Hi Ladies!

Are any of you heading to the National Retail Federation’s BIG Show next week? The Women in Retail Leadership Circle will be there with bells on! For starters, we have a full staff who will be covering sessions, recording podcast episodes with industry bigwigs (our sister brand, Total Retail, will be in NRF’s podcast studio Jan. 16 and 17) and conducting video interviews live from the “purple carpet” at the NRF Foundation Gala on Jan. 15.

We’ll be posting articles, videos, podcast episodes and other content here over the next few months, so be sure to keep reading! And if you’d like to meet up at the show, please send me a note at mcampanelli@napco.com and I will try to find a time to connect with you!

And you know us, we’ll also be meeting up for cocktails! On Mon., Jan. 16, WIRLC will be hosting its first-ever Regional Meet-Up for members in the New York City area! The meet-up will be taking place from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Oovina Latin Kitchen and Wine Bar. Pockets of our members exist from coast to coast, and these meet-ups offer the opportunity for members to get together between our flagship events. We’ll spend over an hour chatting, connecting and networking. Register for the event here.

Members, please feel free to bring along a colleague whom you would love to introduce to the Circle! And any readers out there who are interested in learning more about WIRLC, think of it as a chance to get to know us better.

In this issue of the Inner Circle, we also feature part one of a two-part series from branding and merchandising expert Andrea Syverson about how to turn lemons (your customers’ pain points) into lemonade (opportunities). Part two will run in this space next week. We’re exited to feature Andrea, especially since she will be speaking at our fourth annual Women in Retail Leadership Summit, which is taking place in Miami on April 26-28. Along with Andrea, we have great speakers signing up every day. Check out the speaker roster here; and make sure to register for the event here.

Enjoy!