If you missed CES – the International Consumer Electronics Show – this past week, consensus seems to be that you haven’t missed much. Celebrating its 50^th year, much of the news (aside from the blackout) coming out of the show reports that while innovative, many of the products showcased seemed to be more in the realm of possibility than ever coming to fruition for purchase by consumers. And notably, the products seemed to be focused on only one audience: Boomers. It’s been considered a miss by many critics.

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For marketers, technology presents an opportunity for you to reach and connect with your audience – ALL audiences. Content marketing tools, for example, help you plan and craft your brand’s most engaging messages. Social media tools help you get them into the hands of the right people. Marketing automation platforms help you streamline and automate your processes, among other things. The only catch? You can’t entirely remove the human element from the equation and let technology do it all.

Enter NRF 2018– the National Retail Federation’s marquee event dubbed Retail’s Big Show & EXPO. For more than a century, NRF’s annual convention and EXPO has been the annual gathering for industry luminaries and leaders, and it remains the place where big things happen in retail. This year, they’ve upped the ante in relevant tech through The Innovation Lab, designed to inform retailers of all the tech possibilities available on market to help them better engage with their consumers – both in and out of store.

If you’re attending, be sure to stop by Retail 2020: An immersive, interactive showcase for visitors to experience how each leg of the shopping journey is being transformed using the most recent advances in augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, facial recognition, big data, robotics and more. Through custom-designed simulations you’ll experience a unique view into how Retail will transform over the next three years. Businesses who learn to incorporate their proprietary customer data into these new experiences will be ahead of the curve when engaging their customer base in new, exciting ways.

Is a hands-on demo more your speed? Then don’t miss the Emerging Technologies Showcase where you’ll “touch” cutting-edge technologies like AI, AR/VR, computer-generated images, robotics and wearables and learn how they can be used to make businesses more productive.

NRF 2018 kicks off tomorrow at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Thirty-six thousand attendees from 90 countries are expected for the Sunday-through-Tuesday event.