Current speakers

Speaker Melissa Gonzalez is a Principal at MG2, a global design and architecture firm, and leads the firm’s Advisory Group. Drawing on her success as a Wall Street executive, as well as a seasoned entrepreneur who has worked side by side with some of the fastest growing direct to consumer companies and well established brands, she advises on how to leverage forward thinking insights with innovative strategy from concept through implementation.

Continually pushing the boundaries of experiential environments, she and her team have pioneered the integration of physical and digital with cutting-edge concepts, helping companies such as Nordstrom, Victoria’s Secret, and Good American foster foundational consumer engagement and evolve their offering.

Melissa is the author of The Pop-up Paradigm: How Brands Build Human Connections in a Digital Age and has produced more than 200 brick-and-mortar experiences across the country for both fast growing DTC and digital native brands as well as established retailers looking to think differently. Her projects are dedicated to creating immersive moments in a way that drives ROI and helps clients convey compelling stories to their audience.
 
She has received prestigious recognitions including: one of the Top 10 Executives to follow in NYC in 2023 by New York Journal, one of WWD’s “25 Most Influential Women Leaders of 2022”, one of the ‘Top 10 Women In Design’ of the year award by Contract Magazine, was recognized as one of the Top Voice in Retail by LinkedIn in 2019, and as design:retail’s ‘Top 10 Retail Design Influencers of the Year’ in 2018.

Melissa has also been quoted in The New York Times, Morning Brew, Forbes, Glossy, and The Wall Street Journal and is creator and host of the Retail Refined podcast which explores the in-store technology of the future. A sought-after speaker, Melissa has presented at Shoptalk, World Retail Congress, NRF’s Retail’s Big Show, and Vogue Business Summit. When she’s not recording podcasts or dreaming up innovative retail spaces, Melissa can be found seeking inspiration in unexpected places (like skydiving from 10,000 feet).