In a conversation with The Drum, Shoptalk and Groceryshop’s vice-president of original content and strategy explains how he chooses stories, experiments with new formats and navigates AI’s growing influence on retail events.
Shoptalk’s Ben Miller
When The Drum caught up with Ben Miller at Groceryshop in Las Vegas, the show was already buzzing. “It’s a record number of attendees, a record number of companies who are with us,” he said. “So far, the response we’ve had to the content has been really positive. It’s only halftime, but the momentum is good.”
Miller oversees content across Shoptalk’s global portfolio, including Groceryshop, which focuses on the future of food retail. Deciding what makes the stage, he said, is a process that never really stops. “Each show has a specific content lead dedicated to that show,” he said. “Their job, 365 days a year, is to think about what’s really important to this industry and the community around it, what are the stories we want to be telling and who are the great people to tell them?”
The team blends editorial instinct with structured feedback. “We have advisory boards for each of our shows. They give us feedback, they steer us and they help make sure we’re reflecting the tone of where everybody is in their day-to-day. Retail is tough at the minute. Grocery is tough at the minute. So we want to create an environment that’s fun and lively and learning, but also grounded in reality.”
Miller said his team takes the same approach across Shoptalk’s five global events. “We combine that audience-specific opinion with having a global view as well. For example, grocery has its own challenges, but topics like AI or retail media are relevant across all of retail. It’s just applied in slightly different ways.”
Editorial integrity is the guiding principle. “Our content program is completely editorially independent. The stories we tell, the companies we choose, the individuals we bring into the show... we select them because we think they’ve got something valuable to say. Sometimes that’s a sponsor, but just because someone sponsors the show doesn’t mean we’ll put them on stage. It’s all editorially driven.”
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AI, Miller said, has become one of the most requested topics across Shoptalk’s events. The challenge is covering it thoughtfully without feeding into hype. “We try and walk a balance. Positioning content where we think the energy in the industry is, but not falling into creating a hype cycle.”
Grocery, he noted, has quietly relied on AI for years. “You couldn’t run availability, fulfillment or routing for e-commerce without it. What’s changed in the last couple of years is generative AI and now the potential of agentic AI, which is true agents based on generative AI, not just bolting together old systems.”
That distinction, he said, has reshaped how his team curates the conversation. “There’s an appetite for case studies, but there’s also an understanding that some of the really progressive uses are still quite theoretical. So we combine retailers and brands talking about what they’ve actually been doing with AI, often in customer-facing marketing, with tech companies sharing what’s next.”
He pointed to Walmart as an example of operational innovation. “It is connecting a whole series of its tools together and using generative AI to place it in the hands of store associates. If it knows that a delivery coming into the back of the store is running half an hour late, it can schedule the team elsewhere rather than waiting around. That’s the exciting use case, how to drive efficiency in stores.”
Even behind the scenes, AI is changing how his own team works. “Internally at Shoptalk, we’re using it to help synthesize information at speed, for validation and for research.”
Asked about trends shaping the future of trade shows, Miller didn’t hesitate. “We think about something called the laptop test. Have you created an environment that’s more compelling and engaging than whatever’s on your laptop?”
That mindset has shaped how the events are designed. “We spend way more than everybody else on design, on theater, on theming, on food, on entertainment. Some of that is because we love entertainment, but the real reason is that when you bring people somewhere, you’ve got to keep them engaged.”
The goal is to keep audiences present and active. “If you’re a sponsor at a trade show, there’s no point in turning up if the people you want to talk to are there but not engaged.”
He’s also focused on striking a balance between structure and spontaneity. “We have the unique, proprietary meetings program, AI-enabled, 30,000 double opt-in meetings during the show. At the same time, we create time for parties, dinners, drinks, even coffee on the show floor to drive that serendipity.”
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One of Groceryshop’s new formats this year, the Test Kitchen, came directly from attendee feedback. “Our retailers and brands have told us that they love the strategic content, but they also want more practical sessions. They want to go one level deeper into the how, not just the what.”
The Test Kitchen introduced interactive case studies and live audience Q&As on topics like measurement in retail media and the shift from SEO to GEO, generative engine optimization. “It was all about being more practical. We used Slido polls, roving mics and built it around audience participation.”
He sees it as part of a larger push to reinvent the format each year. “We think of ourselves as a show, not a trade fair. The last thing you want is someone to walk into Mandalay Bay and think, ‘Oh, it’s the same as last year.’ That’s why we change the theme every year and create new formats. No two content sessions are the same.”
As Shoptalk heads toward its 10th anniversary, Miller said his team is planning something special. “The first Shoptalk was 2016, so 2026 will be our 10-year anniversary. We’ll be back here at Mandalay Bay and we’re thinking hard about how to combine a little bit of the past with still wanting to look at the future.”
That includes inviting back some of the original speakers, not for nostalgia but to show what they’re doing now. “We’ll be inviting back people who spoke at the first show. They can tell us what they did then, but we’re inviting them for what they’re doing now.”
Miller also revealed new ventures, including Shoptalk Lux, a dedicated luxury industry event launching in Abu Dhabi. “We’ve got representatives from Kering and LVMH on our advisory board. Vera Wang will be one of our keynotes, along with the CEO of Hugo Boss and the president of Chopard.”
It’s part of a broader ambition to keep expanding the conversation. “Luxury is going through huge transformation. It’s a new consumer base that expects to be communicated with differently, buys in a different way. It’s the right time to create an event just for them.”
As the interview wrapped, Miller reflected on what makes events like Shoptalk and Groceryshop matter in an era when most people could just stream the sessions later. “When you bring people somewhere, you owe them something they can’t get anywhere else. That’s what keeps us honest.”
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