Congratulations, You’re a Tech Company Now (Whether You Like It or Not)

3.55pm – 4.20pm BST, Wednesday 29 April 2026 ‐ 25 mins

Room: The Ludlow Suite

Members' Conference Session

Five years ago, we were talking about online bookings, unstaffed sites, and the first wave of self storage automation. But the next wave is far bigger: AI and automation will change how customers discover storage, how sales occur, and how sites are operated day to day. In this session, Gavin Shields maps the next 3–5 years and what it means for operators who want to scale without margin leakage or complexity spiralling out of control. We’ll cover the emerging “scale stack” operators need to build: AI-assisted (and eventually AI-led) sales, pricing and revenue management, automated communications and collections, and autonomous site operations (monitoring, issue detection, and maintenance workflows). This is not a talk about online move-ins or unstaffed sites; it’s about what comes after and how to prepare now.

Speakers

Gavin Shields

Stora

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Gavin Shields

Stora

Gavin Shields is the CEO and co-founder of Stora, a self storage software platform designed to automate operations and enhance sales for storage businesses. He also serves as the Managing Director of StoreStuff, a self storage facility in Northern Ireland. Prior to his ventures in self storage, Gavin held roles as CEO of fintech startups PiggyPot and Yomo, Interim CMO at Orca Money, and COO at games technology company Turbulenz. He also worked as a Private Equity Investor at Summit Partners and as a Financial Analyst at Procter & Gamble. Gavin holds a Master's degree in Economics and Accounting from the University of Edinburgh and has completed a Mini MBA at the William J Clinton Leadership Institute