A retreat like no other, challenging the status quo.

Arrival at Oakley Court, breakfast, coffee and welcome.

This session will welcome attendees, introduce our hosts, and establish the spirit of the next two days together, creating the conditions for candid, high-quality dialogue, and valuable insights. 

Commerce media has entered its next chapter, bringing a new set of leadership challenges with it. 

Drawing on lessons from elite sport, behavioural science and high-performing teams, Damian Hughes explores what it takes to lead through change, stay adaptable under pressure and bring people with you as the landscape shifts. 

Expect powerful stories, practical insight and fresh perspective on how leaders can navigate what comes next with greater confidence, curiosity and resilience. It will also set the tone for two days of open conversation, shared learning and new thinking across the room. 

As consumer attention fragments and more channels compete for investment, are we seeing a fundamental reallocation of marketing budgets or simply an evolution of the media mix?

How are brands balancing long-term brand building with short-term performance, creative platforms with activation, and established media with emerging channels? As budgets shift, where does commerce media fit? Is it attracting genuinely incremental investment or drawing spend from elsewhere, and what must it deliver to evolve from a fast-growing commerce channel into a core part of the brand marketing mix? 

Consumer behaviour is evolving faster than most retail media strategies can adapt. Shoppers are moving fluidly between platforms, channels and formats, with discovery increasingly shaped by creators, communities, social commerce and AI. At the same time, category behaviours are diverging,  from value-driven essentials to impulse-led discovery and convenience-first shopping. 

This session explores the consumer and category shifts reshaping media investment today, and the strategic priorities commerce media leaders should consider now to ensure their networks, partnerships and propositions remain fit for the shopper behaviours of tomorrow.

A brief pause to capture the key threads from the morning before breaking for lunch.

Lunch is served, with the option of an informal walk outside for those who want some fresh air before the afternoon sessions.

Commerce media has spent years building capability. The next challenge is making those capabilities work together. Drawing on new research from SMG, IAB and IAB UK, this interactive session puts some of the industry’s most familiar assumptions on trial. The audience will weigh the claims, examine the evidence and consider what closing the connection gap could mean for the next phase of growth.

Attendees split into focused roundtable groups to dig into three of the most pressing issues in commerce media right now.

Roundtable 1: Off-Site — Growth Engine or Identity Crisis? 

Off-site media — spanning programmatic, social and CTV — is now the fastest-growing area of retail media. For some, it is the key to becoming a true full-funnel channel; for others, it risks turning retail media into a data business competing with established adtech giants. This discussion explores whether off-site is retail media’s next evolution or the start of an identity crisis. 

Roundtable 2: The Challenge of Orchestration

As tech stacks grow more complex and the pressure to integrate retail media with the wider marketing mix intensifies, orchestration and connectivity has become one of the industry’s most pressing operational challenges. This session explores what genuinely joined-up looks like and what is still getting in the way. 

 Roundtable 3: The Commerce Media Access Problem – Can Collaboration Solve Fragmentation? 

With hundreds of global commerce networks now on offer, how do RMNs access incremental budgets? With fragmented platforms, inconsistent standards and disconnected ways of working, this session explores how retailers, technology partners and agencies can collaborate to reduce friction without losing competitive advantage to unlock incremental growth. 

A chance to put down the phones, step outside and do something completely different together. This afternoon is about connection, a bit of friendly competition and remembering that the best relationships are rarely built in meeting rooms.

Time set aside for attendees to rest, refresh or catch up before the evening begins.

The evening begins with drinks and a short reflection from our hosts on the standout moments and themes from the day, offered informally as part of the pre-dinner gathering.

Settle into a cosy armchair with your favourite drink as Professor Damian Hughes sits down with Dame Laura Kenny for an exclusive interview. From leadership and resilience to performing under pressure, this intimate conversation will offer personal reflections, remarkable stories and insights from one of Britain’s most successful Olympians.

An evening together to continue the conversations, build new connections and enjoy the surroundings.

An optional start to the morning for those who want to enjoy some movement before the sessions begin.

Welcome to the room, a reminder of yesterday’s highlights and what is coming up today.

The future of commerce media is arriving faster than most organisations are prepared for. Frank, fast-paced and deliberately forward-looking, this session is designed to provoke as much as it informs.

The Great Shakeout: The RMN Landscape in 5 Years

The macro economic forces reshaping global trade, consumer spending and media investment are the defining context in which retail media’s next chapter will be written. Daniel Knapp shares his perspective on how these forces will accelerate the shakeout already underway, which networks will have a genuine reason to exist in five years, and what leaders need to be doing differently right now. 

From Influence to Purchase: The Creator Commerce Revolution 

The digitalisation of the retail landscape is not slowing down, it is accelerating in directions that most networks are not yet built for. IAB UK shares their perspective on what the next wave of creator-driven commerce will actually look like, how the path to purchase will continue to evolve, and why the decisions retail media networks make about content, audiences and creative in the next two years will determine who leads and who gets left behind. 

The Measurement Gap: Why Retail Media’s Biggest Threat Isn’t Competition – It’s Credibility 

Retail media is attracting serious budget and serious scepticism in equal measure. Without consistent, comparable measurement, the industry’s credibility problem will outlast its growth story. Marie Clare Puffett on why standardisation is a strategic priority, and what it will take for commerce media to hold its ground in the upper funnel rather than spend the next decade relitigating its value.

What does a world-class commerce media network partnership actually look like from the brand side, and how far is today’s reality from that ideal? A seasoned brand marketer speaks candidly about what is working, what isn’t, and how brand expectations are shifting as retail media networks grow in scale and compete for a larger share of the overall marketing budget. This is a rare opportunity to hear an unfiltered brand perspective in a genuinely private setting.

Four leading commerce media operators, three very different markets. One fast-moving discussion. In this lively facilitated session, CMN leaders from the US, UK and Europe take the hot seat to debate the biggest challenges, competitive advantages and strategic shifts shaping commerce media around the world. Which markets are moving fastest? Where are brands pushing hardest? Who is leading on measurement, off-site, integration and partnerships – and where is there catching up to do? Expect sharp perspectives, friendly rivalry and honest comparisons from some of the industry’s most influential global leaders.

What does a truly effective retail media partnership look like when all three sides of the table are genuinely working well together, and what gets in the way of that in practice? Representatives from a retail media network, a retailer and a brand speak candidly about shared ambitions, misaligned incentives and the honest compromises that define the tripartite relationship today. The lessons discussed here are rarely aired in public, which is precisely what makes this session worth attending.

The closing session draws together the threads from across the two days. Rather than a simple summary, this is an honest reflection on what has genuinely resonated, what has shifted in the room and what attendees are going to do differently as a result. The group is invited to share their own reflections, with contributions gathered from conversations throughout the event woven into the closing narrative. 

Join us in a final opportunity to connect over some lunch before departure from Oakley Court

Thank you for joining us at the Retail Media Leadership Summit!

The Retail Media Leadership Summit is designed exclusively for retail and commerce media executives working at retailers or other businesses with a commerce media offering.

We will be hosting an exclusive VIP group of senior leaders from the world of commerce and retail from across the UK, Europe, and North America.

The Retail Media Leadership Summit is free to attend for all invited guests, inclusive of meals and accommodations at Oakley Court.

The Retail Media Leadership Summit will be held at Oakley Court, Windsor Rd, Water Oakley, Windsor SL4 5UR. More Information about the venue can be found here. 

For those travelling internationally, the closest airport is London Heathrow airport (12 miles away, 20 min drive). 

For those travelling from Central London, board the frequent train service from London Paddington to Slough and then get a 15 minute taxi straight to the venue. Other nearby train stations to the venue include Taplow (3.5 mi) and Burnham (4.8 mi).

There are plenty of parking spaces at Oakley Court available onsite for guests. You do not need to reserve this beforehand, simply turn up on the day. There are 2 spaces with electric plug in outlets.