A huge thank you to the National Retail Federation– for inviting us to Washington DC last week. It was very humbling to be among all of the other Honorees, all experienced professionals with a natural gift for advocacy!
The NRF team – led for this event by Meghan Cruz and Ashton Wiggins – treated us like royalty, like we mattered. And their actions showed us that we really did all matter, that our voices were necessary to help them to do their job as Retail’s knights in shining armor. We were surprised and pleased by the tone of NRF’s David French’s- Executive VP at National Retail Federation – welcome speech: fight mode, not afraid to work hard to defend retail and retailers.
The NRF team and the other attendees inspired us. Norm and I decided to get more involved in the process and to work on becoming better advocates. We met amazing people, made some fantastic connections – Karen R Conn (Conn’s Hospitality Group), Hamilton Perkins (Hamilton Perkins Collection) , Blake Garfield, Tara Riceburg (Tesoro) ; had discussions with very smart lobbyists – Alec Laird and Dean Elliott; and of course, enjoyed the pleasures of cocktails and dinners!
Congratulations to Neil Abramson (ECI Stores) , 2024 Retail Champion. You rock, you’re a real advocate model for us all!
This trip was an eye-opener and a life-changer. Thank you NRF, let’s build some strong relationships…