GROW LAAPR 22, 2026
Directors Guild of America, West Hollywood
Presented by
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APPLYNOW!
Complimentary tickets for senior retail leaders. 700 C-Suite, operators & innovators. 1 unmissable day of practical strategies & valuable networking.
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Free ticket
$500 bonus
The connections, strategies & relationships you'll build at GROW are unmatched; we prioritize access for people who are building significant brands, implementing cutting edge strategies & are open to talking and sharing with others.
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Whatyourticket unlocks
HANDS ON SESSIONS
BETTER CONNECTIONS
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HIGHLY-RATED TECH
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$500 BONUS
Past SPEAKERS
GROW Speakers have been there, done that. During main stage talks, panels & interactive workshops, you’ll hear from senior executives & operators from:
Michelle Carrara
RETENTION PANEL: Turning First-Time Buyers into Lifelong Customers
Acquiring a customer is the beginning, not the win. The brands growing most efficiently today are the ones converting first purchases into second, third, and tenth — through better onboarding, smarter lifecycle programs, and loyalty mechanics that actually change behavior. This panel explores what retention looks like in practice: how to identify high-LTV customers early, what keeps people coming back, and where most brands are leaving money on the table after the first sale.
Samuel Sternberg
Rethinking Reach: Media Mix and Customer Realignment
The channels that drove growth three years ago aren't the channels driving it today. Paid social costs have risen, search behavior is shifting with AI, and brands are being forced to rethink where and how they reach customers — and which customers are actually worth reaching. This panel examines how leading brands are rebalancing their media mix in real time: where budgets are moving, how customer segmentation is evolving, and what a sustainable acquisition strategy looks like when the old playbook no longer applies.
Ricky Grenis
Uninterrupted: How Brands Reach Customers in Moments Where Attention Already Exists
Customer acquisition has traditionally been built around interruption: stopping the scroll, breaking into the feed or competing for another click. But the most valuable attention may already exist. Leaders from ButcherBox, Swirl Wine Shop and Nift will explore how brands can reach new customers inside trusted, positive moments—when people are already engaged and open to discovery.
Rachel Thaw-Steindel
Your Automation Rate is Wrong. What Can You Do About it?
Most DTC brands deploying AI in CX are promised automation rates of 60–80% but running around 15% in production. My goal is to get operators to diagnose that gap. The thesis: the issue lies in the lack of human involvement in AI deployment and upkeep. From there, the conversation moves toward what closing that gap looks like in practice: what human agents do differently, and how they are supported beyond the ticket queue. Participants should leave with one question: not "do we need better AI?" but "do we have the right human model around the AI we already have?"
Jordan Thompson
The Agent Placed the Order. Here's What Happens Next.
AI agents can now discover products, compare options, and complete purchases on behalf of shoppers—but far less attention has been paid to what happens after the transaction. In this fireside chat, ESW explores why the next phase of agentic commerce won't be defined by who owns discovery. The brands that win will be the ones that can stand behind the order after the agent clicks "buy" - with the confidence that it will be fulfilled correctly, delivered as promised, and supported end-to-end.
Mike Krau
Beyond Paid Media: How Brands Are Investing in Organic Growth and AI Search Discovery
As customer acquisition costs rise and consumers both discover and evaluate brands across Google, social platforms, creators, and AI-powered search, organic visibility is becoming a more important part of the growth strategy.This roundtable explores how brands are bringing SEO, content, organic social, digital PR, and AI search together as one connected system. We’ll compare where teams are investing, what is driving meaningful traffic and revenue, and how marketers are measuring channels that do not fit neatly into last-click attribution. Get the real operator perspective: what is working, what is not, how teams are improving their visibility in AI search, and how they are building the internal case for greater organic investment.
Corey Balint
Turning Klaviyo Segments into Streaming TV Performance | Vibe.co x Klaviyo
CPMs keep climbing and everyone's retargeting the same 3% of shoppers. More performance marketers are turning to streaming TV for real growth.Vibe.co and Klaviyo work together in the same stack. This session gets into exactly how. A Klaviyo growth expert grills Vibe.co's Rachel McGovern and Shinesty's Head of Growth, Danny Hershey, on how Shinesty synced segments like cart abandoners, VIPs, and lapsed customers straight into premium CTV inventory. No managed service, no black-box reporting, no minimums. Campaigns launch in 24 hours, on channels people actually watch.
Jordan White
OPS PANEL: The New Era of Retail Operations
The back end of retail has never been under more pressure. Consumer expectations for speed, flexibility, and transparency have outpaced the infrastructure many brands were built on — and the cost of getting it wrong shows up immediately in returns, reviews, and churn. This panel digs into how operators are modernizing fulfillment, inventory, and logistics in a landscape where margin is thin and execution is everything.
Drew Marconi
The AI Experimentation Stack: Don't Guess at Your Growth
No brand wants to guess at growth. The problem has never been a lack of testing tools or ambition. It's bandwidth. In this fireside chat, Drew Marconi sits down with Cody Plofker to break down how he built a high-output experimentation practice, using AI to do the heavy lifting. Cody shares exactly how he's wired together Intelligems, Claude, and a handful of connected tools into a system that ideates faster, ships tests without waiting on a developer, and reports in real time. If you want to discover and validate your growth paths with AI, this session is for you.
Rebecca Fitts
Rethinking Reach: Media Mix and Customer Realignment
The channels that drove growth three years ago aren't the channels driving it today. Paid social costs have risen, search behavior is shifting with AI, and brands are being forced to rethink where and how they reach customers — and which customers are actually worth reaching. This panel examines how leading brands are rebalancing their media mix in real time: where budgets are moving, how customer segmentation is evolving, and what a sustainable acquisition strategy looks like when the old playbook no longer applies.
Past SPEAKERS
GROW Speakers have been there, done that. During main stage talks, panels & interactive workshops, you’ll hear from senior executives & operators from:
Michelle Carrara
RETENTION PANEL: Turning First-Time Buyers into Lifelong Customers
Acquiring a customer is the beginning, not the win. The brands growing most efficiently today are the ones converting first purchases into second, third, and tenth — through better onboarding, smarter lifecycle programs, and loyalty mechanics that actually change behavior. This panel explores what retention looks like in practice: how to identify high-LTV customers early, what keeps people coming back, and where most brands are leaving money on the table after the first sale.
Samuel Sternberg
Rethinking Reach: Media Mix and Customer Realignment
The channels that drove growth three years ago aren't the channels driving it today. Paid social costs have risen, search behavior is shifting with AI, and brands are being forced to rethink where and how they reach customers — and which customers are actually worth reaching. This panel examines how leading brands are rebalancing their media mix in real time: where budgets are moving, how customer segmentation is evolving, and what a sustainable acquisition strategy looks like when the old playbook no longer applies.
Kelly Gardiner
The C-Suite Playbook: Leading Transformation When the Ground Keeps Moving
Retail executives are under pressure to innovate faster than ever — while keeping organizations stable, aligned, and financially healthy. This roundtable is your opportunity to hear from senior leaders making the hard calls: which AI bets are worth the investment, how they're managing board-level expectations, and how they're keeping teams motivated through constant change. You'll get candid, behind-the-scenes perspectives from peers navigating the same pressures — and walk away with hard-won lessons you won't find in a keynote.
Arda Bulak
Why Good Subscribers Go Cold: The Hidden Drivers of DTC List Degradation
Noticeable drops in open rates, rising spam complaints, and falling revenue per send usually trigger one instinct: add more segmentation. But slicing your list into complex sub-segments just creates more data maintenance for your team.The real fix isn't more rules—it’s a fundamental shift in audience management. In this short roundtable, we’re sharing the exact strategies we use to optimize high-growth and turnaround Klaviyo accounts.
Whattoexpectatgrow la
Coffee, breakfast, friendly chats
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Big ideas on stage (no fillers)
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Tons of interactive workshops. No fluff
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New tactics from top brands
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Great food, drinks & snacks all day
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Curated intros + 1-1 meetings
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