Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

If you’re making the trip into New York for the National Retail Federation’s Big Show next month, there are some can’t-miss panels you’ll want to try and schedule: Ours. Our two panels include the Senior VP/IT at Home Depot, the CIOs of Pizza Hut, Kohl’s and Petco and the Chief Technology Officer at Ann Taylor, followed by the former CIO of Sears.

StorefrontBacktalk is moderating these two panels at the show, and we’d love for any readers to drop by. (If you don’t boo, who will?) We actually have these wonderful IT giants discussing two of the most critical retail tech issues: Security and Mobile.

Our security panel is at the Retail ROI Super Saturday event and features Kohl’s CIO Virginia Wright, Petco CIO Herman Nell and our own PCI Columnist, Walter Conway. (It’s not all gold, though. I’ll be moderating both panels.) Make sure to stick around after our panel because the next discussion is with Former Sears CIO Timothy Kasbe.

It’s actually a wonderful day of information. Make sure to get there early to hear the 9:15 AM presentation by Citi’s Deborah Weinswig. Her presentation last year was amazing; she named names of the least sophisticated retail IT shops. Other panels will feature senior IT talent from Wet Seal, 1-800-Flowers and Crate & Barrel.

For those mobile argument fans out there, Tuesday 3:00 PM at the Javits Center will feature Cara Kinzey, Senior VP of IT at Home Depot, Pizza Hut CIO Baron Concors, Ann Taylor Chief Technology Officer Michael Sajor and a few surprise folk in the audience. (Hint: Some chains won’t permit their execs to talk, but we have a deal where if they happen to be called on to walk on stage, well, accidents happen.)