AGENDA
WHY TO EXHIBIT OR TO SPONSOR?
Oct 14
Wednesday, October 14
USD $12,000.-
8:00 pm – 11:00 pm
VIP Dinner (separate registration required).
Oct 15
Thursday, October 15
USD $12,000.-
8:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sessions & Expo
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Sit-Down Lunch
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Closing Networking Cocktail
18:30 – 20:00
Closing Networking Cocktail
Oct 15
Thursday, October 15
7:30 am – 8:30 am
Registration & Breakfast
8:30 am – 8:45 am
Opening Remarks
Speaker
Jorge Lizan
Managing Director
Lizan Retail Advisors
8:45 am – 9:15 am
Keynote
Building a Global Growth Engine: Inside Joe & The Juice’s Expansion Strategy
From one Copenhagen juice bar to nearly 500 stores across 20+ markets, Joe & The Juice is one of retail’s most watched expansion stories — with its sights set on 1,000 locations by 2028. Chief Growth Officer Sebastian Vestergaard reveals the growth engine behind that rise.
SPEAKER
Sebastian Vestergaard
Chief Growth Officer
Joe & The Juice
9:15 am – 10:00 am
Panel
The Franchise Playbook: Scaling Global Restaurant Brands Across Latin America
Senior franchise and development executives from some of the world’s most recognizable restaurant brands — spanning quick service, fast casual, and full-service dining — open up the mechanics of cross-border growth. The conversation digs into what actually decides whether a market becomes ten stores or two hundred: choosing the right master franchisee, structuring development agreements that survive reality, adapting menu and format to local taste without breaking the system.
MODERATOR
Javier Rancaño
Former CEO
Krispy Kreme
Panelists
Vice President of Business Development
Freddy’s
Mark Levis
Sr. Director of New Business Development
Denny’s
Brandon Gerstner
General Manager, Latin America & Caribbean
Dairy Queen
Sam Rothschild
Chief Strategy and International Officer
Slim Chickens
Peter Wright
Vice President of Franchising
Jollibee Group North America
10:00 am – 10:45 am
Panel
Location as Strategy: How Destination F&B Brands Choose Where to Land
For destination food-and-beverage concepts, the address is part of the product — a single, perfectly chosen site can launch a brand in a new city, while the wrong one quietly drains it. This panel brings together the deal side and the operating side of that decision: a global retail real-estate advisor on where capital and concepts are actually moving and how prime corridors are shifting across the Americas, development leaders from design-led international restaurant and café brands, and the local operating groups that bring global concepts to life in Mexico.
MODERATOR
To be confirmed
Sam Foyle
Co-Head of Global Retail
Savills
Panelists
International Brand Development Manager EMEA
Café Kitsuné
Master Franchisee
Ladurée
Manager of International Development
Darden
Isidoro Zaga
Master Franchisee
Myka Greek Frozen Yogurt
Master Franchisee Canada & Mexico
% Arabica
10:45 am – 11:15 am
Coffee Break
11:15 am – 11:45 am
Keynote
Bringing Global Brands to New Markets: An Operator’s Perspective
When Crumbl recently opened its first Mexico store, hundreds of people lined up around the block — the kind of launch most brands only dream of. But a viral opening is the payoff of years of groundwork, not luck. Federico Tejado knows that groundwork intimately: a founding partner of Alsea, he has spent his career building international restaurant brands — developing concepts across Brazil and Spain and helping grow the group’s portfolio to close to 5,000 units — and is now master franchisee bringing Crumbl to Mexico.
Speaker
Federico Tejado
Master Franchisee
Crumbl
11:45 am – 12:30 pm
Panel
The New Anchors: How Fun, Food & Play Drive Retail Destinations
In an era when almost anything can be delivered to your door, entertainment brands are winning by doing the opposite — giving people a reason to go out. Location-based entertainment is one of retail and leisure’s fastest-growing frontiers, blending physical space, beloved IP, food, and play into destinations built for togetherness. From eatertainment and family entertainment centers to the brands and characters that power them — to explore what makes an experience worth leaving home for: how IP translates into physical spaces, how these concepts scale across markets and cultures, and why, as screens dominate daily life, the appetite for real-world fun is only growing.
MODERATOR
Adrian Aguilera
Expansion Director
Cinepolis Brazil
Paulina Reyes Zazueta
Vice President and Executive Director
International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA)
Panelists
Antonio Bautista
President, International Development
Dave & Buster’s
Sandra Home
Sr. Manager Location Based Experiences & Promotions
Hasbro
Mario Centola
EVP & COO International Operations
Chuck E. Cheese
Adrián J. Romero
CEO
Timeless Brands
12:30 pm – 13:15 pm
Panel
The Business of Beautiful Things: Craft, Heritage & Modern Desire
Luxury and lifestyle are no longer about price tags — they’re about meaning, craftsmanship, and the stories that make people fall in love with a brand. This panel brings together an Italian heritage maison, a global fashion house, a new-generation lifestyle brand, and the developer turning brand desire into place, to explore how aspiration is built and sustained: how craft and heritage translate into modern relevance, how younger brands earn their place in a discerning wardrobe, and how curation, architecture and retail experience turn products into objects of belonging.
MODERATOR
Founder & Owner
Uptick New York
Panelists
Roberto Pulido
CEO
Mira
International Retail Director
Mango
Luca Marcato
Head of Business Development & Real Estate
Brunello Cucinelli
Founder & CEO
Flabelus
13:15 pm – 14:30 pm
Lunch
14:30 pm – 15:00 pm
Keynote
A Category of One: Scaling a Specialty Retailer Across Two Continents
This keynote comes from the founder of one of specialty retail’s most improbable success stories — a company that took a single, hyper-focused category and built it into more than eight hundred proprietary stores across Europe and Latin America, with Mexico among its largest markets. It’s a masterclass in the mono-category model: how doing one thing exceptionally well creates a defensible, high-volume business.
Speaker
President and founder
La Casa de las Carcasas
15:00 pm – 15:45 pm
Panel
Reinventing the Mall: Designing the Shopping Centers Global Brands Want to Be In
Every expansion plan eventually runs into the developer. As e-commerce absorbs the transactional and experience becomes the differentiator, the shopping center is being rethought from the ground up — less corridor of stores, more curated destination. This panel gathers the developers and investors building the malls and mixed-use districts of Latin America. A candid look at how the people who build retail environments weigh risk, tenant mix, and return.
MODERATOR
CEO
AMEFIBRA
Panelists
Eduardo Pérez Marchant
CEO
Parque Arauco
Eduardo Ramírez
CEO
Citelis
Co-Founder
Jaguar Capital
15:45 pm – 16:30 pm
Panel
Beyond the Transaction: Scaling Service and Lifestyle Concepts
Not everything in retail sells a product off a shelf — and some of the fastest-growing formats sell routine, community, and delight. This panel spans the widening world of service and lifestyle retail: accessible fitness at scale, asset-light salon and wellness formats, home-and-lifestyle retail, collectible toys and pop-culture concepts, and the big-box home and office banners that anchor daily life.
MODERATOR
Managing Director, Retail Portfolio Services
CBRE
Panelists
Executive Vice President of Business Development
Pop Mart
David Raya
Country Manager
Planet Fitness
Vicepresidente ejecutivo
OfficeMax México
Patricia Vélez
CEO
Ambiente Gourmet
Brian Kelley
President & CEO
Phenix Salon Suites
16:30 pm – 17:00 pm
Coffee Break
17:00 pm – 17:45 pm
Panel
The Business of What We Wear: Apparel, Footwear & Sport Brands Cross Borders
Few categories travel as far, or as fast, as the ones we wear. From value fashion to specialist lingerie, sporting goods to premium athletic apparel — and the multi-brand operators who run global names locally — international apparel and footwear brands are among the most active players in global retail expansion, each carrying a distinct proposition into new markets. on brand, and how format, price, and positioning decide who wins shelf space and share of wardrobe in a new market.
MODERATOR
Commercial VP, Old Navy & Victoria’s Secret Mexico
Grupo Axo
Panelists
CEO
Sportmex
Annie Cardinal
Vice- President, International
Ardene
Chief Development Officer / Member of the Managing Board
Etam
CEO Mexico
Decathlon
Carlos Sigüenza
Expansion – Lease Manager
H&M
17:45 pm – 18:15 pm
Keynote
The Store as Stage: Designing Retail Experiences People Travel For
The closing keynote comes from one of the pioneers of experiential and pop-up retail — the idea that a physical store is a storytelling medium, not just a point of sale. It reveals the how behind the experiential thread running through the day: the design, immersion, and “drop” mechanics that turn a store into a destination and a brand into a movement.
SPEAKER
Melissa Gonzalez
Principal & Shareholder
MG2
18:15 pm – 18:30 pm
Closing Remarks
SPEAKER
Executive President
Mexican Association of Department and Grocery Stores (ANTAD)
18:30 pm – 20:00 pm
Cocktail Reception
Oct 16
Friday, October 16
INSPIRATION EXCURSION: BEYOND THE STORES, INSIDE THE CITY
8:00 am – 8:30 am
Registration & Coffee Break
9:00 am – 6:00 pm
A field experience across Juárez, Roma and Condesa to explore how Mexico City turns culture, craft, community and behavior into businesses, brands and places people choose to return to.