Google and Yext to present keynote at Retail Week Live

The technology firm’s head of performance Biren Kalaria and Yext chief executive and co-founder Howard Lerman will discuss the impact of changing search technology on the retail sector at Retail Week Live, taking place on March 8 and 9.

Kalaria and Lerman join the conference line-up alongside industry heavyweights such as Sainsbury’s Mike Coupe, IKEA country manager Gillian Drakeford, Halfords chief executive Jill McDonald and Shop Direct chief executive Alex Baldock.

Their presentation will examine how retailers can succeed when the rise of connected devices, machine learning and AI assistants means that technology is making more purchasing decisions for today’s shoppers than ever before.

Kalaria has acted as head of performance for Google’s UK division since 2015 and is responsible for driving data integration, mobile adoption and sales for the technology firm’s marketing partners.

Lerman launched Yext in 2011 and has since grown the company into the global leader in location data management.

The Yext Location Cloud enables companies to manage information about their business locations across their websites, mobile apps, internal systems, and the industry’s largest ecosystem of maps, apps, social networks, directories, and search engines.

The location data specialist was unveiled as a headline partner for Retail Week Live last month.