The inaugural RISE Retail Conference will be presented Sept. 10 by the Naveen Jindal School of Management’s Center for Retail Innovation and Strategy Excellence (RISE). With an expected attendance of more than 200, it will be the largest retail-themed event in the region.
David Matthews, an associate professor of practice in the Jindal School’s Marketing Area, took over as RISE Center director after the passing of Charles (Chuck) Haseman, who founded the center with the vision of making it the “STEM Side of Retail.” STEM — short for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — is a framework that enables retail educators and practitioners to apply analytical thinking, problem-solving and innovation to both teaching and operational strategies in the retail industry.
“Like my predecessor, my background has been mostly in and around retail,” Matthews said. “As a teenager, I worked at Service Merchandise, Montgomery Ward, a music store and several restaurants. My first job after college was training retail store associates on the latest consumer electronics products. Then I married into the family that owned Michaels, a national arts & crafts retailer. As an entrepreneur, my first $1 million customer was JCPenney. After selling my ownership in that company and shifting to venture capital, I naturally developed a focus for investing in retail concepts and technologies.”
Matthews said the conference will feature STEM-driven keynotes and panels exploring the role of artificial intelligence, automation and advanced analytics in retail operations.
Speakers will include Aparna Galiasso, head of North America Retail & Consumer Goods Business Development at Amazon Web Services; Stacee Johnson-Williams, chief merchandise operations and sourcing officer for Signet; Dipesh Patel, president and COO of CoPoint.AI; and Ezhil Mani, vice president of strategic growth and innovation at Infosys. Wes Durow, an associate professor of practice in the Jindal School’s Marketing Area will also speak at the conference.
“We’ll get a glimpse of Retail in 2030 from Amazon’s perspective,” Matthews said. “As many of the country’s greatest retailers were created right here in Dallas, we’ll also recognize our first ‘Legend of Retail’ honoree.”
Long before leading the RISE Center, Matthews was fueling retail innovation from the investment side. In venture capital, Matthews made more than 60 investments in startup companies led by retail technology innovators.
“Their solutions ranged from supply chain transparency to returns management and everything in between,” he said. “My first AI investment was made in 2013 — way too early! My best investments were those that improved or enhanced customer experience, both online and offline.”
Matthews said that today’s retailers know their industry is likely to be completely remapped by AI, just as it was by ecommerce thirty years ago.
“Because retail is a largely unregulated industry, change happens as quickly as the consumer desires, and disruption is a major risk for even the largest companies,” he said. “Retailers have always had mountains of consumer and product data, but most of them don’t have that data organized in a way that can realize the full potential of AI. That’s currently the biggest challenge in retail.”
What excites Matthews most about leading the RISE Center is the opportunity to become a trusted partner with the retail industry for talent and for thought leadership.
“I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring dozens of great entrepreneurs over the years, and now to have the chance to help students prepare for great careers is particularly fulfilling,” he said. “It’s exciting to build upon the foundation that Chuck Haseman laid for the RISE Center during the past four years.”
Matthews plans to grow the RISE Center’s advisory council to dozens of well-connected retail industry leaders and to utilize events such as the upcoming RISE Conference, as a means of connecting students, faculty and industry leaders.
“As these industry relationships are fortified, there will be increasing opportunities for thought leadership,” he said.
According to Matthews, continuing to lean into the “STEM Side of Retail” vision planted by Haseman is what will set the RISE Retail Conference apart from other forums in the retail space.
“With an industry that is changing rapidly, it’s great to be the ‘new kid on the block,’” he said. “By focusing on STEM, we can be the industry disruptor. Among all the retail-themed programs in the region, the RISE Center is the best positioned to demonstrate strength in technology innovation, which is what today’s retailers desperately need. I was pleased to learn that there are more than 1,000 local retail industry leaders who are alumni of The University of Texas at Dallas. What an opportunity we have to build lasting connections!”
The RISE Retail Conference will take place Sept. 10 in the Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center on the UT Dallas Campus. Registration is $295. Sponsorships are available for interested companies. Members of the media interested in covering the conference may request a press pass. UT Dallas students, staff and faculty may request a promo code for complementary admission to the conference.
Matthews said conference attendees will be equipped with what the center calls the Roadmap to Retail 3.0.
“If Retail 1.0 began at the dawn of humanity, and Retail 2.0 began with the rise of e-commerce thirty years ago, then Retail 3.0 begins in the age of AI,” he said. “Students and faculty members will gain a clearer sense of where the growth opportunities will be in the near future. Retailers will gain key insights to contribute toward their survival plans.”
An annual RISE Conference has been an aspiration since the day the RISE Center was launched. Matthews said he thinks Haseman would be pleased to see this dream come to fruition.
“I expect that the RISE Conference will become an annual staple of campus activities for many years to come,” Matthews said.
