Track: Culinary Insights

Gain insights through culinary-focused education and discover the latest in food trends, menu development, cannabis, and more.

2019 Sessions include:

Menu Forecast: 2020 and Beyond
Restaurateurs face challenges on all fronts, from changing consumer demographics to proliferating competition to emerging technologies that are remaking the rules of customer relationships. One constant in the rapidly evolving marketplace has been the importance of the menu as the primary means of attracting and engaging diners. Contemporary menus must function as calling cards, image enhancers and traffic drivers, and this presentation will look at strategies to accomplish all of these objectives by means of a fast-paced, comprehensive review of on-the-rise foods and flavors, preparation and presentation techniques that deliver the value that customers demand and help an operator stay on-trend.

The Benefits of Waste Reduction and How to Achieve Them
Sponsored by:

Today’s diners, especially younger consumers, view food waste reduction as important for the environment. The good news is that the practice provides operational benefits as well, including potential cost reduction and greater customer loyalty. This session will share new consumer and operator research on the topic, and demonstrate how you can achieve the benefits of food waste reduction through menu and operational innovation.

Understanding the Buzz of Cannabis in Foodservice
This session will explore the implications cannabis has for the foodservice industry by examining the current state of cannabis legalization in the United States, and providing insight into Canada-the first industrialized nation to federally legalize recreational cannabis. Our panel of experts will discuss opportunities in the industry for restaurateurs, potential liability concerns, and what’s next for the cannabis industry in the U.S. and abroad.

Attacking The Snacking Craze
As competition for share of foodservice dollars continues to grow, snacking is one of the key areas poised for growth. As such, operators are putting efforts toward off-peak business, looking for ways to drive traffic for between-meal and late-night noshing. This session explores some of the major trends on the rise impacting this segment, as well as some of the marketing moves that have helped operators increase sales during these nontraditional hours.

A Fresh Taste of Foodservice Industry Trends and Innovative Food Safety Strategies to Power Your Performance
Sponsored by
Customized eating, food source traceability, food vendor management, zero waste and several more - Staying abreast of how these and other foodservice trends affect food safety in your operations can be tough and time consuming. Join Dr. Ruth Petran, Vice President of Food Safety and Public Health at Ecolab Inc., as she uncovers key emerging foodservice trends and provides insights on new control strategies to optimize your guest experience and your operations.

Additional Sessions:

• What's Next in Sustainability
• Ethnic Mash Ups for Every Customer
• Sysco Simply: Making the Choice Simple
• Technology in the Kitchen: The Latest & Greatest Appliances
• Data-Driven Diner Insights
• The Plant Forward Boom
• Pasta for all Cuisines
• Food as Medicine: Spices and Flavors
• Cutting Edge Solutions Power Hour
• Better Breakfast
• The Skinny on Alternative Proteins
• Build a Better Burger: How to Raise Your Price Point But Not Your Labor
• Today's Seafood Landscape
• 2019: The Year of Pork
• Get to Know Your Menu: Nutrition & Menu Labeling
• The Delivery Game

*Includes all Culinary Experience Center Sessions

Attract customers and keep them coming back. From marketing to menu pricing, learn business strategies to remain top of mind to today’s consumer and drive profit in this competitive industry.

2019 sessions include:

Harnessing Technology to Drive Off-Premise Sales
With the hype around delivery, takeout, curbside and drive-thru innovation continuing to build momentum, supporting off-premise foodservice occasions in today ’s on-demand environment is becoming a must for operators, but creates both opportunities – and challenges. Join Technomic for a deep-dive study that will examine factors driving the growth of key off-premise channels and explore how operators of all sizes are harnessing technology to both drive and manage off-premise sales.

Manage Your Pricing Strategy Without Impacting Traffic
During periods of challenging traffic, many restaurants may be leaning too-hard on specific menu items in order to meet their financial goals. The end result can be either item trade-downs, declining attachment rates (i.e., drinks, sides, etc.) or lost traffic. Learn how you can diagnose the risks and opportunities that exist on your menu to more effectively manage your pricing strategy.

How Retailers Intend to Eat Your Lunch (and Breakfast, too)
Convenience stores, stores with checkout-free shopping, and even hard-good retailers like Urban Outfitters and Barnes & Noble are intensifying their efforts to steal meal occasions and snack sales from traditional restaurants. What strategies and tactics figure into their plans for 2019 and beyond? Experts from the retailing world offer a detailed look at how that realm intends to raid restaurants’ turf with menu innovations and new technology.

How Well Do You Know Your Customers?
A key to driving traffic, especially repeat traffic, is understanding the modern diner—their wants and preferences, and also their habits. While operators were once tied to customer data derived from their loyalty programs, mobile technology is changing the face of hospitality. With geofencing and other consumer-tracking innovations, operators can have a better picture of what their guests are spending money on and where they are going. This broader view of the consumer can allow operators to take a smarter, more targeted approach to marketing. This session will address the different tracking technologies available and will share some of the real-world consumer findings applicable to restaurant operators.

Your Brand has a Strategy: Are Your Team Members Part of it?
Big or small, every restaurant company has some sort of strategy for their success when it comes to people, food quality and profitability. Today’s workforce wants to work with meaning and purpose in a social environment and are advocates for change. How do you connect the dots between your team members’ passion and supporting your brand’s mission, strategy and bottom line? In this session, you will walk away with tools for managers at all levels to connect with individual team members on how they can affect the growth of your brand.

Leveraging P&G Marketing Expertise and Restaurant Operations to Attract and Retain Guests
Sponsored by
P&G Digital Marketing Director Carrie Rathod hosts Denny’s Chief Brand Officer John Dillon and industry expert Roy Getz to talk about winning with the guests of the future, who have higher standards for executional excellence. Learn about activating your brand purpose, leveraging the power of review, and creating a guest experience that attracts and retains guests.

Take Back the Lunch Break℠ with Tork
Sponsored by
Is your lunch crowd smaller than usual? Looking for ways to increase revenue and bring customers back through your doors? Tork, an Essity brand, created a national campaign to raise awareness of lunch break benefits and proclaimed the third Friday in June as National Take Back the Lunch Break Day. Hear from Tork restaurant partners about how taking back the lunch break can drive traffic to your restaurant, and become equipped with the tools to get the message out to your customers on Take Back the Lunch Break Day and beyond!

What Diners Want Today And What They Will Be Seeking Tomorrow
Sponsored by
You may think of Yelp as a review site but it's evolved into a lot more than that. Yelp knows where consumers are heading, their preference for menu items, and which restaurants are winning. Hear new insights powered by data from 100 million users and 1 billion restaurant searches. You'll also hear from a panel of successful restaurant owners who will share their views.

Engaging Today’s Customer Through Cultural Intelligence Built primarily for unit-level and multi-unit managers, this session is designed to help employees, franchisees, and independent operators increase sales, reduce costs and improve retention by learning to better engage multicultural employees and understand the nuances of managing multicultural customers’ expectations. The best practices shared in this workshop are needed most at the unit level and when applied properly, can have a significant impact on your bottom line.

Additional Sessions:

• What Can Chains Learn From Independents

Track: Tech & Innovation

Discover the latest business solutions that will shape the future of foodservice. Navigate innovations and technology tools to enhance your operation.

2019 sessions include:

Restaurant Accounting Technology: 5 Steps to Building a New Legacy
Sponsored by

Protecting Your Data Security
There is so much data flying around in the restaurant space. From internal platforms and third-party partners embedded in operations, there’s data on customers, labor, inventory and more running through restaurants’ systems. With so much information comes a lot of questions, especially around how that data is used and protected. This panel will address top-of-mind security issues within the data space today, as well as where things may be headed in the future.

The New Era of Automation and Foodservice Tech: A Why-and-When Guide to Crucial Operational Investments
Take a look at how foodservice tech innovations are helping operations of all sizes meet their most pressing challenges. In this new era of automation, we’ll give you a glimpse of what a fully automated restaurant looks like. The session will include a panel discussion of the do’s and don’ts of foodservice tech investment … What are smart investments for your operation? When is it wise to invest, knowing new tech is always around the corner? And how can you make tech upgrades but still retain your human touch and brand integrity? There’s a lot to learn in this exciting new era!

Assuring Safety and Transparency in Your Supply Chain
Imagine an infectious outbreak in your lettuce supply—then try to calculate how much time and money it’d take to locate and eradicate that supply. With blockchain technology, it’s almost immediate. Blockchain is a topic that’s tossed around a lot, but most operators still aren’t sure exactly how it could directly impact—and even be embedded in—their operations. This session will demonstrate how it’s already being used within the restaurant supply chain to aid in food safety and transparency.

A Connected CNP/CP Future: How to Fight Fraud when Consumers Engage via Multiple Channels
Sponsored by
Good news: Mobile commerce sales are expected to grow 45% in the U.S. from 2013-2020. Bad news: CNP fraud is forecast to reach a new high of $25 billion within the next year. How do restaurants combat mobile and online fraud while also protecting relationships with loyal customers when consumers can dine in, order ahead, and carry out? By leveraging a two-prong approach. First, restaurant operators can connect a client who buys online and in restaurant – no matter the payment method – into one customer profile. This elevates fraud detection from the card to the individual. Second, savvy merchants are moving away from traditional rules-based fraud systems and are embracing machine learning. Machine learning is better than humans at responding to variances in data, behaviors, and trends. By combining customer profiles and the correct machine learning technology, merchants can stem the rising fraud tide, increase customer satisfaction, while driving higher profits.

The Key Characteristic of High Performing GMs - Forecasting Competency
Sponsored by
While automation through Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will no doubt improve labor efficiency and cost, the talent shortage will remain a challenge for the foreseeable future. How do you adapt your organization to attract talent that will facilitate your growth and innovation? As the communications skills gap widens, what technology is most important for connected teams? How do you establish trust and purpose in order to attract a favorable pool of candidates to your brand? Restaurant veteran David Cantu, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer at HotSchedules will lead a forward-thinking discussion that seeks to answer these questions and more.

A Culture of Innovation: Key Engagement Tools to Attract Top Talent, Drive Growth, and Keep Guests Coming Back
Sponsored by
While automation through Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will no doubt improve labor efficiency and cost, the talent shortage will remain a challenge for the foreseeable future. How do you adapt your organization to attract talent that will facilitate your growth and innovation? As the communications skills gap widens, what technology is most important for connected teams? How do you establish trust and purpose in order to attract a favorable pool of candidates to your brand? Restaurant veteran David Cantu, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer at HotSchedules will lead a forward-thinking discussion that seeks to answer these questions and more.

TECH Talks:
2018 was a year of reflection and enlightenment. Coming to terms with the complexity of under-performing technology stacks while learning about advancements that are opening doors to a new era. So what’s next? How do you migrate away from outdated legacy systems? John Moody, Co-Founder of Restaurant365, will serve as your guide, addressing 5 considerations required to put your restaurant business on a path of optimized profitability and growth.

The Cloud Shift: Line-busting Kiosks, and Tableside Ordering for Enterprises
Sponsored by
Whether it’s hundreds of franchisees or a twenty-unit operation, restaurants are making the necessary shift to cloud-based, modernized ordering and payment solutions. With tableside ordering, self-service kiosks, and handheld devices geared for line-busting, there are ample possibilities to not only increase your bottom line, but improve convenience and speed of service, as well. In this session, learn from an expert panel on how cloud POS technology is increasing sales by 20% and transforming the guest experience. We’re in a time of major technological advances, is your restaurant ready to serve?

Small Cup, Big Data: Predicting Drink Trends
Sponsored by
In an era of endless digital screens, getting your consumers’ attention is a brutal challenge. Consider, though, what happens when a coffee, beer or cocktail is put in front of anyone. It is a moment of precious attention that goes unexploited. Bars, restaurants and cafes alone waste billions of these moments of attention by failing to see the tops of drinks as a difference-making new medium. Ripples taps into that medium by using a digital platform to print high-resolution images on foam-based drinks, while collecting insightful data that informs F&B decision makers. Learn how to turn your customers into viral advocates by transforming every drink you serve into a memorable experience with your business.

Create a Consistent Brand with Modern, Mobile Technology
Sponsored by
Join PlayerLync for a TECH Talk highlighting how top restaurant brands have leveraged mobile, digital training and content strategies to create a unified brand experience across corporate and franchise locations. Today, there are more ways than ever for customers to interact with a restaurant. Each touch point collectively drives an experience and a perception of your brand. The more touch points there are to monitor, the more difficult it becomes to ensure brand consistency. These top restaurant brands have discovered the perfect formula of innovative solutions to achieve consistent employee and customer experience, energize and engage their employees and modernize business operations.

Juiced up on Data – Why BI is the Secret Ingredient to Jamba Juice’s Success
Sponsored by
Restaurants generate vast amounts of data, but that data is meaningless unless you can turn it into something actionable. You can’t fix what you can’t see. Learn how Jamba Juice was able to improve data accuracy, streamline communications among their departments, and reduce COGS by 6% through the use of business intelligence.

Track: Beverage/Alcohol

These sessions and mixology demos will offer the latest trends and insights to keep your beverage program on the cutting edge.

2019 sessions include:

Increase Draft Beer Profitability: How to Make More Money by Focusing on Draft Beer Quality
Draft beer has the potential to be incredibly profitable. But if your draft system isn't installed, maintained and operated correctly, the profit potential can go down the drain. This session will connect quality and profit through an analysis of equipment selection, The latest on new draft technologies, balancing systems and controlling foam, dealing with a wide range of beer styles, equipment maintenance and line cleaning, and avoiding common service-related mistakes.

Creating a Beverage Menu for the Future
An increasing number of consumers are striving to figure out what healthy means for them and are demanding better-for-you options in the form of lower-calorie, reduced-sugar, and more naturally positioned products, both in the non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverage segments. Considering consumers spend $181B annually on beverages, according to a recent Technomic report, it will be critical for foodservice establishments to offer novel beverages by incorporating textures, variety of ingredients and flavor combinations, and production value (to increase social media engagement) to stay ahead of the curve.

Igniting a Team of Top Performers
Ever wonder why some restaurants seem to have an awesome staff while others continually struggle? Tired of the never-ending turnover and trying to attract applicants? Taking a page from 'fishing', you'll learn how to 'catch sharks' by creating a culture to attract those you want to work for you. Tactics covered in the session include creating a never-ending flow of qualified applicants, effective ads and recruiting tactics to 'fish' in the right places, free effective training techniques to help 'train until they can't get it wrong' vs training until they get it right, and incentives to drive performance, sales and employee retention.

Alcohol To Go: Understanding Drinks for Delivery
What’s missing from most restaurant food-for-delivery orders? Adult beverages to accompany the meal. As third-party delivery services such as UberEats, DoorDash and Grubhub now give consumers greater access to their favorite restaurant foods for at-home enjoyment, demand for alcohol delivery is growing. For restaurant operators, the ability to add adult beverages to a food delivery order can increase consumer appeal and drive up delivery check averages; however, regulatory obstacles and operational challenges exist.

Raising the Bar: Alcohol Trends to Watch
What are the hottest ingredients and taste profiles making their way behind the bar? In this session, we will uncover the flavors and categories driving beverage alcohol, as well as provide predictions for the future.

Boosting Checks with Beer and Food Pairings
Consumers might visit an establishment because of its beer selection, but will they stay when it’s time to eat? Some bar-driven operations are tipping the odds in their favor by suggesting complementary foods that elevate a beer lover’s experience—and considerably raise the check. A beer dinner or other method of pairing brews and food can also draw customers to establishments on slow weekday nights. Learn how to engineer those pairings from one of the industry’s best.

Additional Sessions:

• ServSafe Alcohol
• Brunch is the Next Great Bar Night
• Craft Cocktail Movement