The IRDC 2024 opening welcome reception, hosted by Visual Elements, came with a jazz band, a perfect start for an event taking place in Kansas City, Mo., a city known for its jazz scene.

Starting the first full day of IRDC was the keynote presentation from Michael Hingson. Born blind, Hingson and his guide dog survived 9/11 through trust and connection. Hingson told his story and imparted advice on attendees to trust each other and think of how designs can include people with different needs.

Workshops began after the opening keynote. Kelli Alldredge of Chicken N Pickle, and Cynthia Ortiz of MBH Architects used an interactive session, with giant Jenga games, to teach attendees about new ideas surrounding the concept of “experience” in retail.

During the workshop, “Move Over Coffee ~ Color has the Power to Energize You!” Andrea Magno of Benjamin Moore and Faith Huddleston of NELSON Worldwide helped attendees discover the secrets to unlocking color psychology.

After the workshops, breakout sessions began. Foot Locker’s Sarah Wexler and Landor’s Jordan Taylor examined how the brand is aiming to unlock everyone’s inner sneakerhead by emphasizing warmth, approachability and discovery through a reinvented store concept that takes a global approach.

The breakout session, “Sensorial Travel: The Power of Blending Hospitality, Experience and Retail,” gastronomy entrepreneur and lawyer Lucas Viglione, Gabriela Jagodnik of MTVD Design Studio + Ensemble Design Production Leader for Latin America and Sharon Lessard of Ensemble talked about how hospitality and retail influence each other, and how immersion affects the mind and body.

During the lunchtime presentation, VMSD’s New York Editor and President of Embrace Design, Eric Feigenbaum, talked about the important role mannequins play in store design and how they have evolved over the past century.

The first day’s general session brought Dayton Castleman of Verdant Studios and Sonia Spinks of Walmart Beauty to the stage to explain how artists and brands can collaborate for an exciting end result.

The evening’s main event, the 18^th annual Iron Merchant Challenge, co-hosted by ZenGenius, began with host Joe Baer of ZenGenius giving opening remarks and revealing the theme and secret ingredients for this year’s challenge.

This year, teams were challenged to create a biophilic window that celebrated nature. Fresh flowers from FloraSource KC were given to each team to use in their displays.

The bust forms, supplied and created by Bernstein Display and Silvestri California, were made using plant-based dyes covered in custom Shibori fabrics displaying unique patterns. Each team received a bust form with a colored pattern corresponding to their team color.

Teams also, as always, had to include the secret ingredient. This year, there two secret ingredients. The first, a Sonos speaker, supplied by Cue Gravity, and each team had to include a sound or music, challenging them to think outside of visual design and into audio as well. The second was a superb owl.

Cue Gravity supplied digital screens inside of each display. The teams were able to pick digital background that would enhance the design.

With displays provided by Axis Display and lighting provided by Amerlux, the teams decided their designs and got to work.

The teams were also supplied materials and tools from ZenGenuis to help them.

Each team had one team leader and comprised of designers, retailers, industry executives and students.

Some teams decided to work out the box ­– literally – and incorporated design elements that enhanced the outside of the display’s walls.

The fresh plants included greens and flowers unique to and corresponding with the color of each team.

As part of the materials provided by ZenGenius included recyclable paper of each teams’ colors.

As the clock ticked, the teams saw their designs come together. The winner would be announced on the second day during the VMSD awards luncheon.

The second day of IRDC began with a presentation from returning speaker Sarah Quinlan, who gave an update on the U.S. and international economies and what it means for retailers.

Next were the breakout sessions, which included a presentation from Vikas Srivastava of Fifth Third Bank and Declan McCormack of BHDP discussing Fifth Third Bank’s immersive new experience.

Juanita Garcia of Innova Sport, Jesse Moyer of Levi Strauss & Co. and Jose Padron of The Hershey Company discussed the process of scaling brand experiences to fit consumer need with Jay Highland of WD Partners moderating.

During the VMSD Awards Luncheon, the PAVE VMSD Scholarship + Experience recipient, Izzy Furiso, was recognized on stage with Joe Baer of ZenGenius and President of PAVE.

Also at the VMSD Awards Luncheon, the winners of the Peter Glenn/VMSD Retailer of the Year, VMSD’s Retail Renovation Competition, VMSD’s Designer Dozen and VMSD’s International Visual Competition were recognized and celebrated.

To conclude the VMSD Awards Luncheon, the winner of the Iron Merchant Challenge was revealed to be the Green Team.

The winning Green Team was led by Jeff Hastings who led the winning team of the 2023 Retail Challenge at Shop! Ideation.

Following the VMSD Awards Luncheon was the general session which brought to the stage panelists Jackie Farrar, Google Stores; Mark Brungo, Gensler; and Brian Alessi, Henderson Engineers for a discussion moderated by Brent Felten, Henderson Engineers about sustainable processes incorporated into Google’s flagship store.

Breakout session “Big Play in a Small Space: How Chick-fil-A Created a Meaningful Play Experience in Just 64 Square Feet” discussed Chick-fil-A’s new experience with Halle Hannaford and Gwen Newland of Chick-fil-A and Michael Trenary of Arcadis.

Moderated by Eric Daniel of Little, Amy Jordan of Goodwill of the Southern Piedmont, Olivia Biagi of University Co-Op at the University of Texas Austin and Daniel Montano of Little discussed purpose-driven retail design.

To close out IRDC 2024, musician and educator Dr. Monte Selby interacted with attendees in the audience for this creativity-driven keynote. Dr. Selby played hit songs with the crowd singing along, as well as a few of the hundreds of original songs he wrote, inspiring attendees to think about patterns, artistry and problem-solving.

The closing party, sponsored by Henderson Engineers, started at Blade and Timber, an axe-throwing venue where attendees showed off their skills.

In addition to axe-throwing, right next door is Sinkers Lounge, an indoor putt-putt experience for attendees to connect and play.