Pre-Show Seminars and Workshops

Workshops

Art Frickus 
Founder/Shopper Behaviour Specialist, Conspicuous 

With over 30 years of experience in Trade Marketing, Channel Development, Shopper Marketing, and Category Management, Art Frickus is a recognized Behavioral Strategy Architect, specializing in shopper psychology and retail anthropology. He translates deep shopper insights into actionable strategies that drive measurable profit. Proven across Western and Eastern Europe, Art Frickus delivers pragmatic, results-driven approaches that optimize retailer performance and ensure brands dominate the most critical moment: the shop floor.

Conspicuous is a scalable and flexible shopper marketing results and research agency, where quality, efficiency, and cost control play a central role.

Karen Green 
Retail and FMCG Expert, Author, Buyerology

Karen Green is an expert in sales strategy and business growth, with a focus on the food sector. She is the author of the Amazon best-sellers Buyerology® and Recipe for Success, shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2019, and the creator of the Buyerology framework, helping businesses tailor their sales approach and build stronger client relationships. 

Over the last decade, Karen has supported hundreds of entrepreneurs and companies—including the UN International Trade Centre, Virgin StartUp, and Enterprise Nation -achieving measurable revenue growth. She is a regular media commentator across national press, trade publications, radio, and podcasts.nd Enterprise Nation - achieving measurable revenue growth. She is a regular media commentator across national press, trade publications, radio, and podcasts.

Seminars

Beatriz Santos 
Commercial Director, Eroski

Beatriz Santos is Commercial Director at Eroski, where she has worked for over 25 years in leadership roles spanning purchasing, food commercial management, and strategic transformation. Beatriz holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Navarra and serves on the Board of Directors of AgeCore, a European retail buying alliance. Beatriz is recognised for driving commercial innovation, customer‑centric strategies and inclusive leadership across the retail sector.

Eroski is a Spanish supermarket and hypermarket cooperative, part of the Mondragon Corporation. It operates grocery stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience stores across Spain.

Simon Wintels 
Partner, McKinsey’s & Company

Simon Wintels is a leader in McKinsey’s Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods Practices in Southeast Asia, specializing in digital and advanced transformation for consumer-goods companies. He works across China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, advising clients on strategy, revenue growth management, digital and advanced analytics, sales-force transformation, and supply chain optimization. Simon has helped clients design digital ecosystems, capture billions in sales growth, implement advanced analytics-driven route-to-market strategies, and optimize manufacturing footprints. He joined McKinsey in 2007, with postings in Amsterdam, Japan, and Singapore.

Erick Smet 
Head of AI Innovation, TrendWatching

Erick is Head of AI Innovation at TrendWatching based in Amsterdam with a knack for bringing consumer trends to life through vibrant storytelling.

Formerly leading TrendWatching's Trend Analyst team as Content Director, he now spearheads AI initiatives – developing sophisticated prompt architectures that convert consumer insights into actionable innovations across industries.

At the intersection of content strategy and AI implementation, Erick builds systems that analyze consumer and industry data to uncover meaningful patterns for innovation. He guides the transformation of trend insights into diverse business applications, including product concepts, service improvements, marketing campaigns and future scenarios.

Erick has hosted TrendWatching keynotes, webinars and future-focused workshops for audiences around the world. He has presented to the likes of Mastercard, Google, PageGroup, Municipality of Amsterdam and Brookfield Properties.