2025 Speakers

Courtney Rogers is a quick-thinking and highly informed gifting expert. To date, she’s worked with over 400 household brands and retailers, with years of experience in the retail and PR industry. Courtney works hand in hand with retail companies and is a regular expert called upon by top tier journalists. Courtney recently appeared to give expert commentary on programmes including Sky News, BBC Breakfast and ITV News.

Founder of CIJ Group and Retail PR, Courtney is knowledgeable within the retail sector, with a passion for business, entrepreneurship and supporting the industry to thrive. With her insights into hundreds of retail brands, she’s the first to predict the latest seasonal trends, as well as the hottest gifting products for all key occasions.

Courtney’s clients include Not On The High Street, Wilko, B&M Stores, Hobbycraft, Laura Ashley, Moonpig, Aldi, Homebase, Emma Bridgewater, Baylis & Harding, Remington, JoJo Maman Bébé, Hasbro, Menkind, Buyagift, LEGO, Kodak, Cricut, Red Letter Days, Wonderbly, ProCook, Russell Hobbs, George Foreman, Oxfam and Whittard of Chelsea.

When she’s not revealing and promoting the latest gifting trends, Courtney is dubbed the ‘Queen of Christmas’ for her knowledge and experience in the golden quarter.

The brains behind the hugely successful retail industry event’ The Big Christmas Press Show, which she has been running for the last 8 years. Courtney’s retail links means she’s always ahead of the curve when it comes to top presents, best buys and viral retail trends.

Courtney has an innate understanding of the retail landscape and is available to talk about retail trends, shopping predictions and provide commentary on deal periods, gift pricing,  and consumer shopping habits.

Milou Steenvoorden is a Consumer Engagement Leader with over a decade of experience in loyalty, CRM, and digital strategy. She works with global brands to design intent-led engagement strategies that drive deeper connections and long-term loyalty. Milou is passionate about helping brands listen better to its consumers, move beyond assumptions, and create truly consumer-centric experiences.

David has experience in leading Operational, Brand & Marketing, eCommerce, IT and Digital functions in FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies, most recently with Yum! Brands and Howdens where he was a member of the executive team that took the business into the FTSE 100.  David has worked in multiple international markets as well as the UK and is passionate about driving growth through building great customer focused brands that are powered by people and technology and engaged through great marketing.

Carl McCartney is the Global Sales Enablement Director at Les Mills International, where he leads global initiatives to equip commercial teams with the tools, training, and mindset to deliver world-class customer experiences. Previously Customer Experience Director at Les Mills UK, Carl is passionate about creating cultures where people—not just processes—drive loyalty and growth. He believes that emotional connection, not just operational efficiency, sits at the heart of retention. With a background in both sales leadership and CX transformation, Carl blends strategy with empathy to help teams create meaningful, lasting relationships with customers. At CustomerX, Carl will speak on building loyalty through human-first engagement, gamification, and the power of feedback to drive connection at scale.

Martina is a CRM and loyalty expert with 10+ years of global experience in luxury, fashion, and cosmetics, driving customer engagement, retention, and loyalty. She has built CRM strategies from scratch and optimised loyalty programs for global retail leaders and digital startups.

Passionate about data-driven engagement, Martina specialises in designing and scaling loyalty programs, including rewards, memberships, and personalised strategies to maximise customer lifetime value.

She currently leads CRM at Oner Active and previously managed CRM and Loyalty at EssilorLuxottica and AS Watson Group. Martina excels at building high-performing teams and creating meaningful customer experiences through data, innovation, and strategic execution.

I am a digital strategist and Business Transformation Leader with 19 years experience in shaping and delivering profitable growth strategy with seamless customer experiences in multiple industries globally.

My Expertise is to shape customer-experience transformation, adopt digital innovation combining tailored business growth strategy with cross-functional alignment, fit-for-purpose technology and actionable data to drive profitable growth at international level.

Claire is the founder and CEO of The Illuminate Alchemy, a consultancy working with brands and companies in supporting them to unlock their next stage of growth, including channel, business model and international expansion.

Previously to launching The Illuminate Alchemy, Claire was at Unilever for 7.5 years, where she served as the Chief Customer Officer of the Beauty and Wellbeing Business Group and the Digital Commerce Officer across the total group. There she was responsible the channel and retailer strategy across Beauty and Wellbeing, including the beauty capabilities development, digital and commercial transformation. She also led the Digital Commerce strategy, execution & capability across Unilever globally.

Before joining Unilever, Claire led the marketing team, as well as the business change programme ‘Single View of Customer’ at Selfridges. Responsible for all acquisition, retention and social media activity and defining a new programme of investment (capability and technology) for the CRM strategy for the business.

Before joining Selfridges, she was Head of Marketing & Content, for a Virgin Atlantic start-up, vtravelled.com. She has also held various consultant roles at beauty and fashion start-ups and was Head of Marketing, for Hearst Digital, the online division of The National Magazine Company.

Beyond work, Claire is a mum, wife, daughter, sister and a friend. Originally from London, she has a deep passion for Pilates, recently qualifying as a teacher and teaching children at her son’s school. She is a keen skier and runner and usually can be found listening to a podcast while walking her dog, Betsy, while making plans for her next travel adventure with friends and family.