About 1,000 retail industry professionals from across the country are expected to descend on downtown Bentonville for Retail Innovation Week, which starts Monday.

Ten partnering organizations have planned a series of 12 events to showcase Northwest Arkansas’ retail, logistics and tech communities for attendees from consumer packaged-goods hubs such as Austin, Texas; Chicago; and New York.

Kathryn Carlisle, director of networks at Fieldbook Studio, said Northwest Arkansas’ potential as an innovation opportunity is underestimated, especially by venture capitalists and founders.

“The region’s small-town atmosphere facilitates connections and access to talent, making it an attractive location for startups,” Carlisle said.

And “the significant presence of consumer packaged-goods companies in the area further enhances networking opportunities,” she said.

Some of the emerging retail tech firms that hosted events throughout the year decided to collaborate on one big event that could add value for people traveling into the area, perhaps to see Walmart’s new campus, or who travel globally to all such events.

For Retail Innovation Week, “each event is separate but strategically aligned, designed to engage different audiences across the retail value chain with an interest in innovation,” Carlisle said.

One of the week’s anchor events, hosted by Fieldbook Studio, is called Embark. It includes a welcome reception on Monday at The Ledger; an all-day summit on Tuesday; and smaller, more intimate gatherings called “network homes” around Bentonville.

These meeting will include entertainment and a happy hour in the evenings and coffee and networking in the mornings.

Carlisle said Fieldbook Studio is the business that’s “leading the charge” in planning Retail Innovation week.

“We’re organizing our own events,” Carlisle said, “but we’re kind of helping everybody collaborate on a scale as well.”

Fieldbook Studio is backed by VentureWell; the Walton Family Foundation; and the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, Carlisle said.

Its parent company, Alloy Partners, is based in Indianapolis, she said.

The roster of Northwest Arkansas organizations besides Fieldbook that are presenting events this week include: Dunnhumby Ventures; Endeavor; Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce; New Road Capital Partners; Plug and Play; Startup NWA; University of Arkansas’ The Collaborative; and 8th & Walton.

Jeff Clapper, president and chief executive officer of 8th & Walton, has worked since buying the company in 2014 to help suppliers become better partners with Walmart Inc.

By offering consultations, training and resources, 8th & Walton has worked with thousands of companies, from decades-old global suppliers to upstart, disruptive entrepreneurs.

While the company is among those taking part in Retail Innovation Week, Clapper said 8th & Walton’s Consumer Impact Summit will run at the same time, with the larger event serving as a sort of umbrella for it.

8th & Walton will have analytics and insights companies, retailers, investors — “everyone from the consumer packaged-goods space,” Clapper said.

For the summit, Clapper said, 8th & Walton will bring together consumer product companies to share both “ways they’ve grown their business and hopefully had a positive impact on the environment.”

Companies can be both more profitable and less wasteful, Clapper said.

This comes from business leaders asking such questions as “how do we remove plastic from our packaging and also gain more space on our shelves,” he said.

Carol Spieckerman, a retail consultant and president of Spieckerman Retail, said that with Walmart, J.B. Hunt Transport and Tyson Foods as “anchor tenants” in Northwest Arkansas, plus a constant stream of consultants and tech companies making pilgrimages here, “you’ve got all the ingredients for a major innovation ecosystem.”

Spieckerman said Northwest Arkansas has moved beyond being “just ‘where Walmart lives’ to becoming a legitimate destination for showcasing cutting-edge technology.”

“Here, the focus isn’t just on cool technology, but on technology that can immediately transform trillion-dollar supply chains and customer experiences,” Spieckerman said. “It’s a powerful play.”

Spieckerman said Walmart isn’t just a retailer anymore, but “a massive technology platform that happens to sell groceries and merchandise.”

At that level of sophistication, “innovation events here aren’t about impressing Walmart, but about keeping up with them.”

“The best events here will bring genuine thought leadership that challenges even Walmart’s impressive talent bench,” she said. “But, unlike SXSW’ creative chaos, Northwest Arkansas innovation events have built-in business purpose.”

“Every conversation here has potential commercial application,” Spieckerman said, “which makes the networking exponentially more valuable.”