S5:E7 Unplugged and Unscripted: Retail Club's AI-First Event Revolution w/ Krystina Gustafson

What happens when you blend cutting-edge innovation, authentic community, and the brightest minds in retail? You get RetailClub—the AI-first retail event redefining how industry leaders connect, collaborate, and shape the future.

In this episode of The Retail Razor Show, hosts Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Krystina Gustafson, co-founder and Chief Content Officer at Retail Club and one of the visionary forces behind RetailClub. Krystina shares the inspiration behind this exclusive retail conference, how it fosters meaningful connections among AI changemakers, and why RetailClub is more than just another event—it’s a movement.

💡 What You’ll Learn:

• Why RetailClub is unlike any other retail event you’ve attended
• How the power of retail community is driving innovation and collaboration
• The role of AI in retail and how it’s shaping the conversations at RetailClub
• Behind-the-scenes insights from Krystina on curating impactful content and experiences

Whether you’re a retail executive, tech innovator, or curious observer of industry trends, this episode delivers a front-row seat to the future of AI in retail!

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About our Guest

Krystina Gustafson, co-founder & Chief Content Officer, RetailClub - https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystina-gustafson-908a5a14/

Register for RetailClub’s AI Deep Dive Retreat - https://www.retailclub.com

Krystina is a co-founder and the chief content officer at RetailClub, a new retreats business from the founders of Shoptalk. RetailClub is building retail’s first AI-native community, bringing together 500 AI champions and changemakers for their inaugural AI Deepdive Retreat, taking place Sept 14-17, 2025 in Huntington Beach, CA.

Prior to RetailClub, she was the senior vice president of content at Shoptalk and Groceryshop, the leading conferences in the retail, grocery and consumer packaged goods industries. She led the team that shaped the retail and ecommerce industry narratives across its four annual events – Shoptalk, Shoptalk Europe, Shoptalk Fall and Groceryshop – including agenda development and speaker selection.

Krystina joined Shoptalk in 2017, after spending four years as a retail reporter and content editor at CNBC.com. Prior to CNBC, Krystina was a web editor at Women's Wear Daily, the trade publication for the fashion industry.She has interviewed prominent business figures from retail and beyond, including the CEOs of Target, Sam’s Club, The Honest Company and Warby Parker, Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, and “Shark Tank” shark Kevin O’Leary.

00:00 Previews

01:04 Show Intro

08:44 Welcome Krystina and the Importance of AI!

09:56 Introducing Retail Club and AI Deep Dive Retreat

12:03 Event Structure and Unique Approach

14:07 Challenges and Opportunities in AI Adoption

17:56 The Future of AI in Retail & Event Experiences

22:46 Data Readiness and Tech Maturity

27:04 Agentic AI's Impact on Retail Operations

36:36 Event Details and Future Thoughts

41:26 Show Close

Meet your hosts, helping you cut through the clutter in retail & retail tech:

Ricardo Belmar is an NRF Top Retail Voices for 2025 & a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2021 – 2025. Thinkers 360 has named him a Top 10 Retail Thought Leader, Top 50 Management Thought Leader, & Top 100 Digital Transformation Thought Leader, plus a Top Digital Voice for 2024. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation, and is the director partner marketing for retail & consumer goods at Microsoft.

Casey Golden, is CEO of Luxlock, a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert from 2023 - 2025, and Retail Cloud Alliance advisory council member. Obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, now slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!

Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Overclocked, and E-Motive from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.