Conference News: Economist’s Nuclear Option; RetailClub’s Remarks; New Developer Event
Atomic in London: On 15 April 2026, the inaugural Economist Nuclear Summit will be held at Convene 200 Aldersgate, St. Paul’s in London. The Nuclear Summit will co-locate with the Fusion Fest, which takes place the previous day (14 April) at the same venue. The Economist explained, “After years of debate, nuclear is moving from the margins back to the mainstream. From hyperscalers searching for stable, low-carbon power to heavy industries such as manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, and beyond, these sectors stand to benefit as nuclear delivers energy security, resilience, and innovation at scale.”
We are Developers in the US: Docker, Inc, the company behind the platform designed to help developers build, share, and run container applications, and WeAreDevelopers, one of Europe’s largest conferences for that community, recently announced a strategic partnership to launch WeAreDevelopers World Congress in North America in 2026. Taking place from 23 -25 September in San Jose, the event will be “designed for developers of all stripes, from AI engineers and open-source contributors to backend devs and cloud-native builders.” Applications for sponsorships and speakerships are open now. Learn more about this new gathering of 10k developers here.
Submission Opportunity: The goal of the Digital Summit events is to “inspire and enable digital marketing leaders for growth, revenue generation, and brand influence.” Conference sessions cover everything from Content Marketing to Analytics, Social media to Brand Strategy and more. They are currently seeking speakers for two of their 2026 events: Tampa, FL (March 17-18, 2026) and Chicago, IL (April 7-8, 2026). According to the conference organizers, they are looking for experts “with a tactical digital marketing tutorial, case study, or digital-jedi-wisdom to share.” Apply via their online form ASAP. No hard deadline on this one but once spots are filled….
Conference Organizer Q&A: We spoke this week with Krystina Gustafson Co-Founder & Co-CEO for RetailClub, which recently announced dates for next year’s RetailClub AI Festival (22-24 September; Huntington Beach). The 2026 promises an “exclusive gathering of 2,000 retail industry leaders and trailblazers” looking to move beyond experimentation and incremental change toward a full-scale AI transformation.
Speaker Strategies: What differentiates the RetailClub AI Festival from other retail conferences? There are three key differentiators, the first being festival experience. Unlike traditional events, attendees get to curate their own experience from start to finish, to meet their personal and professional goals at a time of massive disruption from AI. Another way we differentiate is by offering new ways of networking and learning. We think of every aspect of RetailClub AI Festival as an opportunity to exchange ideas and meet potential new partners or peers. Finally, we are the only AI-native retail event, building retail’s first AI-native community. It is designed to help the industry move beyond experimentation and incremental change toward a full-scale AI transformation.
Speaker Strategies: What about your next event most excites you? From idea to execution, we successfully launched our inaugural event, AI Deepdive Retreat, in less than 100 days. I knew we were creating something special but experiencing it on site honestly blew my mind. I’m most excited to see what we can accomplish by having a full 11 months to plan RetailClub AI Festival. We’ll lean into the things that people loved about the Retreat – the interactive content, the group activities, and the intimate on-site experience – and take it to an entirely new level.
Speaker Strategies: So much changes so quickly around AI – how do you determine which topics to cover?This will be a new challenge for us in 2026. In just two months since the Retreat, the conversation around AI in retail has already changed dramatically. ChatGPT launched Instant Checkout and the Atlas browser; major players like Walmart and Shopify have entered industry-shaping deals with OpenAI to enable agentic commerce; and traffic and conversions from AI platforms are both trending higher. To determine which topics to cover, we constantly need to be talking to the retail community, reading the news, and staying on top of the latest research. We also need to bake in a level of flexibility so we can pivot toward or away from certain topics as new developments and capabilities arise.
Speaker Strategies: What do you believe makes for a memorable presentation or conference session? There’s a never-ending stream of AI headlines, covering everything from new partnerships and product launches to AI’s ethical challenges and economic impact; yet the magnitude of AI’s impact on retail, business and society is only beginning to be felt. The best speakers successfully expand attendees’ ways of thinking about the long-term challenges and possibilities, while also providing some short-term tactics and ideas to implement immediately.
Coming Up Next Week: Fortune Brainstorm AI SF runs from 8-9 December at the St. Regis San Francisco, featuring leaders from Google Cloud, OpenAI, and Rivian who will address the rise of the agent and its potential to unlock productivity gains. From 10-11 December, AI Summit NYC convenes enterprise leaders and tech innovators looking to explore and apply commercial AI. The theme for next week’s WSJ CEO Council Summit (9-10 December; Washington, DC) is “Law, Politics, Technology & the Changing Context of Business.” Council member chief executives can expect to address what tariffs, geopolitical conflict, and an accelerating technology revolution means for business in 2026. The 9th edition of Financial Times Global Boardroom Summit (9-11 December) is held virtually across time zones and gathers 100 leaders from business, finance, government and academia to discuss challenges facing industries and economies worldwide, including trade tensions and climate change to AI and technological transformation. From 8-11 December, Black Hat Europe offers its attendees the latest in research, developments, and trends in cybersecurity.