Sheffield will welcome some of the biggest names in technology, digital marketing and e-commerce in September as a new event aims to help northern businesses get to grips with the rapidly changing world of AI-powered commerce.
Future Ready Digital: North, created by Sheffield-based technology and digital agency Reach Studios, will take place at the Millennium Gallery on Friday 18 September, bringing speakers from Google Cloud, Trustpilot, Semrush, Dotdigital and US agency Corkboard Concepts to the Steel City.
The one-day event has been designed for e-commerce businesses looking to understand not simply what AI might mean for their sector in the future, but what its growing influence on search, marketing and purchasing decisions means for them now.
From the way consumers discover brands to the technology influencing what they eventually buy, established models are changing quickly. Future Ready Digital: North will examine those shifts while giving businesses practical ideas they can apply to their own digital strategies.
For Reach Studios, the event also represents an opportunity to bring international expertise to Sheffield and create new connections between global technology businesses and the North's commercial community.
Jonty Ward, commercial director at Reach Studios, told unLTD: “At Reach Studios, we believe in partnerships that strengthen our local business network and support investment and talent in our region.
“With the launch of Future Ready Digital: North, we aim to deliver tangible value to northern businesses through our partnerships with world-leading organisations. By attracting outstanding industry leaders from the UK, Europe and the USA to speak in Sheffield, we are creating a platform for sharing knowledge and learning from the very best.”
FROM AI SEARCH TO THE FUTURE OF SHOPPING
Among the headline speakers is Reece Medway, account executive at Google Cloud, who will explore what is being described as the next major development in online retail: agentic commerce.
His session will look at the evolution of AI from technology that generates content to systems capable of taking actions on behalf of consumers and businesses. With more than $3tn in revenue expected to flow through agentic commerce by 2030, the implications for retailers could be substantial.
For businesses already grappling with changes to conventional online search, meanwhile, two sessions will examine the increasingly important question of how brands appear within AI-generated answers.
Graham Wilkinson, head of agency partnerships at Trustpilot, will discuss AI visibility and trust, including how businesses can develop content strategies suited to a world in which purchasing decisions are increasingly influenced by AI platforms.
Fernando Angulo, senior market research manager at Semrush, an Adobe company, will take that conversation further by examining the structural signals influencing which brands are cited by platforms including Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. Crucially for businesses attending, his session will include practical actions organisations can take over the following 90 days.
The programme will also tackle two familiar commercial priorities being reshaped by AI: customer loyalty and paid advertising.
Tash Halligan, senior enterprise account executive at customer experience platform Dotdigital, will explore what personalisation looks like beyond simply adding a customer's first name to an email. Drawing on research involving more than 3,000 consumers in the UK, US and Australia, she will look at how expectations differ between generations and markets, and where the channels favoured by marketers may differ from those their customers actually want to use.
Joining the line-up from the US is Jordan Atchison, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Corkboard Concepts. His session will focus on how high-growth brands are adapting paid media strategies across Google, Meta, TikTok and programmatic advertising as AI changes consumer behaviour. The emphasis will be on using AI, creative strategy and first-party data to improve return on advertising spend and make revenue more predictable.
PUTTING SHEFFIELD FRONT AND CENTRE
Hosting the inaugural event at the Millennium Gallery gives the event a distinctly Sheffield setting.
Opened in 2001 and now an established part of the city's cultural landscape, the gallery sits alongside the Winter Garden and close to the Crucible Theatre. Reach Studios chose the venue to reflect the event's focus on new perspectives, progress and wider cultural impact.
The main programme will run from 11am until 4.30pm, but conversations will continue afterwards with Future Ready Digital: After Dark. The networking drinks reception, beginning at 5pm at a nearby venue, will give attendees an opportunity to meet fellow business leaders and speakers, discuss the day's ideas and potentially develop new commercial partnerships.
Future Ready Digital is the latest initiative from Reach Studios, which works across web, mobile, automation, AI and e-commerce strategy and development. The Sheffield event is intended to be the first in a wider series of business-focused programmes planned around the UK during 2027.
Future Ready Digital: North is free to attend and aimed specifically at businesses working in the e-commerce space. Places are limited and available by invitation only, bringing together local entrepreneurs for a day of fresh thinking, useful conversations and new connections. For those navigating the opportunities and challenges of a fast-changing digital landscape, it promises to be a valuable day out of the office – with plenty to take back to the business afterwards.
Register your interest today at futurereadydigital.co.uk
