Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
In this episode I welcome back to the podcast one of the savviest and experienced operators in the eCommerce world, Rob Schmults from Mid Ocean Partners who shares his quick “two starts, one stop” based on his observations of year one of the COVID era, and Veronika Sonsev and Scott Silverman, co-founders of CommerceNext on how their powerful community lead the way to their action-packed agenda.
********
Thanks to Rob, Veronika and Scott for being on this episode. Today’s podcast is the first in a series of CommerceNext episodes that will feature some the fantastic speakers taking the virtual stage January 20, 27th and February 3rd with snapshot insights into how they dealt with online /eCommerce in the first year of the COVID era and lessons learned for the future.
You can learn more and register for CommerceNext here.
Get in touch with Scott and Veronika
If you liked this podcast please subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon podcasts or your favourite podcast platform, rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.
I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn
Until next time, have a safe week!
Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.
Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.
Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.
Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.