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from. 
I think that's why for me I'm so

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excited to bring that sort of 
experience to the retailers that

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I'm coming there with but also 
to learn and bring back because 

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I think that's one of the 
irrespective of where you are 

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in, in Europe or the UK or in 
the US if you want to grow and 

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you you're a serious looking at 
growth, I think you know you 

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have to be thinking about your 
APAC or Asia strategy, how are 

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you going to do that And it is a
minefield, it's not easy. 

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So I mean that little nugget of 
go with the property partner and

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and expand that way. 
Obviously is, is, is is one way 

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and super interesting. 
I think for me too, just when 

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you look at, when you look at 
the region too the that finally 

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once you've found the right 
partner, I think the opportunity

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is enormous. 
And we spoke before the we went 

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on air and and for me what's 
really exciting about this 

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region is just the absolute 
power of growth. 

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00:17:32,540 --> 00:17:36,760
Yeah, we're looking at, we 
talked to our chief economist 

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from MasterCard, David Mann, 
who's closing the show. 

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00:17:39,580 --> 00:17:42,000
Yeah. 
You know, from 23 to 24, the 

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desire for consumer goods still 
increased in this region like it

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00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:48,250
went all right. 
So still growing and that's 

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driven primarily by the wealth 
generation and in this part of 

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the world, according to 
Colliers, this region from 2020 

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to 2040, yeah, well, the middle 
class will glow, grow, grow, 

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grow and like it's growing and 
growing by 3.49 billion people. 

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You just can't find them, right?
That's the strides. 

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It's crazy. 
Yeah. 

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And so if you think that's a 
growth from a 73% growth across 

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the decade, yeah. 
And so we are seeing some 

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fantastic investment money is 
flowing into the region. 

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Obviously, we've many companies 
who are running supply chains in

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Southeast Asia, in China, in in 
India. 

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So there's there's already 
there's great productivity 

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happening but we're seeing now a
consumer that's meeting needs, 

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needs them, demands met and 
retailers the opportunity is 

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00:18:51,360 --> 00:18:55,270
just fantastic. 
I I think obviously as I said, I

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got to be sensitive to your 
time. 

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00:18:56,670 --> 00:19:01,310
The event is in two months. 
It's early Friday morning for 

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00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:04,760
you. 
I just love to get your closing 

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00:19:04,810 --> 00:19:07,540
thoughts. 
If you're an executive and 

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you're and you just sort of gone
through the experience, you're 

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sat in your flight back to 
wherever you whatever region, 

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what would you want them to have
top of mind? 

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00:19:18,850 --> 00:19:21,060
You know what? 
Because I know, because I'm 

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00:19:21,070 --> 00:19:24,020
curious in that when you were 
going out and asking questions 

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00:19:24,030 --> 00:19:28,240
to all the retailers to decide 
your agenda, you had this sort 

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00:19:28,250 --> 00:19:32,170
of vision in mind of what people
would leave the show with. 

316
00:19:32,820 --> 00:19:35,150
I'm I'm curious, from your 
perspective, what do you think 

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00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:37,620
would be that number one thing 
that someone would leave? 

318
00:19:37,630 --> 00:19:40,390
Because we've discussed five or 
six things already. 

319
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:42,690
Yeah, what would be that one 
thing in your opinion? 

320
00:19:43,430 --> 00:19:49,070
I I think for me the, the the 
first point would be just we've 

321
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,150
all I've made. 
I've I've talked stats already, 

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00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:54,910
but for them to see with their 
own eyes the scale of the 

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00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,530
opportunity to come to the 
region, yeah, it's just emits 

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00:19:58,540 --> 00:20:03,640
and then it's actually about. 
For them walking away and going,

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00:20:03,650 --> 00:20:07,040
let's find what are the links in
the chain to make this possible 

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00:20:07,300 --> 00:20:10,530
go you know it. 
Just how do I understand the 

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00:20:10,540 --> 00:20:14,930
legislative context, the 
payments, the issues in beige 

328
00:20:14,940 --> 00:20:20,030
market and then and meeting some
people who are similarly 

329
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:23,520
orientated who can hold, hold 
hands with them and take them on

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00:20:23,530 --> 00:20:25,190
the journey to expand in the 
region. 

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00:20:25,260 --> 00:20:28,070
Because I just, you know, I 
think if you look, if you're a 

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00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:31,990
North American retailer or 
European retailer and you and 

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00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:36,320
you sort of daunted by this 
party, it's a very friendly 

334
00:20:36,330 --> 00:20:37,800
place. 
It's a very great, it's a great 

335
00:20:37,810 --> 00:20:40,240
place to be part of and when I 
love being part of this region 

336
00:20:40,430 --> 00:20:44,860
and so, So you'll find some 
awesome people who will 

337
00:20:44,870 --> 00:20:48,280
literally go well, OK, we want 
to partner with you. 

338
00:20:48,290 --> 00:20:51,220
We can see the opportunity. 
This is the opportunity we see. 

339
00:20:51,410 --> 00:20:53,180
Yeah. 
And I think people will get back

340
00:20:53,190 --> 00:20:56,040
on planes very excited about 
what's possible. 

341
00:20:56,190 --> 00:20:58,680
Yeah. 
Well, I'm super excited. 

342
00:20:58,750 --> 00:21:01,040
Tickets are booked. 
Need to get my hotel done. 

343
00:21:01,050 --> 00:21:05,340
But Ruth, thank you so much for 
taking the time to sort of talk 

344
00:21:05,350 --> 00:21:07,880
us through what what's 
happening. 

345
00:21:08,590 --> 00:21:12,040
The tickets are still on sale 
now and I think I'm gonna put a 

346
00:21:12,050 --> 00:21:16,800
link in the notes of the show on
how you can get your ticket and 

347
00:21:16,810 --> 00:21:20,460
reserve your spot. 
But Reef, thank you so much for 

348
00:21:20,550 --> 00:21:23,100
taking the time to be with us. 
And thank you for the 

349
00:21:23,110 --> 00:21:26,300
opportunity to really great to 
be be speaking, speaking with 

350
00:21:26,310 --> 00:21:28,480
you today. 
And I look forward to seeing you

351
00:21:28,490 --> 00:21:30,520
in Singapore in June. 
Thank you.