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Melissa Gonzalez
Principal at MG2 & Founder of The Lionesque Group, an MG2 Studio
Melissa Gonzalez
Principal at MG2 & Founder of The Lionesque Group, an MG2 Studio
Biography
Continually pushing the boundaries of experiential retail, Melissa Gonzalez is an award-winning innovator and storyteller. As Principal at MG2 and Founder of The Lionesque Group, an MG2 Studio, she is pioneering the integration of physical environments and digital retail to help brands such as Victoria’s Secret, Waterford, Ever/Body, Nordstrom, and Burrow foster consumer engagement and evolve their offering.
A passionate mentor and strategist, Melissa works hand-in-hand with clients to understand their greatest aspirations. She leads creative teams and delivers authentic design solutions from concept to completion, helping clients achieve their ultimate vision.
An innovator at heart, she is consistently recognized as one of the leading ‘Women In Design’, ‘10 New York City executives to watch in 2023,’ and ‘Top 10 Retail Design Influencers of the Year’.
When she’s not dreaming up innovative retail spaces, Melissa can be found seeking in unexpected places (like skydiving 10,000 feet above ground).
Speaker Videos
Pushing the Boundaries of Experiential Retail
Is Generative AI the Next Frontier in Store Development & Design? | Melissa Gonzalez at RetailSpaces
Speech Topics
Living in a Phygital World: Optimizing the Consumer Experience
Learn how an omni-experience approach to brick-and-mortar retail helps brands unlock “super consumers” by bridging their online platforms to the physical world.
Via a dive into best-in-class examples of multi-channel brands and retailers strategically meshing digital commerce and brick-and-mortar retail, your audience will learn:
- How to integrate the digital landscape within physical environments
- What the metaverse means for the future of consumer experiences
- How Generation Z is influencing retail of tomorrow
- Key insights around the evolution of consumers that inform the types of environments that brands should create and key metrics that illustrate the true impact of physical retail
Thriving as a Woman
As the owner of multiple business as well as working and thriving on Wall Street, in a male dominated industry, Melissa understands the strength in takes to be a leader, an award-winning business owner and a woman all at the same time. In this keynote, she shares her experiences, her challenges and her triumphs.
In this keynote she shares:
- How to maintain an exceptional work-life balance
- Why failing is not your enemy
- Understanding the nuances of timing and using them to your benefit
Building Environments for an Experiential World: How Real Estate Can Transform Tomorrow's Brands & Consumers
The consumer is evolving at a record pace. As a result, commercial real estate is being completely overhauled. Curating multi-use environments is helping but isn’t enough on its own to attract the brands and retailers of tomorrow.
In this session, speaker Melissa Gonzalez dives into strategies to position your company for the future of retail, including:
- How to achieve long-term value and increased NOI (net operating income) through the incorporation of experiential retail
- How re-engineering the leasing structure for more flexible leases can work for your business
- Learning how to define the new “white box” and how to create a holistic property experience
The Future of Retail
With technology advancing and reshaping today’s consumers at the speed of light, keynote speaker Melissa will lead you into the future and examine the forward-thinking trends that will impact the world of retail tomorrow. Customers want brands and retailers to know them better than they know themselves, regardless of how quickly they are evolving.
In this session, your team will learn how to leverage the key trends of today to answer the questions of tomorrow, including:
- How to create fans, not just consumers of your brand and the benefits of doing so
- Balancing automation vs. humanization of retail
- Rethinking the in-store format
- Why flexible,agile store design is critical to success
- What personalization and AI mean to the in-store experience
Entrepreneurial Leaders: Unlocking the Entrepreneurial Spirit with in Yourself & Your Team
From a trading desk to leading the industry’s shift to pop-up retail, learn how speaker Melissa leverages her skill set in business and finance to transition to a more creative endeavor. As your keynote speaker, Melissa will walk you through the twists and turns of her career and how her experiences along the way constantly informed her decisions and path to success.
Topics covered in this session include:
- Why “failing” along the way is sometimes the most critical path to success, and how to learn and iterate at a quicker pace
- Building a team that builds you and your company, the appropriate time for growth and the time to leap!
- How to determine the right path to scale your business by understanding what you need
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