Co-Founders Scott Silverman, Veronika Sonsev and Allan Dick Consolidate Their Businesses Under the CommerceNext Umbrella
New York, October 3, 2019 — Coming off a successful CommerceNext conference earlier this summer where attendance grew 122% to nearly 1,000 industry leaders and whose Net Promoter Score ranked as exceptional for conferences, CommerceNext is expanding its offering of events and programs in 2020 for marketing leaders at retail and direct to consumer (DTC) brands.
Marketing leaders at retail and DTC brands can look forward to a widely expanded offering of events and programs from CommerceNext in 2020, including the flagship conference scheduled for July 28th and 29th at the New York Hilton Midtown. Additionally, CommerceNext will host more than 30 dinners in major cities across the country, bi-coastal holiday parties and networking events at major digital retail industry gatherings throughout the year.
Fueling the expansion, co-founders Scott Silverman, Veronika Sonsev and Allan Dick are consolidating their previously separately managed portfolio of industry networking dinners and receptions under the CommerceNext banner. The digital retail industry veterans co-founded CommerceNext in 2017 and launched the annual conference in 2018 as a gathering place for marketing leaders at retailers and DTC brands seeking to grow their businesses and acquire new customers. Inc. Magazine named CommerceNext one of the top 5 e-commerce conferences for 2019/2020.
“We are flattered and humbled to see the digital retail community embrace CommerceNext since its founding a couple years ago,” said Silverman. “And, we’re excited to consolidate our individual businesses under the CommerceNext name to deliver more high quality activities for the community, which we are seeing expand across traditional retailers, digital-native brands and a network of innovative solution providers.”
About the Founders
Scott Silverman, prior to co-founding CommerceNext, was the Executive Director of Shop.org, the former digital division of the National Retail Federation, for 10 years until 2010. There he launched a number of Shop.org conferences and co-invented Cyber Monday. Since leaving Shop.org, Silverman has organized hundreds of events for digital retail leaders featuring information-sharing, learning and networking. He has hosted more than 250 dinners featuring facilitated discussions and networking with groups of digital retail leaders across the country and has produced more than 15 Ultimate E-Commerce Leaders Parties at major industry conferences. He also co-founded the Global E-Commerce Leaders Forum in 2014, which is a series of conferences and a community focused on cross-border and international e-commerce.
Veronika Sonsev is a retail industry consultant, speaker and connector. She is one of the Co-founders of CommerceNext, leads the retail practice for Chameleon Collective and is a regular contributor to Forbes on how to grow a retail and ecommerce in the age of Amazon. Having started and sold a startup, which worked with some of the largest retailers, Sonsev has intimate knowledge of the challenges facing retail and ecommerce today. She is also an advocate for women in business and founded the global non-profit mBolden (formerly Women in Wireless). Sonsev has spoken at dozens of retail conferences, contributed to a number of publications and has been interviewed by NPR, WSJ, and TechCrunch. She holds a BA from American University and an MBA from the Wharton School.
Allan Dick started in digital retail in 1998 as General Manager and then CMO of Vintage Tub and Bath – a two-person operation he helped transform into a $25M/year Internet Retailer Top 400 company. He is currently Co-Founder of CommerceNext and has over 15 years of experience organizing and leading session content at conferences like the Shop.org Annual Summit, NRF BIG Show, Search Engine Strategies, Online Retailer Australia, Search Marketing Expo, RIMC, IRCE and CommerceNext conferences. He holds a B.A. in American History from Washington & Lee University.
About CommerceNext
CommerceNext was founded by three digital retail veterans who are committed to building communities that help people grow their businesses and careers. Now in its third year, CommerceNext has grown to include an advisory board of the industry’s most accomplished and innovative brand marketers and the esteemed CommerceNexty Awards. Inc Magazine named CommerceNext one of the top 5 e-commerce conferences for 2019/2020. To learn more about CommerceNext, visit https://commercenext.com.
