It's January — we all know the drill.

Once the holidays fade away, retail executives and experts from all over the country flock to New York City for the National Retail Federation's annual Big Show.

The big message this year was to kick off the year with positivity, with many panels and speeches seeking to counter the "retail apocalypse" narrative and spur a revitalized culture of innovation in the industry. Retail executives at the show expressed their goals for the new year, which ranged from balancing the expected and the delightfully unexpected, to looking for growth and engagement online.

Surely, there are many lessons to take away from the first big trade show of the year. After three long days of panels and interviews, most of the Retail Dive team, including Editor Corinne Ruff, Associate Editor Cara Salpini and Senior Editor Laura Heller, huddled up in the podcast booth to record a live show on our five biggest takeaways from the show.

To us, the biggest conversations culminated around the evolving in-store experience, new ways to boost customer loyalty, the changing role of brands, instilling a startup mindset and finding the right technology to gather insights.

Sit back, relax and listen. You can stream the episode below or subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.