Our second year of Canadian retail exploration is coming up with eTail Canada, a growing and exciting conference that will bring together some of the biggest names in retail who are pushing the envelope in the country’s online retail arena. Sadly, I’m not lucky enough to be heading there this year, but I did go last year and I must say that learning about the differences between US and Canadian omni-channel retailers was an eye-opening delight. It’s sometimes easy to be US centric when all the retailers you talk to are from this side of the border. That’s why it’s so important to get out of the vacuum and hear about what other people are doing. Sometimes they’re way behind where you think they should be, and sometimes they’re leaps and bounds ahead. I’m excited to hear about the new initiatives that brands like WalMart Canada, Lowes Canada and the Aldo Group talk about at the Toronto event.

Here are a few of the speakers I’m looking forward to (no, I won’t be there – that’s why I need YOU GUYS to tell me all about them…or if I’m lucky, they’ll be some of the ones chosen to be recorded):

– Drew Cashmore, Director Digital Marketing & Customer Acquisition, Walmart Canada
– Tanja Zelko, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing, Roots Canada
– Tara Conway, Director of ECommerce, Toys R Us
– Thierry Hay-Sabourin, Director of E-Commerce, Best Buy Canada/Future Shop
– Peter Sheldon, Senior Analyst, Forrester

There are plenty more who will surely be great too – if you want to see the whole list, just click here and check it out.