Event Details
Date: Thursday 23 October 2025
Time: 8:00am – 10:00am AEDT
Venue: Ivy Ballroom, Level 1/320 George St, Sydney
Secure your spot today
Join us for the ARA x NRA Peak Season Insights Breakfast 25!
Join us on Thursday 23 October 2025 for the Australian Retailers Association and National Retail Association’s Peak Season’s Insights Breakfast, brought to you by Afterpay. This essential retail event sets the stage for a successful peak trading period.
Hosted by Chris Rodwell, CEO of ARA and CEO Designate of Australian Retail Council (ARC), this breakfast brings together top retail minds to deliver the latest trends, forecasts and consumer behaviours shaping the holiday season ahead.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Craig Woolford, Senior Research Analyst, MST Marquee
- Catherine Jolley, Head of Retail & Consumer Products, Roy Morgan
- Alexis Sitaropoulos, Director, Go-To-Market, Afterpay
- Chelsea O’Reilly, General Manager – Enterprise and Government, Australia Post
- Gemma Rees, Managing Partner and Co-founder, Fabric
Whether you’re a retailer, supplier or industry partner, this event is your chance to gain expert analysis and actionable strategies to help you stay ahead of the curve and maximise your peak season success.
More speaker announcements coming soon. Secure your place now and set your business up for peak season success.
Single Ticket
The Hon. Sonya Kilkenny MP
Attorney-General and Minister for Planning, Victoria State Government
Michael Schneider
Managing Director, Bunnings Group Limited
Dr Xanthe Mallett
Associate Professor of Criminology
Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research, Central Queensland University (CQU)
Darren Bark
Deputy Chairman, Biometrics Institute and Executive Director, Investigations and Counter Terrorism, NSW Police Force
Sarah Faorlin
Head of Acts of Violence & Aggression, Woolworths
Professor Gary Mortimer
Professor of Consumer Behaviour and Retail Marketing, Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Speakers
Catherine Jolley
Head of Retail & Consumer Products
Roy Morgan
Catherine Jolley is a strategic leader whose career bridges data, insight and creativity to deliver measurable impact for some of the world’s most iconic brands. With a career built on uniting data with big ideas, she helps organisations see clearly and think strategically in a changing retail landscape.
Her global experience spans Sydney, London, Singapore, North America and now Melbourne, where she has shaped strategy and growth for leading brands across all industries, with a particular focus on retail—including Telstra, adidas, Westfield, AMP and The Just Group.
After working with Roy Morgan data throughout her career, Catherine is now Head of Retail and Consumer Products at Roy Morgan, where she uses data to help clients understand retail trends and consumer buying behaviour. She was previously Director of Global Brand and Strategy at the University of Melbourne, and founded a strategy and insights consultancy later acquired by WPP.
She thrives on combining creativity with data-driven insight to anticipate and shape what’s next in retail.
Chelsea O'Reilly
General Manager – Enterprise and Government
Australia Post
As the General Manager of Enterprise and Government, Chelsea is passionate about delivering business transformation to support better outcomes for Australia Post customers and her team.
With over 13 years at the company, she has a proven track record of building and leading high-performance teams across Sales, Service, Product, Solutions and Partnerships. Throughout her career, Chelsea has led change by using her natural ability to bring cross-functional groups together to drive collaboration and focus on outcomes that ultimately benefit our customers.
Chelsea has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, is a Certified Organisational Coach and an advocate for mental health and wellbeing.
Gemma Rees
Managing Partner and Co-founder
Fabric
Gemma Rees is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Fabric, a strategic creative agency backed by TBWA and dedicated to shaping the future of fashion, retail, and lifestyle brands.
With over two decades of industry experience across the UK and Australia, Gemma has played a pivotal role in driving the success of some of Australia’s most iconic retailers, including Woolworths, Westfield, David Jones, Vicinity Centres, Big W, Sheridan, Bras N Things, and Modibodi, among others.
Known for her ability to forge trusted, collaborative partnerships, Gemma helps brands unlock commercial growth through culturally resonant, disruptive platforms that deliver both strategic impact and bold, meaningful ideas.
Alexis Sitaropoulos
Director, Go-To-Market
Afterpay
Alexis Sitaropoulos is an experienced brand and marketing leader known for his creative vision, commercial acumen, and deep understanding of culture and consumer behaviour. With a strong background in strategy, media, and storytelling, Alexis has worked across leading global brands to drive growth and innovation at the intersection of brand, technology, and commerce.
Craig Woolford
Senior Research Analyst
MST Marquee
Craig Woolford is the lead consumer sector analyst at MST Marquee and has been covering all aspects of the retail sector in Australia for more than 23 years. He was previously the Head of Research and also the lead consumer analyst at Citigroup for 16 years and before that CommSec.
Craig’s clients include major superannuation funds that invest in the retail sector and companies across the retail value chain looking to understand the factors that will impact retail sales and profitability. Craig and his team also have a website, retailmosaic.com.au where subscribers can access his insights on the sector and key retailers.
Craig is highly ranked by his investor clients and regularly cited in industry journals and the media for his insights about the state of Australian retailing and performance of the major companies across the retail and food and beverages sectors.
Agenda
8:00 AM
Registration, Refreshments and Networking
8:30 AM
Welcome to Country
8:40 AM
Opening Remarks
Chris Rodwell, CEO of Australian Retailers Association (ARA), CEO Designate of Australian Retail Council (ARC)
8:45 AM
Breakfast Served
8:45 AM
Keynote: What Drives a Better Christmas for Retailers in 2025?
Craig Woolford, Senior Research Analyst, MST Marquee
9:05 AM
Panel: Festive Forecast: Trends That Will Shape Peak Season Performance
Catherine Jolley, Head of Retail & Consumer Products, Roy Morgan
Alexis Sitaropoulos, Director, Go-To-Market, Afterpay
9:45 AM
Audience Q&A
9:55 AM
Closing Remarks
Chris Rodwell, CEO of Australian Retailers Association (ARA), CEO Designate of Australian Retail Council (ARC)
10:00 AM
Event Concludes
Event Partner
Afterpay is an Australian fintech company offering buy-now-pay-later services via interest-free installments. Partnering with global retailers, it smooths checkout experiences, boosts sales, and enhances customer loyalty. Launched in 2014 and acquired by Block, Inc., it focuses on responsible spending and transparent payment solutions.
Gift Partner
T2 is a specialty tea retailer born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1996 with a mission to transform the simple act of drinking tea into an extraordinary ritual. Today, T2 has grown into a globally recognised brand, sharing the artistry of tea across Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Blending tradition with innovation, T2 reimagines the humble tea leaf—crafting bold, unexpected blends while honouring centuries-old rituals. Inspired by people and places around the world, T2 infuses creativity into every cup, making tea more accessible, enjoyable, and exciting through all the senses.
As a proud B Corp, T2 is committed to sustainable and ethical impact, sourcing responsibly and designing with care for both people and planet. Guided by values of mindful craftsmanship, community, freedom from convention, and the elevation of daily rituals, T2’s vision is simple yet ambitious: to reimagine tea as the world’s favourite drink, celebrating the journey from earth to cup.
Event Partners
In busy retail environments, tensions can rise in an instant — from customer disputes to theft attempts. That’s where Reveal comes in. Since 2002, we’ve worked closely with frontline teams to design body-worn cameras that don’t just record — they de-escalate.
Our cameras feature a front-facing screen that shows people they’re being recorded, often stopping conflict before it starts. Footage is securely uploaded and managed through our digital evidence platform, giving managers fast access to clear, time-stamped video. Whether it’s resolving a complaint or supporting a prosecution, Reveal helps get to the truth quickly.
Trusted by leading high-street brands globally, our technology is now available to Australian retailers through our local partner, C.R. Kennedy. Designed for ease of use, built to withstand daily wear, and backed by a powerful evidence platform — Reveal gives retail teams the tools they need to feel safer, act with confidence, and respond faster when it matters most.
The Safer Places Network (SPN) is Australia’s national register of security cameras. The platform allows homeowners and businesses to register their external cameras, making evidence collection seamless and almost instantaneous for police investigations. Police officers currently spend millions of hours manually collecting and managing CCTV footage. SPN’s founder, former Victoria Police Detective and software developer, David Bartlett, set out to leverage his unique combination of skills to radically speed up this stage of a criminal investigation.
This innovative Public-Private-Community Partnership (PPCP) not only saves police time collecting evidence, thereby redirecting resources to active community policing, but also significantly boosts crime clearance rates, saves taxpayer dollars, and enhances community safety.
SPN is free for the community & police, developed with privacy-first, ethical surveillance principles and is completely voluntary.
Start Beyond is an internationally acclaimed virtual and augmented reality studio that specialises in creating immersive learning experiences.
Clients include Accenture, Meta, Australian government departments and companies such as St John Ambulance, Woolworths, Westpac, CommBank, Australia Post, UTS, and Qantas.
Start Beyond has delivered over 1.8 million VR & AR experiences.
Since 2019 Start Beyond has worked with Woolworths. Their managing aggressive customers program; led to 50,000 employees completing the training within four months.
Based on its success Start Beyond has launched Minaca VR; Managing Incivility Negativity and Customer Aggression. Launch partners include UTS, The Reject Shop, and Optus.
This low-cost VR program teaches frontline workers how to de-escalate customer aggression. Its high-conflict scenarios in Retail, Hospitality, Health & Aged Care, help customer-facing staff learn through experience – without the real-world risk. Minaca VR allows businesses to meet their WHS requirements, reduce staff turnover and build a resilient workforce.
