Case study / Events / Moderation and facilitation
Making the room do the work.
How Georgia Leybourne moderated the Changemaker Theatre morning programme and the closed-door Marketplaces Think Tank, powered by ChannelX, at CustomerX 2026, RetailX’s cross-sector commerce summit at Olympia London.
At a glance
One day, two very different formats.
1,000
Senior leaders at CustomerX 2026
4
Stage sessions led, from fireside chat to keynote introduction
40
Seats in the closed-door Think Tank, all senior retail and brand leaders
3 hrs
Of panels and peer roundtables, with no breaks
Client: RetailX Events and ChannelX
Event: CustomerX 2026, The Cross-Sector Commerce Summit, Olympia London, 14 to 15 October 2026
Role: Stage moderator, Changemaker Theatre (morning). Panel moderator and roundtable facilitator, Marketplaces Think Tank (afternoon)
Date: Wednesday 14 October 2026
The brief
Two roles, two very different jobs.
CustomerX is RetailX’s summit for every industry that serves the customer, built around how brands win, keep and grow customers across sectors. RetailX wanted moderators who could do more than read out questions: people who know the industry, can prepare properly, and can turn a conversation into something the audience can use.
The Changemaker Theatre: keep the morning sharp
Run the stage from 10.50am to lunch: housekeeping, a fireside chat with Just Eat, a loyalty conversation with Eurostar, and the introduction of a keynote on product claims in AI search. Each session needed its own preparation, and the morning needed to flow as one programme.
The Marketplaces Think Tank: a decision room, not a conference panel
A closed-door afternoon, powered by ChannelX, for 40 senior delegates from leading UK and international retailers, brands and marketplaces. Three panel provocations of around 25 minutes, each followed by around 25 minutes of peer roundtables, all held under the Chatham House Rule. The moderator’s energy would drive the room: manage dominant voices, draw out quiet ones, keep sponsors helpful rather than salesy, and land practical outputs.
The work
On the stage and in the room.
Different formats, one approach: prepare thoroughly, keep the audience at the centre, and make sure every session ends with something people can act on.
01. Prepare like a strategist, not a presenter
Every session started with homework. Georgia worked from each speaker’s synopsis, spoke with panellists and their teams ahead of the day, and reshaped questions around what the audience would want to take away. For the Just Eat fireside with Caroline Bates, she folded the Just Eat team’s own questions into her flow: how the platform works, balancing partner ROI, customer value and margin, and lessons for mainstream online retail.
02. Turn buzzwords into practice
In the Eurostar session, Georgia named the buzz phrase in the title and asked Sophia Laban to unpack it: what “connected loyalty” actually means for a Eurostar customer, what makes a partner the right fit, what had been harder than expected, and what to get right first.
03. Hold the stage together
Georgia ran housekeeping, linked sessions so the morning felt like one story, introduced Jason Forbes of XEO360 for the keynote on product claims in AI search, and closed the theatre for lunch on time.
04. Provoke, then hand the room the problem
Georgia moderated “Winning in Crowded Marketplaces: Building Brands Customers Choose” with two senior ecommerce leaders from well-known consumer brands, going straight at the tensions: brand equity on someone else’s platform, who owns the customer relationship, where trust is most at risk, and whether marketplace data builds real loyalty. She then set the room a mission: how do brands get chosen again without relying on a discount?
05. Facilitate the roundtables
Georgia facilitated peer discussion after each of the three panels, at tables she only met on the day. She kept the pace up, brought quieter delegates in by name, balanced retailer and brand voices, and kept sponsor contributions focused on genuine expertise.
06. Land the outputs
Each roundtable ended with options the table agreed on, read back before the close. Georgia’s takeaways fed into RetailX’s post-event insight, unattributed, in line with the Chatham House Rule.
What made it work
Personable, prepared and in charge.
- Preparation the audience never sees. Research and speaker conversations meant the right questions were asked before the audience had to ask them.
- A marketer’s lens. Fifteen years of commercial marketing leadership across retail, supply chain and logistics technology brought every conversation back to strategy people could act on.
- Warm, but firm. Warmth gets the best out of panellists; firm time-keeping and fair airtime keep a room honest.
- Outputs, not applause. Every Think Tank session ended with agreed actions, not just a good discussion.
What the organisers said
In their words.
“We’ve worked with Georgia for well over a decade, as a sponsor, partner and now industry expert. Our community activities rely on clear-sighted, expert contributions, where moderators can park any ego, sales drive or posturing and bring the best out of the room. This is a skill more often claimed than delivered, but Georgia has set a high bar for others. The Changemaker Theatre is where we ask speakers to say something useful, not just something polished, and Georgia made sure they did.”
Ian Jindal, Founder, RetailX
“It was reassuring to know that Georgia was moderating panel sessions at CustomerX and she didn’t disappoint. Georgia is amazingly personable and inquisitive which always brings the best out of panellists, and at the same time brings industry knowledge and advance research to ensure the audience have their questions answered before they are even asked. And all this comes with a marketing perspective with real world experience to guide panellists into not just sharing knowledge but translating it into strategies to take back and deploy.”
Chris Dawson, ChannelX, on the Marketplaces Think Tank
About the organisers
RetailX Events sets the agenda for retailers and brands across Europe, combining conference insight with face-to-face connections. Its events include CustomerX, Retail MediaX, the Commerce AI Summit and ChannelX. ChannelX is a leading source of intelligence and news for people who sell on online marketplaces, and powered the Marketplaces Think Tank at CustomerX 2026.
About GK Strategies
GK Strategies is Georgia Leybourne’s marketing leadership practice. Georgia helps businesses clarify their story, set priorities and put marketing to work through fractional, interim and advisory support. She is a regular moderator, host and speaker at retail and commerce events, with more than 15 years of experience across technology, retail, supply chain and logistics, and a particular focus on the customer experience after the click.
Next step
Need a moderator who knows the industry?
Whether it is a main stage, a fireside chat or a closed-door roundtable, let’s talk about making your next event session one people act on.
CustomerX is run by RetailX Events. The Marketplaces Think Tank was powered by ChannelX. Think Tank sessions were held under the Chatham House Rule; no panellists, delegates or their organisations are identified in this case study.
