Retail keynote speaker
Shoppers can buy anything online. They come in for people who make it worth the trip.
Real rooms. Real people. Real change.
Everyone now has the same AI, the same data and the same tools.
The only difference left is your people.
Your customer checked the price, the reviews and the stock on their phone before walking in, and they can finish the purchase from the parking lot.
The only reason to be on your floor is the person who greets them there.
Self-checkout, scan-and-go and curbside pickup took over the tasks that used to define the job. When associates stop believing they are the reason customers come in, customers stop believing it too.
Labor targets, shrink, scheduling apps and the district visit all land in the same week. Coaching the floor is the first thing that slips, and shoppers notice before the numbers do.
Same assortment, same promotion calendar, same price match as the store across the street. When the product is a commodity, the experience in the aisle is the one thing a competitor cannot copy.
Retail and consumer brands that trusted me, among others
From the stockroom to the regional office, your retail team is asking one of them, usually between two customers.
Will a machine do my job?
The better the machines get, the more your people will set you apart.
Why it lands with retail audiences: AI now forecasts demand, sets prices and answers the chat on your website. This shows associates and store leaders the work no algorithm can do: noticing the hesitant shopper, turning a return into loyalty and making a visit feel worth the drive.
Why does someone else get chosen?
What your people know rarely gets them chosen. What others see in them does.
Why it lands with retail audiences: shoppers decide in seconds whether the person in front of them is worth listening to. This shows your teams how appearance, behavior, communication, digital presence and environment, from the name badge to the fitting room, turn a browser into a buyer.
Before I ever spoke on stage, I ran the leadership academy of Europe’s largest retail and tourism group and booked its speakers myself. I know the difference between a talk that excites headquarters and one that survives Monday morning on the floor.
Before your event, I work side by side with your team to understand your people, from store managers to merchandising leads, and learn your loyalty program, your service standards and your store formats. Your associates recognize their own aisles on my stage.
I can open a store manager conference, close a vendor and brand summit or energize your pre-holiday kickoff, live or broadcast to every store. I can speak before store hours or in a short window between merchandise presentations, so nothing gets cut.
For store manager conferences and vendor summits, the 3D immersive keynote puts holograms and your story on the same stage. It is exactly the kind of experience you want your teams to create for shoppers.
Retail rooms mix people who rarely meet: corporate leaders, field teams and the associates who face customers every day. I speak to all of them at once.
No slides, no pre-recorded hologram beamed in from somewhere else.
I stay live in the room while your leaders, sponsors and theme step into the story.
How clients describe it, in their own words.
How clients make it their own.
I learned leadership inside a retail group. Now I help retail teams become the reason customers come back.
I’m Sylvie di Giusto. My leadership career was built in retail: I spent nearly twenty years inside corporations, the last of them as head of the leadership academy of Europe’s largest retail and tourism group, where I also booked the speakers. Retail taught me that a brand is only as strong as the person standing next to the customer. Today I’m a CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame keynote speaker, and among others, Nespresso, AutoZone, Natori or the American Gem Society trusted me with their people. Retail teams are on their feet all day, so when they finally sit down, I don’t waste a minute. They leave with ideas they can use on their next shift.
In their words, not ours.
This was the BEST presentation we had during this meeting and that I have ever experienced. There was so much value in what you left with us. I think you have taught me something that will stick with me forever and that I will be able to share with others in and out of work.
Sylvie was a pleasure to work with from the very start. She was responsive, well priced and accommodating to come into the office and meet with our team a few times. She exemplifies the characteristics that she teaches.
Sylvie was absolutely delightful as she embraced, engaged and empowered the AutoZone team during her International Women’s Week keynote presentation. She developed an instant connection and kept her audience captivated. She was responsive, well-organized and took the time to prepare well in advance, which included visiting an AutoZone store! We would highly recommend Sylvie; she has set the bar high.
It couldn’t have gone better! With her high energy style and sense of humor, she quickly had everyone’s attention. She showed us how we assess, and judge people based on just a few seconds of visual contact. But it went even deeper into other concepts around our motivations, our self-perception and how it impacts those crucial first seconds when meeting someone new. The interactive exercise engaged everyone as part of the program, not simply as the listening audience. She was a gem and I highly recommend Sylvie and her program in today’s return to work business environment.
Sylvie is highly knowledgeable in her area of expertise, personable, and engaging. The amount of positive feedback I received after the presentation was incredible! To top it off, Sylvie was flexible with our scheduling demands which made it all the more pleasant to work with her.
American Gem Society · Conclave keynote
The Power of Choice is built on my book The Image of Leadership, and this special edition takes it into retail and consumer goods, with a foreword by Dr. Matthias Bellmann. It is written for the people who carry a brand into every store, shelf and customer conversation.
It shows store leaders, associates and brand teams how appearance, behavior, communication, digital presence and environment decide whether shoppers trust them enough to buy. Many clients hand a copy to every attendee so the ideas reach the floor.
Algorithms now set the price, forecast the stock and answer the website chat. Forever Human shows associates and store leaders the human work that turns a browser into a buyer and a return into loyalty.
Readers come away seeing the store as the place where people make the difference online cannot. Many retailers give a copy to every store leader at their conference as a guide for staffing decisions around self-checkout and apps.
Sylvie di Giusto is a CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame keynote speaker who led the leadership academy of Europe’s largest retail and tourism group before she began speaking. Brands such as Nespresso, AutoZone or Natori trusted her with their people, among others. Her keynotes, Forever Human and The Power of Choice, are customized to your stores, your shoppers and your event theme.
The Power of Choice fits retail teams that need to turn browsers into buyers, because it shows how shoppers decide in seconds whether to trust an associate, a store or a brand. Forever Human fits retail leaders facing self-checkout, AI pricing and automated service, because it shows which parts of the job only people can do. Many retailers choose The Power of Choice for field teams and Forever Human for leadership meetings.
Sylvie di Giusto shows retail teams that people who visit a store expect something a website cannot give them: judgment, attention and a person they trust. Her keynote The Power of Choice breaks that trust into five dimensions associates can practice on their next shift, from the greeting to the store environment.
Yes. Sylvie di Giusto’s keynote Forever Human speaks to retail and consumer goods teams watching AI take over forecasting, pricing, chat service and checkout. It shows store leaders and brand teams what stays human, and why customers still return to people they trust.
Yes. Retail conferences often mix headquarters, field leaders and frontline associates, and Sylvie di Giusto customizes every keynote so each group recognizes its own world. Before the event she works with your team to map every level and uses your banners, your service standards and your language on stage.
Yes. Sylvie’s team can arrange copies of The Image of Leadership in Retail & Consumer Goods, which carries a foreword by Dr. Matthias Bellmann. Many retail clients give one to every store manager so the ideas travel back to each location. Clients can also give attendees copies of Forever Human, the book behind her Forever Human keynote.
As soon as your dates are set. Retail meetings tend to cluster right before and right after the holiday rush, so those weeks go first, and a customized 3D immersive keynote needs a little extra lead time. Check availability to hold your date.
I also serve audiences in food & beverage, hospitality & travel and sales. See every audience I speak to.
Dates, formats, the 3D experience and logistics for your event.
