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I'm your host for today's interview and Mazinga and I am so excited because we have another exciting conference that's coming up and while it is the very first time we'll be going to this conference, the team behind it has brought you some of our all time favorite events.

You know them as the founders of shop talk, money 2020, grocery shop and others.

So it is with great pleasure that I introduce today's guest and one of my dear friends and colleagues and respected mentors in the industry, Christina Gustafson Toro, the chief content officer and founding member at Tribe.

Christina, it's so good to have you on the show.

Thanks for taking the time.

Yes, it is so wonderful to see.

You an I know in this new role.

Congratulations, first of all.

Thank you.

It's been a whirlwind.

It feels like I started yesterday and 10 years ago all at the same time.

Oh my gosh.

I know.

Like we, we're all hit with it at Grocery Shop.

Like just exciting news.

You're moving to this new role.

For those listeners who don't know you though, maybe give, give them a quick, quick background on you and then let's dive into Tribe and your role there.

Yeah, happy to.

So I joined the Tribe founding team by way of Shop Talk.

As you mentioned, I spent about seven or eight years there in a content role the past four years leading the content team.

So that was, you know, speaker selection, agenda composition across Shop Talk, Grocery Shop, Shop Talk Europe and Shop Talk Fall, which is the genesis, started right before I left.

Prior to my time at Shop Talk, I was a retail reporter over@cnbc.com and also edited some of their consumer verticals like wealth, autos and consumer and then prior to that was a web editor over at Women's Wear Daily.

So journalism, storytelling, content has really kind of been in my blood my whole, my whole career.

And at Tribe, you know, really, I would say my mission is very much the same, to make sure that I'm pulling together the most compelling agenda and speaker lineup possible.

But being part of the founding team, I think it's also carving out something truly unique for our attendees that transcends content, I think in a way that some of our previous events maybe didn't just, just because of the nature of them.

Well, let's, let's dive into what Tribe is kind of the origin story a little bit, if you will, of, you know, why Tribe, why now?

And why is it important to do a conference like this?

Yeah, great question.

So Tribe is basically a one of its kind conference where really I would say the genesis came from our collective experiences across Shop Talk, Grocery Shop, FinTech Meetup and Money20 20.

So, you know, reflecting on my time at Shop Talk, one of the things that I was incredibly proud of was the amount of women representation that we had on our stages year in and year out.

So, so the past three years that I had been leading content at Shop Talk, we had 50% women speakers.

And when you think about the scale of our agendas, you know, 250 such speakers starting at the VP level and higher, it really was a feat and it was something that we were all, as a team, incredibly passionate about and really, really proud of.

When we kind of take a step away from that.

Our founding team, when I stayed on at Shop Talk, they went off and founded FinTech Meetup.

Again, gender representation was something that was incredibly important to the team, but a lot harder to achieve in that industry, fintech and financial.

So I think for them that was the aha moment of, you know, when you take a look at the work that is happening across the landscape.

A lot of the same conversations and great pockets of work are happening in specific silos.

You know, whether it's groups specific to retail, to specific job titles, to specific roles.

But it was this idea of why don't we bring everyone together at scale to really drive the most impact at once.

And I think what is really unique about how we're approaching things is it's not just the conversation about advancing women that transcends industries, but it's also conversations about things like emerging technologies, change management, brand building that really sort of transcend industries and come together.

So that's really what we're hoping to achieve.

It's just sort of a large scale conference that brings Together women across consumer, commerce and tech, across roles, across job levels, across company sizes.

So everyone from early stage startup all the way to a Fortune 500 company is, is really who we're targeting for the show.

Yeah, let's dive into that a little bit more because I think, you know, sometimes these conferences the assumption might be like this is a conference for all women who should go to Tribe.

Like who, who's your, who are you, are you talking to right now?

Who are you passing along the Tribe link registration link to these days and who should we, we all be talking to about it?

That's a fantastic question.

So I think, you know, our perspective is anyone who feels that they can get value out of being at the conference, we want to be there.

One of the differentiators I would say about Tribe is that we're not a membership based organization.

All you have to do is buy a ticket, come to attend, anyone can purchase a ticket.

It's not limited to women.

We can dive into that a little bit later.

But really I think just anyone who is interested in learning from and connecting with the smartest buy ins in business across consumer, commerce and tech.

To your question though about kind of, you know, who this event, event is for if we, if we double click into what some of the business themes are going to be on our agenda.

I think really a lot of the roles that this event will be super applicable to include marketing, E.

Comm, Digital data analytics, strategy, finance, operations.

We are really being very thoughtful to make sure that our content covers all of those really big functional roles and programming the agenda in a way that is super interesting and informative to women no matter what department they are in.

I actually thought it might be helpful and I jotted down a couple, couple of folks who are speaking because I.

Thought, I love that.

Let's talk.

I mean that was gonna be my next question.

Like let's talk about like maybe even some of the agenda items.

Like even I think, you know, it's with these new, like this being a new conference, I think we, we're setting expectations right now.

So maybe, yeah, share with us a few of the speakers, even some of the things that they'll be talking about.

Yeah, no, I think it's, you're exactly right because I can rattle through, you know, it's retail, it's qsr, it's travel, but it's like, doesn't really come to life until you, you kind of, I'll just kind of run through a couple and give you some titles again just to give you the diversity of the company roles as well as the vertical.

So folks like the CEOs of PacSun, Milani Cosmetics and Habit Burger and Grill, which is part of the Yum Brands portfolio.

We have the founders of disruptive startups like Carrot, fertility care.com, dagny, Dover and Agentsync.

We have the Chief Sales Officer from MGM Resorts as well as the Las Vegas Raiders, the COO at topgolf, the Chief Digital Officer at BSE Global, which, which is the venue, the Barclays center as well as the Liberty and the Nets.

The Chief Financial Officer at Cava, which I think everyone knows is a very fast growing and very hot brand.

The Chief Marketing Officers at Taco Bell, KFC Beyond Yoga, chief data and analytics officers at DoorDash and Chime, and the CIO of US capital markets at BMO.

So a lot of very interesting women, a lot of very interesting roles from some very powerful and interesting companies.

Christina, what are some of the topics that we're going to be hearing them talk about?

I mean, that's an unbelievable speaker lineup.

Like explain for us a little bit about.

I think, I expect that we'll hear a little bit of their career journeys, but then also I imagine like technology, they're investing in how they're solving problems.

Like what's, what's kind of some of the tracks, if you will, on the agenda.

Yeah, I love that question.

I think one of the things that I am incredibly passionate about in building the content for this event is that we want to showcase women doing the work because at the end of the day, that's what leads to business opportunities.

That's what leads to the opportunity to hire fresh talent.

That's what leads to just sort of all sorts of things that will help you not just kind of in the future with your, with your career development, but also just in the media term, showcasing your knowledge about topics like AI, about brand building and the such.

So the way that we really think about our agenda is three pillars.

The first is business success, the second is personal growth and the third is professional development.

So business success will be a lot of the topics that I have rattled off previously.

And what we're really after on the business success topics is cross programming these topics throughout different industries.

So you're not going to have the fintech track, the retail track, the travel and hospitality track.

The idea is if there's a session on personalization, you're going to hear from the VP Loyalty at Marriott, the head of Insights at JP Morgan, and then perhaps, you know, a vp, a large retailer, everyone across these industries is dealing with personalization in their own unique ways.

They have their own unique challenges when it comes to accessing first party consumer data.

How do they compile it, how do they make sense of it and how do they leverage it.

And so our thinking is if you're in personalization at a retailer, you probably know the folks in your industry who are best in class.

But maybe you haven't heard the perspective of someone from a Marriott that their insights could really open a new way of thinking for you when you're starting to trying to solve the problems in your business.

The personal growth and professional development topics to your point are also essential to the show.

We do want to make sure that we are highlighting successful women talking about the steps that they've taken in their career to get where they are, quite frankly.

And so the way that we are approaching this is it's going to be really high impact, almost TED Talk style presentations where women will get up on stage and talk about how they made the jump from VP to C level.

That's where we're going to have the chief sales officer from the Las Vegas Raiders speaking.

We're going to have women talking about how to be an effective board member.

The other thing that I'm really excited about, I've rattled off a lot of very senior women who are speaking at the show.

But we're also going to be doing personal growth and professional development on our rising leaders track.

And that's where we're going to be featuring women more at sort of the manager director level.

So that if you are at that point in your career, you can also get firsthand insights from folks, you know, who are similar to your level and maybe giving you advice that's more applicable, you know, in the immediate term next year because you probably have a couple years until you're becoming the C, the CMO of a large retailer or brand.

I think that really helps understand how we might make the business case for attending a conference like this when it's not, you know, it's easy sometimes when it's, it's vertical specific for us to be like, I'm going to this, you know, to shop talk because I'm going to learn about retail and what my competitors are doing and find new technologies in this space.

But I, I think that's something that's really powerful and I hope, you know, you can even help us reiterate that.

Just like if I am trying to go to my manager and say right now like how do I, how do I make the case to go to Tribe, like, what would you say to somebody like me who's kind of trying to make that, that jump?

That's a really great question.

I think that it really comes down to your functional expertise.

And to your point, you're not only learning from women in your industry.

Right.

You want to be best in class at marketing, you want to be best in class at operations.

And there are so many different things that we can learn from women who are facing similar challenges, but again, have different tools in their toolkit to solve those.

Challeng.

I think it creates a different sort of light bulb moment.

I mean, I would also take a step back and just say, like, what is commerce these days?

Like, what is consumer these days?

Because quite frankly, all of these categories are blending and merging with each other.

We are seeing so many partnerships that are happening.

Right.

Even thinking about, you know, companies that are tying their loyalty programs together or companies that are becoming corporate sponsors for NBA and various sports teams, it just sort of feels like we're at this inflection point in business where the rules aren't quite as rigid anymore.

And so the possibilities there, I think are, are quite endless.

You know, the other thing that I would say too is talent is a huge part of this.

Right.

You know, I don't think, and correct me if you feel differently but you know, if you are a senior leader at kfc, let's say for example, are you only going to be looking at talent from the QSR industry?

I don't think the answer to that, yes.

And so by bringing together, you know, sort of these rising women leaders as well as the established women leaders, I think it just also kind of creates this two way conversation where there's opportunities for hir for recruiting and.

Yeah, just all sorts of partnerships and collaborations which of course are powered by our meetup technology and.

Right, well, tell us, tell us what they've won.

Christina, tell us about the meetup technology.

Great segue.

I'm so glad you asked.

And no, in all seriousness though, the founders of Tribe also are the founders of a company called Persona Tech.

They are the folks who created the end to end events platform that all of the Shop Talk events run on.

And basically what that means is they power everything from registration all the way to event feedback at the end of the show.

The reason why that is important is because everyone can build a custom profile, say exactly who they are, scour through the hundreds and thousands of people who are attending these events, select who they want to meet with, opt into requests and really create very targeted networking opportunities while they are at the event.

So I know I rattled through a couple of examples earlier, but say you're looking for a mentor, you can tick that in the box and look for women who perhaps you want to mentor.

You could do the revers of that.

It could relate to buying and selling opportunities.

You know, we are also going to be having both sides of the coin at this event where it's solution providers as well as technology buyers.

So those meetings will of course be happening.

The other thing that I think is really cool about this technology, especially in the context of Tribe, is that it also powers networking events.

So even outside of that meetings, speed dating program, you know, let's say someone wants to host a dinner for CMOs, they can go through the platform and see everyone who ticked themselves as a CMO and customers send invitations to those folks to their dinner.

So it's a very tech powered, customized networking opportunity fueled event, if you will.

That's, it's really incredible.

We've done the meetups at other conferences and you do really get to dial into exactly that person that you want to talk to.

I, I want to thank you, Christina and Caroline and the organizers, Anil Simran, everybody for who've kind of put this together because I said this in my post when I originally came on to do this show and we will be out at Tribe in May.

But I think the most important thing that I've learned from my career has been getting outside the box and being able to get inspiration from people in other industries.

And I'm fortunate that I am on some boards where I get to do that.

But I really think that that that is an opportunity that so few people have the opportunity to be exposed to.

And this is really like taking that set of expertise and, and really finding or being able to use that as a way to connect with other people to you know, whether it's through the meetups or it's through, you know, going and seeing how like you said, how Marriott is doing.

Loyalty, like loyalty exists in healthcare, it exists in finance, it exists, you know, in retail.

And so there are moments of inspiration that I think we are getting in some of those very, very particular settings like a board meeting.

That, that I think this is really, to me that's really the, the value here of the Tribe event is being able to get, draw that inspiration, draw that knowledge from, from someone that you never would have thought of or never would have been exposed to.

And I really appreciate that you all are doing this for, for us.

I am very passionate about that.

And I think at the end of the day, you don't know who, you don't know, and you never know what one interaction with someone could lead to.

It's funny, I look back at my past years at Shop Talk and some of the women that are speaking at Tribe now.

Barca Saxena, who was the chief data officer at Poshmark at the time, she's now the chief data officer at Chime and she's coming and speaking.

We're having conversations with some other women who were previously on our advisory board and have now moved outside of retailers.

And, you know, they're coming to speak at Tribe.

So I think it really just speaks to the power of building a network and it doesn't always have to be within your own community.

I would also challenge, you know, as you think about being at industry specific events, of course there's a ton of value.

And I think to your point, sometimes it can be more.

More obvious on the surface.

But also you sometimes end up in an echo chamber.

Right.

And sort of with the same people.

And there's a tendency, I know I'm guilty of it whenever I go to some of these industry conferences where I'm connecting with people that I already know.

And so I think this whole notion of discovery and also just kind of, you know, breaking down barriers, making it easier for women to connect.

I mean, when you think about some of these sales opportunities like we were talking about earlier, even if you don't sign a deal tomorrow, you know, meeting a woman in this context where you're talking about just kind of overall career growth and then, hey, you know, six months down the road when they are looking for a solution, that barrier has come down and they're open to that conversation with you.

And when maybe they wouldn't have been six months prior.

Right.

Or talent.

I love the talent call out because I think that's.

That's been a challenge for a lot of people right now too.

It's like, how do you figure out what your next move is?

And then as.

As somebody who's hiring people, you know, a lot of these skills are transferable, especially now, regardless of industry, so.

Well, I want to get you out of here on this question.

What should I be most excited about seeing it?

Tribe.

So I have two things.

Can I cheat and pick two?

You can pick.

You can choose to.

Yes.

Okay.

The rules are flexible here.

Christina, I know you run a tight ship.

I've seen you run panels.

I just want to make sure I can, I can get away with it.

But I think Honestly, it's hard for me to just pick one.

I think one thing that I'm really excited about is our coverage of consumer health and well being, specifically women's health.

But it will be more holistic than just women's health.

It's funny because when we were first ideating the show and what verticals we wanted to cover, we knew we wanted consumer health to be, be a piece of it.

But I don't think we realized just how much exciting innovation was happening in that space.

Also, a lot more investment dollars are going toward it.

So I think I mentioned before the co founder of Care Fertility speaking on our keynote stage.

We are also going to be featuring the head of the Women's center at NYU Langone, which is, everyone knows is a very prominent center, very well respected.

They're going to be talking about women's health throughout the decades and the various things that you should be keeping an eye on throughout your journey because, because I think we can all admit we don't pay close enough attention to our health.

And we're also going to be doing peer group discussions on really controversial taboo topics like, you know, managing menopause in the workplace, managing fertility challenges in the workplace.

You know, we're not thinking we're going to be health experts here telling you medical advice.

It's more just how do you manage medical appointments, how do you manage, you know, the last minute nature of, of scheduling that some of these fertility treatments require.

So kind of giving it a business perspective and talking about how to have those conversations with your boss if you're not comfortable and things like that.

So I'm very passionate about all those topics.

And then the other thing that I would say, I mentioned it earlier, but the fast track, the short presentations from women practitioners talking about the real tactical steps that they took in their own careers to get to where they are and be successful, I think is going to be very impactful, impactful.

So really looking forward to that.

Amazing.

Christina, thank you so much.

Again, remind us who can go to this conference and how they register for it.

Yes, anyone can come.

For the men and allies out there listening, we do actually have a whole page dedicated to allies.

Would love to have you come to the show, participate in the meetings program, come to the content table, talk, send women from your team.

We have a whole array of ways that you can get involved on that page, but in terms of actually purchasing a ticket, we have a special code for our Omnitalk listeners.

It is $250 off the standard rate.

So it's bitly backslash tribe code, all one word, tribe with a y.

And then the code is omni250.

So bitly backslash tribecode and the code is omni250.

And we will have that in our show notes and posted with this online.

So if you're listening after you don't have I have that.

That written down, we'll make sure that we get at you access to that.

Thank you again, Christina, Congratulations again on your new role and on the launch of Tribe.

We're so excited to see you all in Vegas, May 20th through 22nd at the Aria in Las Vegas.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Christina.

Thank you so much.

An.