NRF is an annual gathering of the retail clans, a beckoning bazaar of corporate branding and brinkmanship, retail rock stars and cutting-edge innovation. NRF not only kicks off the year in retailing, it also kicks off the year in conferences. Since there are too many to cover, here are my picks for the must-attend events in 2012.

Vendors that appear on the Top 20 List in the 2011 RIS Software LeaderBoard are the heavyweights in retail technology. They excel in all major LeaderBoard Categories. Names like IBM, SAP, Oracle, NCR and JDA appear on the list. But how high do they rank and who else makes the list? Here is the first look at the big winners for 2011 in the RIS Software LeaderBoard.