Enjoy a morning of golf on the picturesque fairways of the Wildfire Golf Club. This is the perfect opportunity to continue building business relationships while practicing your swing. After the tournament, enjoy lunch with your fellow golfers.
 

 6:45am - 7:45am  Check-in, breakfast, and warmup

8:00am: Tournament begins (Shotgun Start)

Following Tournament - Lunch

6:00pm: Results and awards will be available at the RLC Registration Desk 

Two different hikes will be offered by our professional guides: one for the more fitness-oriented hiker seeking a unique outdoor workout and one for the more leisurely hiker looking for an up close and personal tour of the desert's beauty.

7:30am - 8:00am - Check-in and breakfast  (confirmed participants must check in by 7:45am) 

8:00am - Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace 

8:30am - 10:30am - Hiking 

11:00am - Arrive at JW Marriott Desert Ridge

Climb on board in an open-air Jeep and experience the beauty and serenity of Arizona's Sonoran Desert on this guided tour. Learn about the spectacular trails from a genuine cowboy guide.

7:30am-7:45am: Check-in and breakfast (confirmed participants must check in by 7:45am) 

8:00am: Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace 

8:30am - 10:30am: Jeep Tour

11:00am: Arrive at JW Marriott Desert Ridge

Test your racing skills at Octane Raceway and zoom in your very own go-kart at up to 45 miles per hour. Will you have the fastest time on the track? Enjoy some friendly competition and get to know your fellow racers.

7:30am - 8:00am: Check-in and breakfast  (confirmed participants must check in by 7:45am)

8:00am: Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace 

8:30am - 10:30am: Octane Raceway Experience

11:00am: Arrive at JW Marriott Desert Ridge

How is your competitive energy? Test it out with pickleball, one of America’s fastest growing sports. Participate in a tournament on the new pickleball courts at the JW Marriott. Winners will take home a cash prize!

8:00am - Check-in at tennis courts 

8:15am - Instruction and tournament

11:00am -Tournament completes

Location: Pickleball Courts at the JW Marriott 

Discover the rich musical diversity and history of many of the world’s cultures at the Musical Instrument Museum. Featuring over 8,000 instruments from over 200 countries, this is the largest museum of its type in the world.

8:15am - 8:45am - Check-in and breakfast (confirmed participants must check in by 8:35am)

8:50am - Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace 

9:00am - 11:00am - Musical Instrument Museum Experience

11:15am - Arrive at JW Marriott Desert Ridge

Test your sharpshooting ability at the Scottsdale Gun Club, the largest public indoor shooting range in the United States with state-of-the-art features, including user-friendly touchscreen control panels and a 360-degree rotating target system.

9:00am - 9:35am - Check-in and breakfast (confirmed participants must check in by 9:25 am)

9:40am - Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace 

10:00am - 11:30am - Range Time

11:30am - 12:00pm - Awards presentation

12:20pm - Arrive at JW Marriott Desert Ridge

Create a take-home gift with the guidance of an experience paint instructor. This DIY crafting activity is a fun and unique way to connect with other attendees while tapping into your creative side.

9:15am - 9:45am: Check-in and breakfast  (confirmed participants must check in by 9:35am) 

9:50am - Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace 

10:00am - 12:00pm: Painting Workshop

12:00pm - Bus departure

12:15pm - Arrive at JW Marriott Desert Ridge

Inspire Brands CEO Paul Brown is one of the most relevant executives in the industry today. The former winner of the Restaurant Business Restaurant Leader of the Year award provides his insight into the challenges facing the industry in 2022, as well as its opportunities. He sits down for a wide-ranging interview with RB Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Maze about technology, labor challenges and why size matters in the restaurant industry.

Join Restaurant Leadership for a rare - and guaranteed memorable - appearance by David Chang, the chef and founder of Momofuku. Called one of “the most influential people of the 21st Century” by Esquire and one of Fast Company’s “10 Most Creative People in Food of the 21st century,” David has been honored by Food & Wine Magazine and Bon Appetit, named a TIME 100, one of GQ 's “Men of the Year,” and Fortune’s “40 Under 40.”  He has taken home four James Beard Foundation Awards and Momofuku Ko has two Michelin stars; his cookbook, Momofuku, is a New York Times bestseller. He was the first chef to be featured on the Emmy-award winning PBS television show, “The Mind of a Chef,” and along with Academy Award Winning Director Morgan Neville, David is a creative force behind “Ugly Delicious,” an eight-part Netflix original documentary series about foods we love and the stories that shape them.  Don’t miss this conversation with one of food’s most fascinating personalities! 

During this session, learn to unlock the sales and guest visit generating power of the multiple new data sources now available to restaurant marketers and operators.  By focusing on the customer first, ADM Marketing has consistently driven incremental sales for its clients over its 20 year history.

Consumers were already embracing digital solutions, but over the past 18+ months, we witnessed - and were forced to embrace - an unprecedented acceleration of technology. Pick-up, Delivery and even In Restaurant Technologies challenged restaurants to survive and consumers to find new ways to experience food service. So now, as the world re-emerges and foot traffic returns, restaurants should ask: "What do customers want, and how do we build customer experiences that meet their expectations in 2022 and beyond?" 

For the fourth year in a row, Tillster commissioned a survey of 1,000 QSR and Fast-Casual consumers to understand the impact of technology on customer behavior. Tillster CMO Hope Neiman will share findings and actionable takeaways from this report, comparing the latest findings with where previous results showed consumers were already heading. You will leave this interactive session with key insights and a better understanding of customers' preferences in the post-pandemic world that will enable brands to craft customer experiences their guests will love and that generate more profits from their technology and loyalty investments. 

In the current environment, where operators are fighting for talent, reacting to fast-changing market dynamics, and needing to lean into (or get sidelined by) the accelerating pace of innovation, one operational lever has become both a major constraint on the business and the path to growth: team execution. Specifically, ops leaders are investing in initiatives that will give them an edge in both making store, field and HQ employees more efficient and that will raise the bar on the quality of execution across every one of their stores, even as they add more locations. 

As one of the world’s largest quick service restaurant companies with operations spanning 100 countries, Restaurant Brands International Inc. understands the strategic importance and tangible impact of improving how work gets done across its 28,000 restaurants.  John Zurovchak, Sr. Director Ops Training of RBI joins Zenput’s VP of Customer Success, Lydia Olu-Harding to share how RBI is prioritizing initiatives and technology investment decisions to scale operations by elevating team execution. 

Staffing and talent shortages are impacting all segments of the restaurant industry in an unprecedented way. At the same time, restaurant operators are looking to invest in talent development solutions that will prepare their workforce for leadership roles in the future. Strategic Enterprise Education programs are the solution that address all of these challenges and more. In this session hosted by InStride with guests Dr. Howard Liebman of Smart Horizons Career Online High School and Courtney Brafford of the University of Memphis, attendees will learn how investments in employee education have helped companies like McDonald's, FedEx, and more to build education-based career opportunities for their employees. Come learn how organizations are able to solve talent challenges, create positive ROI, drive brand engagement and loyalty, and accomplish DEI goals.

Off-premise dining was an industry lifeline the past two years, but now it’s more than that: it’s a “sticky” habit that consumers enjoy because it makes their lives easier and more enjoyable. But with the rise of order ahead, curbside pickup, delivery, and drive thru, how can restaurants keep hospitality front and center?

In this panel, you’ll hear from industry experts who will speak on how digital is transforming the off-premise dining experience. Native apps, line busting, curbside pickup and new store designs are changing the way restaurants do business. Learn how Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers and Shake Shack are using digital tools and strategies to increase efficiency and throughput while giving customers what they want: convenience and excellent hospitality.

As the restaurant industry recovers amidst many challenges such as rising costs, labor shortage and elevated patron expectations, operators that are ready to adapt will thrive.

The foodservice industry has experienced a paradigm shift in the last 18 months. With persistent supply and labor shortages, and inflation at a 40-year high, operators face higher costs across every aspect of their business, including ingredients, consumables, third-party delivery, and labor. This market volatility and rising prices environment is expected to persist for the rest of the year and most operators are broadly exploring new ways to mitigate costs and empower productivity. While there has been a steady increase in productivity enhancing technology and automation solutions, the industry has reached an inflection point. Investments in these solutions are not only necessary but also critical for survival.

Furthermore, operators will have to shift mindset and operating models to accommodate smaller and changing workforce and the need to optimize both dine-in and off-premise experiences. A renewed focus on productivity is essential within the new foodservice landscape, as many operators look toward technology and automation to complement their downsized workforce. 

Join a panel of reputed Foodservice industry experts and C-suite Operators who will share their real life experiences and practical advice. Learn how investments in solutions that enhance operational efficiency can help elevate your patrons experience, improve customer service, increase staff productivity, and raise the bar on hygiene and food safety.

The restaurant industry, like many others, has faced its set of challenges. Closures, capacity limits and labor shortages all contribute to today’s market uncertainty. But has widespread vaccine availability and general pandemic fatigue created a new—and complicated—relationship with restaurants?

Restaurant marketers have been agile, innovative, and resilient through many new challenges. And now more than ever, it’s important to deliver personalized messages that connect with guests on a 1:1 level.

Join Travis Freeman of Inspire Brands and Heather Hicks of Epsilon in this interactive fireside chat as they review new research from Epsilon on consumer sentiment towards restaurant ordering and eating, and how marketers can adjust their strategy accordingly to ensure success.

During this session, we’ll innovate together and discuss:

• Hot off the press research and trends reflecting insights on guest sentiment as it relates to third-party delivery versus native restaurant ordering
• The restaurant marketer’s strategies that are nimble and personalized
• The importance of understanding your guests as an individual
• Today’s pick-up and delivery preferences

Feeling the strain of “The Great Resignation” restaurants are turning to technology for help. Find out how top brands are empowering team members through automation technology, nimble labor management tools, and talent development solutions to help address some of the challenges they face. Join us for this dynamic panel featuring executives from several restaurant chains who have found creative ways to mitigate staffing shortages with technology.

Customers are more interested now than ever in treating themselves to innovative beverages while dining out, according to December 2021 research from The National Restaurant Association. Updating and/or adding to your beverage menu can increase guest check and drive revenue, but creating such intricate drinks for mass consumption could be quite the challenge given the labor shortage. This session will discuss how to quench the consumer’s thirst for new options and customization despite fewer workers.

Join Chris DeFrain, Vice President, Strategic Planning and Business Development of Lehigh Valley Restaurant Group (Red Robin Franchisee) and Hernan Mujica, Chief Information Officer of Texas Roadhouse to hear key technology learnings from the past two years and how technology is being implemented to bring guests back on-premise, support their restaurant teams and to streamline operations. Hosted by Raymond Howard, Chief Sales Officer of Ziosk. 

You decide, 5 restaurant trends that will define the future of food service. 

The restaurant industry is on the road to recovery from Covid 19 but now it must face the longer-term effects from the pandemic such as a higher business costs, a shallow labor pool, and supply chain/procurement disruptions. There are several predictions for the future of food service but, what does the restaurant leadership see as the most influential key trends that will define the industry in the categories of: Marketing, Workforce/labor, Products/Service, Supply Chain, Technology and Sales/Economic? 

In this interactive session a panel of food service and hospitality leaders in restaurant operations, distribution and culinary will discuss some of the evidence-based trends, innovation and influences predicted to impact the restaurant and hospitality industry. The panelists along with help from the attending audience will vote on what they see is the most impactful trends in each category and the most game changing trend of all. 

Data is only as good as the actionable insight it brings. This growth-tool gold mine is currently scattered in pockets amongst your multiple systems carried from various touchpoints with your customers. Before you throw capital at a potential fix, join this panel conversation with NCR’s hospitality data, analytics and AI leaders and the former C-suite and executive alumnus of Google, Focus Brands + McDonald’s on discovering the best way to harness the power of data via solid strategy and architecture to get your customers to visit one more time and spend a little more. 

The Autonomous trucking industry will significantly transform the supply chain. This session will address the current state of the AV trucking industry and its impact on your food service supply chain. Join us as Lee discusses what leading companies like McLane are doing to adopt, integrate and scale autonomous trucking.

The restaurant business is changing so rapidly, that the things we call innovation today will quickly become tomorrow’s table stakes. In this session you will get an exclusive review of PepsiCo’s Digital Lab’s 2021 learnings of the key drivers for growth and how to leverage the tools and best practices for your concept with consumers in mind.

Consumer demands have changed; they expect more while restaurants are working with less. In this session, we will explore the evolution of brand protection for operators through labor challenges, technology integrations as well as heightened consumer awareness of food safety and public health. 

Globally, sustainability is rated as an important purchase criterion for 60% of consumers, 61% in the US (source buisnesswire.com). During this session we will exam what menu sustainability is, who it’s important to, and why. From LTO’s to fully sustainable menus, see how operators are making an impact. What could a sustainable menu mean to your operation? Join and find out!

A new normal has emerged in the restaurant industry, requiring operators to accelerate their digital capabilities to meet your customers whenever and wherever is most convenient to them, achieve greater levels of efficiency in your restaurant operations, and keep your employees engaged and focused on delivering a great guest experience. In this session, Microsoft will share its approach to helping enable digital transformation in the restaurant industry, highlight customer case studies with industry-leading brands including Chipotle, Starbucks, and a global QSR chain, and share examples of delivering innovation with two of our strategic partners, AT&T and Nvidia.

Key Learnings:

• How to maximize the value of your data and gain deeper insights on your guests to drive higher levels of visit frequency and brand loyalty
• Understand the primary benefits of how an IoT connected kitchen can transform your restaurant operations
• How to leverage voice ordering and AI to drive greater order accuracy and labor efficiencies at the drive-thru and in-store

Privacy standards are evolving and the world has moved into a digital evolution. Utilizing rich customer data is essential for accurately targeting existing and new customers. In this breakout you'll hear from top restaurant brands about evaluating their data to building strong campaigns while discussing the future of customer relationship management platforms.

Join our panel of restaurant industry leaders from Inspire Brands, Yum! Brands, and Cousins Subs to hear how they’re driving unit growth in 2022 and implementing advanced technology for optimal location based decisions.

The market dynamics of the past couple years have reminded us that growth is ongoing and involves countless factors some controllable, others not. One thing that has remained consistent, though, is the importance of taking a holistic approach to portfolio development. Starting with site selection and sales impact analysis, real estate teams position their brands for success by making data driven decisions to balance high per location revenue with overall market share.

But the work doesn’t end there: most brands will also need to consider relocations and closures at some point, whether due to shifting demographics, expanding trade areas, or new competitors. While these options may not be ideal, determining how and when to implement them is critical to maximizing your portfolio’s net revenue.

The restaurant industry is in a critical time of innovation. The rise of third-party delivery and mobile ordering has caused a shift from brick-and-mortar business to omni-channel experiences that cater to customers increasing needs for optionality.

Join Red Lobster, Hopdoddy, and Radar in this session as they discuss their strategies for digital transformation including:

• How to design a frictionless customer experiences
• The trade offs of on-prem vs. off-prep dining experiences
• Using technology to create a more productive labor workforce
• Where the restaurant tech stack is headed next

Is your job as a restaurant leader easier or harder than it was 5 years ago? Restaurants keep adding to their tech stacks, but are they really getting the results they need? When faced with staffing shortages, supply chain issues, and the host of other challenges facing restaurant operators today, there is no time to fight with disparate systems and applications that don’t work together. Unified commerce is changing the way brands engage with their customers and employees to create a better experience and to ease operational pain. Join this session to hear from restaurant innovators as they share firsthand how they are taking back their tech stacks, one application at a time.

The world as we know it may never be the same. Economic disruption aside, the events of 2020/1 brought with them a tide of historic cultural discomfort; a growing social consciousness that ushered in calls for a generation of leaders with the courage to not only design creative solutions to the world’s uncertainties, but to do so equitably enough to bring the world along with them. In this performance-presentation, poet and Google marketer Tucker Bryant makes the case for leveraging our capacity for poetic leadership to craft inclusive outcomes capable of weathering the turbulent future that will demand our persistent collective evolution.

In this panel discussion, you’ll hear from restaurant supply chain professionals on the current state of supply chain challenges facing restaurants. The group will discuss their approaches to managing the headaches that have arisen post-pandemic as supply chain lines have seen massive upheaval and will discuss their outlook for how and when things will return to some semblance of normalcy.

Under CEO Damola Adamolekun, P.F. Chang’s has become one of the most innovative and interesting brands in the restaurant industry. In this one-on-one conversation, Adamolekun will discuss the chain’s recent successes and challenges, its experience with new formats and self-delivery, and its vision for the future.  

This year's Social Enterprise Partner hits close to home for our industry. CORE ,Children of Restaurant Employees, was established to help employees with children who face a medical crisis, injury, death, or natural disaster.  CORE has been the best kept secret in the industry and with everyone’s help, we can change that. CORE was founded and funded by the industry, for the industry. Join us for this session where we'll hear from CORE's Executive Director Sheila Bennet on the program and meet Daniel Carr who lost his family restaurant  in the December tornadoes that devastated Mayfield, Kentucky and was helped by CORE.

Sonic President Claudia San Pedro is the 2022 Restaurant Business Restaurant Leader of the Year. The longtime Oklahoma state official has had quite the introduction to the C-suite, becoming CFO in 2015, then working on the chain’s complex integration of its point-of-sale system. She worked on its sale in 2018 to Inspire Brands, after she was named president, and then worked on the post-sale integration. Under her watch, the drive-in chain overhauled its marketing and solidified its technology, all of which helped it move from one of the most difficult periods in its history to one of its best.

You want to increase your differentiation and traffic, but menus are shrinking, costs are up, and labor and supplies are tight. So what can you do? In today’s environment, there is a BIG opportunity for LIMTED TIME OFFERINGS. In this session we will dive into the art and science behind successful LTOs. The discussion will be supported by a panel of three industry experts sharing their experiences in utilizing LTOs to drive differentiation and traffic.

Hear from employee experience experts from SMG present research and best practices on how to create a competitive pay, rewards and benefits strategy in a challenging labor market.

Today, we are living through one of the most volatile and fast-paced business environments in history. Inflation, supply chain issues, talent shortages, health and regulatory compliance are all driving a pace of change we have never seen before. Many restaurant brands have struggled to keep up, but one thing we have seen is the pace of digital transformation accelerate and compress from years to months. 
Join Rob Lauber, CEO and Founder of XLO Global, and Scott Dunnewind, SVP of Customer Success, from Inkling as they discuss the state of digital transformation in the restaurant industry. Rob has decades of experience in the restaurant industry as CLO of McDonald's and VP, YUM! University at YUM! Brands. Scott works with all of our restaurant customers as our SVP of Customer Success including Restaurant Brands International, Steak N Shake, Taco Bell, Whataburger, and Inspire Brands to help them implement innovative, digital training programs aligned with restaurant operations. 

In this engaging fireside chat, Scott and Rob will explore: 

• The current state of digital automation in restaurants
• The Importance of Digital Transformation of the People Experience
• How to Increase Training and Operational Velocity with Digital Tools
• The impact digital transformation can have on brand and restaurant performance

We will focus on how to utilize paycards to minimize both touch points and employee contact when distributing employee related payments. Recently the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation announced a new opinion on Earned Wages Access (EWA) and this session will discuss how that opinion impacts paycards.
 
Objectives:

• What Vendors are subject to licensing requirements by the California Financing Law (CFL) or California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law (CDDTL)." 
• “A third-party with no financial obligation to the employee could not rely upon this reasoning, because the funds provided would be for the recipient’s temporary use, and the third-party would presumably arrange to recoup the amounts it advanced.”
• DFPI reviewed seven criteria in reaching its conclusion:

      1.    Funding Source – Employer funded
      2.    Data Integration with near zero risk of overpayment – Accurate net earned wage calculation
      3.    Funds Delivery - Instantly to the employee’s account of choice 
      4.    Fee Structure – Transparent and capped
      5.    Typical Usage – Fee to transfer amount and frequency
      6.    No Legal Recourse against employee
      7.    No Other Employee paid products attached to Earned Wage Access 

Find out 4 ways smart technology can make a difference in the foodservice industry’s broken supply chain with the Buyers Edge Platform’s CTO, Josh Tackett and VP of Marketing, Andy Rosenbloom.

Today’s restaurant technology market is made up of countless products from thousands of companies. 

From brand new tools launched by VC-backed startups to well-known solutions from established players, restaurant leaders are faced with products made by very different companies, at very different life stages, pursuing very different strategies. 

From the users they prioritize to where they invest their R&D dollars, it’s no surprise that tech companies’ corporate strategies deeply influence their product strategies. 

Designed for leaders looking to pick the right long term partners across every part of their brand's tech stack, this talk will pull back the curtain on the connection between corporate strategy and product development in restaurant tech. 

By exploring how different types of tech companies at different growth stages make decisions, as well as the influence of M&A and integrations, leaders will leave with an actionable set of tips and insights to build better technology partnerships for their brands in the future. 

2022 remains a year of transition as the path to recovery continues. The constant innovation and sustained flexibility of restaurant operators are creating a new future for the restaurant industry as we continue to deal with workforce challenges and the need to drive operational efficiency to have a positive impact on business performance and bottom lines. In this session, National Restaurant Association experts glean insights on key workforce and operational trends data. 

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn the current state of the restaurant industry
2. Identify key strategies in recruitment and retention of your workforce
3. Understand how technology can drive operational efficiency and provide actionable insights into your business

All session attendees will receive a free copy (valued at $350) of the National Restaurant Association “2022 State of the Industry Report”.

Restaurant sales are back to pre-pandemic levels, but it’s on the back of the highest menu price inflation since 1982. And that’s on top of an expected economic inflation rate of 7% this year. In short, consumers are feeling the crunch – over 60% already say that rising prices have made dining out too expensive.

So, how far off is the “tipping point,” that spot where the price pressures outweigh the value consumers receive? And will it ultimately push down demand? This panel, moderated by industry veteran, Peter Boivin, will explore these questions and address how insight, incentives, and strategy can inspire your guests to act.
This panel will cover:

• How inflation forces restaurants to rethink supply chain and pricing strategies
• Anticipating the “tipping point” when rising costs drive down consumer demand
• Tactics restaurants can use to keep – and win – more guests

Alex Canter, Co-Founder and CEO of virtual restaurant company Nextbite, will lead a panel discussion with the authors of “Delivering the Digital Restaurant - A Roadmap to the Future of Food” - Meredith Sandland and Carl Orsbourn and a Dine Brands executive leading virtual restaurant efforts. The panel will address how to know when your restaurant is ready for ghost kitchens & virtual brands, answering operator questions such as:Where are you on the Restaurant Digital Maturity Curve? When should you consider bringing in virtual brands, and when to add another?”

Digital ordering is where things start. Whether it’s orders coming in from a website, mobile app, third party aggregator or even through a QR code for table service, digital ordering is how guests interact with most brands. But it’s also just part of a full guest experience. The real advantage comes when you can tie that digital ordering information into a loyalty platform, then use all that data to bring the entire experience to the next level. Artificial intelligence enables a brand to better target its guests to create more personalized experiences, and ultimately building the long-term customer lifetime value. Only by capturing and retaining customer for the long-term can you drive business to new heights. 

Crowdsourcing has become one of the best approaches to get answers to tough questions, and we're bringing the power of crowdsourcing to RLC! Bring your questions (and your experiences) to this session and get feedback directly from other attendees. What the @#&! should I be doing with all this data? How can I drive visits without discounting? What's a CDP and do I need one? Great questions! This session will help you get the answers. The only two rules: 1) questions must be related to customers, customer data, or marketing technologies and 2) come ready to participate! 

The IPO market has come back with a vengeance. Five restaurant chains went public in 2021 and more are expected to come this year. This panel explores the risks and rewards of an initial public offering, and the strategies companies should use to take their companies public.

Coach Bill Belichick knows a lot about leadership. One might argue that Coach Belichick is the most successful coach in the history of American sports as the only coach in history to win 6 Super Bowl titles. In this session, he'll chat with Chris Keating on his illustrious career spanning 40+ years in the NFL, over half as head coach of the new England Patriots.

It's time for everyone's favorite hour … happy hour! Take a well-deserved break, and mix and mingle among the displays in the Restaurant Product Gallery. With almost 200 suppliers on display, you're sure to find all the industry-shapers within the RLC Marketplace. It's all about the connections you make and the hands you'll shake here, where suppliers and operators gather to uncover the latest solutions, sample new products and even close deals. 

Restaurant operators are facing unprecedented challenges in attracting and retaining talent. This session will describe how McDonald’s USA, LLC selected Aon to bring Rewards expertise as an optional resource to Restaurant Operators during this challenging time. Aon has been conducting hands-on interactive learning sessions titled “Pay Matters” to help prepare franchise owners / operators to make independent, informed, strategic compensation decisions to ensure they can best compete for talent in the current market.

Come hear from McDonald’s and Aon’s rewards experts as they discuss:
• The compensation challenges for Restaurants given the today’s talent market
• Education on tools and resources available to support operators 
• An overview of the approach Aon took to building the “Pay Matters” experience
• Learnings and feedback from McDonald’s “Pay Matters” sessions

Join Ed McBride, VP of IT, Dave's Hot Chicken, Will Kelso, SVP Managed Network & Business Intelligence, Interface Systems, and Courtney Radke, Field CISO, Retail & Hospitality, Fortinet, discuss the top technologies driving changes in the way restaurants operate. 

This will be an interactive session with discussions with the panelists and the audience on best practices on leveraging technologies to improve the guest dine-in and take-out experience and enhance the employee experience to reduce turnover. 

Paradox’s SVP, Strategic Enterprise Engagement, Ben Bromberg, discusses how 25,000+ restaurants have employed conversational AI hiring assistants to automate and simplify hiring processes -- providing 24/7 mobile-first candidate communications to increase speed and efficiency and returning hours of time per week back to managers. 

Key takeaways:
- Dive into why conversational recruiting is the go-to hiring experience for high-volume businesses, returning hours back to hiring managers each week and transforming hiring processes
- Learn how conversational AI and automation enabled restaurants to massively increase speed to hire to hit historical hiring numbers
- Explore how to remove friction from your application and hiring process to hire faster and get more candidates

Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) face unique challenges such as speed, quality of service, staff turnover, drive-thru automation, and accuracy, making the “quick” of a QSR a moving target. Evolving customer expectations—increasingly driven by new digital capabilities—are pushing brands to offer greater speed, convenience, and personalization.

Fortunately, artificial intelligence is helping QSRs make the customer experience frictionless, fast, and significantly more pleasant. Leveraging AI-powered computer vision and NLP conversational AI unlocks enormous value for QSR operators eager to use technology to transform what’s possible in foodservice.

Deploying AI solutions in restaurants requires the technology ecosystem players to work together to optimize the configuration, performance, and cost of the solution. But knowing where to start is always the big question. So, we’ve brought together two CEOs from leading restaurant automation software companies, an IoT expert from the world’s largest CPU manufacturer, and an Edge AI expert to talk about real-life applications of AI-enabled QSR solutions that are already paying big dividends.

Key Learnings:

• Understand the primary benefits of how AI can transform your restaurant operations
• How to maximize the value of your data and gain deeper insights on your guests to drive higher levels of visit frequency and brand loyalty
• How to leverage voice ordering and AI to drive greater order accuracy and labor efficiencies at the drive-thru and in-store

During this session we will explore how market leading brands create winning cultures, execute consistently, and win over consumers to achieve abnormal returns. This facilitator lead interactive session is designed to foster a "CEO's mindset" in all who participate. By examining some of the restaurant industry's most successful brands, clear patterns emerge that we can harness in our own organizations. Each participant will walk away with a step by step plan to focus, simplify, and deliver on five key drivers of growth; a perfect way to crystalize knowledge you've gained from this year's event!

The past two years have seen the foodservice industry beset by unprecedented challenges. In addition to Covid-induced shut downs, the emergence of nontraditional competition like virtual brands and the resurgence of supermarkets have created competitive complexity for operators already under stress. At the same time, many diners have become committed couch potatoes, ordering and consuming meals from a wide variety of sources in the confines of their homes.

In order to break through the competitive clutter, operators will need to double down on food and beverage innovation.  A memorable menu experience—the kind that builds traffic, generates buzz and elicits an enthusiastic “wow!”—begins and ends with an appealing, creative menu. This presentation will examine its essential elements, including the foods and flavors, preparation and presentation techniques that restaurateurs and menu marketers across all segments can employ to surprise and delight customers and to make their operation the dining option of choice.

With a crowded marketplace and time-pressed consumers, restaurant marketing is now more important than ever. This expert panel will discuss the role marketing plays in the major changes that have come about since the pandemic began and how marketers can leverage relationships across their brands to drive results.