The 2018 Loyalty Expo kicks off this week at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Fla., with an array of new offerings and a long list of distinguished speakers from some of the nation’s top brands.

More than 500 marketing industry leaders are expected at the Expo, which runs from Tuesday, May 15 through Thursday, May 17. It is presented by Loyalty360 the Association for Customer Loyalty.

This year’s Expo includes:

• Keynote Speaker Jeanne Bliss who is discussing her latest book, “Would You Do That to Your Mother? The ‘Make Mom Proud’ Standard for How to Treat Your Customers .” Bliss pioneered the role of the Chief Customer Officer, holding the first ever CCO role at Lands’ End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker and Allstate Corporations and moving the customer to the strategic agenda and creating transformational changes to each brands’ customer experience.

• Keynote Speaker Mitch Prinstein, author of book “Popular: The Power of Likability in a Status-Obsessed World,” which examines the role of popularity in our development, and how it continues to influence our happiness and success today. Prinstein’s perspective as a leading psychologist delivers a valuable message about what it means to be “popular,” and how that dynamic manifests itself in our everyday lives.

• Loyalty Landscape: The State of the Industry Report, which brings clarity to the current and future states of customer loyalty. The report includes benchmarking metrics and longitudinal findings regarding how brands are approaching challenges, technologies, customer data and measurement year-over-year.      

• The Inaugural Loyalty360 Top 10 Awards, which recognize excellence among the top tier of Loyalty360 members, stretching across multiple categories. The awards are judged by a panel of experts, based on success and influence in driving the industry through continued support, thought leadership, and advocacy.

• The Loyalty360 Awards, which are an annual showcase of customer experience programs that drive business success by using innovative tools and techniques to understand the customer and develop emotional bonds with them through outstanding customer experiences.

• General sessions led by brand experts, including:

           • Christine Duffy, President of Carnival Cruise Line, who is speaking on, “Inside Carnival’s Quest to Empower Employees and Improve CX in the High-Touch Cruise Industry.”

• Jim Lyski, EVP and CMO of CarMax, who is speaking on, “Data and Personalization Drive the Journey; How Carmax is Evolving to Meet Customers Whenever and Wherever They Want to Shop.”

           • Brian Popelka, SVP of supplier and customer care for Overstock.com, who is speaking on, “Helping the Customer Help Themselves: Overstock's Move Toward Self-Service Could Reimagine the Customer Experience.”

           • Jackson Jeyanayagam, CMO of Boxed, who is speaking on, “Loyalty Straight to Your Doorstep: The Story of Boxed, and How It Continues to Shake Up E-commerce.”

• More than 20 interactive workshop and breakout sessions focusing on:

• Loyalty Program Trends: Examining loyalty/referral programs, traditional and next-generation initiatives for rewarding and retaining loyal customers
           • Big Data & Analytics: Identification and collection across mediums and channels for strategic analysis, segmentation and descriptive and predictive results
           • Customer Experience: Creating tailored and targeted customer experience structures and processes 
           • Customer Relationship Management: Building strong and engaging relationships with your customers
           • Social Media: Understand how to best use this now vital channel  for reaching customers and rewarding advocates
           • Mobile: Taking your loyalty initiatives mobile to enhance the customer experience and further build customer engagement
           • Omni-Channel Loyalty: Delivering a consistent, relevant and optimized experience across all channels to match (and exceed) customer expectations 
           • Payments: Adoption of new payment technologies and embracing tender-neutral and tender-differentiated loyalty
           • Voice of the Customer: Designing effective strategies for creating robust customer dialogues and gathering and listening to feedback