Kate Ancketill

Why organisations work with Kate Ancketill

• Ten consecutive years delivering the headline trends keynote at the NRF Big Show in New York. Martine Reardon, NRF’s CMO and EVP of Content and Retail Strategy, attributes the repeat invitation to her audience feedback scores.
• An outside reference point for the argument a team is already having internally. A product director at EasyJet credited her material with helping move the business off three-year fixed budgets and roadmaps toward faster testing.
• Twenty-five years of client work at GDR Creative Intelligence with more than 100 brands, among them P&G, Tesco, Sephora, Microsoft, Google, Mastercard, Moët Hennessy, Lego, and the BBC, which is where her examples come from.
• A three to five year forecasting horizon, close enough for a board to commit budget against and argued from field research in Seoul, Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo, New York, London, and the Nordics.
• The 2025 Speaker Awards named her Best AI and Future Technology Speaker, and BizTech Magazine listed her among its top thirty IT influencers in 2024.

Biography highlights

• Founder and, for twenty-five years, CEO of GDR Creative Intelligence, the London trends, foresight and strategy consultancy, which she has now closed to speak and advise full time.
• Ten consecutive years as trends keynote at the National Retail Federation Big Show in New York, and on the programme at NRF Big Show Europe in Paris in September 2026.
• Innovation partner to more than 100 brands, including P&G, Tesco, Sephora, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Mastercard, Nestlé, L’Oréal, Richemont, Moët Hennessy, Lego, and the BBC.
• Keynotes delivered on five continents, to conference audiences of 3,000 and to leadership teams of ten.
• 2025 Speaker Awards, Best AI and Future Technology Speaker. BizTech Magazine Top 30 IT Influencers, 2024.
• Broadcast, podcast and print commentator on high street decline, consumer behaviour, sustainability in business, and machine learning and AI.

Biography

The trends keynote at the NRF Big Show in New York has gone to Kate Ancketill for ten consecutive years. Martine Reardon, NRF’s CMO and EVP of Content and Retail Strategy, attributes the repeat invitation to her audience feedback scores. She appeared at NRF Big Show Europe in Paris in September 2026.

For twenty-five years she ran GDR Creative Intelligence, innovation partner to more than 100 brands, among them P&G, Tesco, Mastercard, Moët Hennessy and the BBC. The consultancy tracked consumer-facing innovation across physical and digital channels and turned it into commercial implications on a three to five year view. She has now closed GDR to speak and advise full time.

The three to five year horizon does the commercial work. It is far enough out to change a format decision or a technology investment, and near enough that real examples already exist. Those examples come from field research in Seoul, Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo, New York, London, and the Nordics.

The material tends to get used once the event is over. Her content was referenced repeatedly in Nationwide’s afternoon exercise on future ideas, and at SSP International people messaged on Teams after the webinar to carry on the conversation. Her most requested talk goes a step further and teaches the method itself, a practical toolkit for projecting three to five years ahead that she rebuilds for whichever sector is in the room.

Key speaking topics

• Business futurism on a three to five year horizon
• Consumer-facing AI across retail, banking, travel and hospitality
• Organisational adoption of AI
• Practical forecasting method for business leaders
• The future of customer experience
• Gen Z and Generation Alpha as future customers
• The future of the high street and physical retail
• Sustainability and consumer brands

Ideal for

• Conference organisers building an AI agenda for non-technical audiences
• Boards in consumer-facing businesses, across retail, hospitality, banking and travel, making three to five year capital and format decisions
• CMOs, CX directors and innovation leads who need an outside reference point for a case they are already making internally
• HR and people leaders upskilling teams on AI and developing the next generation of board members

Audience outcomes

• Which retail and consumer innovations are worth acting on in the next three to five years, and which can wait
• Named examples of how global brands are already putting AI in front of customers
• A three to five year planning horizon they can take into a board or budget conversation
• Gen Z and Generation Alpha as commercial customers, with the buying behaviour that follows
• Ideas specific enough to start on the next working day, and an argument colleagues can repeat