Eric Olson is vice president of education strategy at the National Retail Federation. In this role, he is responsible for aligning, developing and delivering educational content for NRF members and others through the organization’s annual convention, conferences, summits and other events.
Additionally, Olson works with internal knowledge leaders, company consultants, NRF committee members and industry solution providers to help identify key trends and topics; relevant, well-informed speakers; and appropriate forums for content delivery. He has additional responsibility for optimizing the use of NRF speaker assets across multiple events and educational programs.
Prior to joining NRF in 2008 as senior director, Olson worked with member-based organization Vendor Compliance Federation as director of content and programming where he served in a key management capacity with the responsibility for enhancing and expanding events programming and related content. He also spent 13-plus years with Retail Systems Alert Group, an industry research and events company, in various management roles including vice president of content, vice president of products and services, editor-in-chief/publisher of ERI – Extended Retail Industry Journal, and editor of Retail Systems Alert Newsletter.
Olson has an extensive understanding of retail IT, supply chain process, retail-supplier collaboration and international retailing, including Asia-Pac and Europe. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in English.