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

7:45am: Cart assignments and instruction

8:00am: Tournament begins (shotgun start)

Lunch to follow tournment

6:30pm: Results and awards will be available at the RLC Product Gallery

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 at Saguaro Ballroom Foyer

8:00am - 8:15am: Bus loading

8:15am: Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace (outside the Saguaro Ballroom)

8:30am - 11:30am: Hiking

11:30am: Bus Departure

12:00pm: 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 spectaular trails from a genuine cowboy guide. 

8:00am - 8:30am: Check-in and breakfast at Saguaro Ballroom Foyer

8:30am - 8:45am: Jeep loading

8:45am: Departure from the Sunset Terrace (outside the Saguaro Ballroom)

8:45am - 11:30am: Desert tour

12:00pm: 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. 

8:00am - 8:30am: Check-in and breakfast at Saguaro Ballroom Foyer

8:30am - 8:45am: Bus loading

8:45am: Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace

9:00am - 11:00am: Range time

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

11:30am: Bus departure

12:00pm: Arrive at JW Marriott Desert Ridge

Great cooking is about more than recipes—it's about techniques. In this custom designed class you'll work together with fellow attendees in a fun, hands-on environment led by professional chef instructors. You'll also enjoy fresh make-your-own mimosas and bloody marys, and be able to pick out some swag with a $50 shopping voucher.

8:00am - 8:30am: Check-in and breakfast at Saguaro Ballroom Foyer

8:30am - 8:45am: Bus loading

8:45am: Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace (outside the Saguaro Ballroom)

9:15am - 12:15pm: Sur La Table Experience and shopping

12:15pm: Bus departure

12:45pm: Arrive at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge

Always wanted to experience skydiving but too afraid to make the jump? There's no airplane, no parachute and no jumping required! Join us at Scottsdale's brand-new indoor skydiving facility and cross skydiving off your bucket list!

8:30am - 9:00am: Check-in and breakfast at Saguaro Ballroom Foyer

9:00am - 9:15am: Bus loading

9:15am: Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace (outside the Saguaro Ballroom)

9:45am - 12:45pm: iFLY Experience

12:45pm: Bus departure

1:15pm: Arrive at JW Marriott

Are you an ace with a racket? We'll pair up doubles to go head to head, rotating through all the teams until we have a victor! 

8:45am - 9:00am: Check-in at tennis courts

9:00am: Instruction for the tournament

12:00pm: Tournament completes

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.

9:00am - 9:15am: Check-in and breakfast at Saguaro Ballroom Foyer

9:15am - 9:30am: Bus loading

9:30am: Bus departure from the Sunset Terrace (outside the Saguaro Ballroom)

10:00am - 12:00pm: Octane Raceway Experience

12:15pm: Bus departure

12:45pm: Arrive at JW Marriott Desert Ridge

The market-share battle restaurants are facing is showing no signs of easing. Traffic growth for chain restaurants has been negative for over three years. Who is stealing your market share and where is your traffic going? Find out how independents, grocery stores and others play into the battle for market share and how to tackle the complex competitive and financial pressures currently felt by the chain restaurant industry. As only TDn2K can do, we will connect the dots between employees, consumers and financial performance, highlighting how service and an engaged workforce can catapult your brand to success. 

Wintrust Franchise Finance presents an expert panel to discuss practical strategies to utilize your various capital resources to support growth.   Our panel is made up of three owner/ operators  who have managed their human, financial, and technological resources to expand their business, and enhance shareholder value.

When restaurant concepts pursue rapid growth or embark on a new franchising initiative, they often struggle to maintain the culture and brand experience that drove their early success. Find out how several premier restaurant chains use training to ensure their unique culture is carried through each new location. Learn the importance of talent development in promoting manager and franchisee engagement. Discover the impact that continuous learning can have on guest experience, and how it helps growth concepts deliver on their brand promise each and every day.

Learn how on-demand pay is driving employee recruitment and retention and how to navigate the laws and regulations, such as constructive receipt for payroll processing.  

Takeaways:

• On-demand pay benefits for employers and employees
• Navigating the laws and regulations impacting on-demand pay 

POS systems are the lifeblood of restaurant enterprises, yet many of these systems are anemic when it comes to generating sustainable profitability. All too often, POS systems fall short of client expectations, as they do not fully provide key essentials such as data security, trend-setting ordering solutions and menu updates at no added cost.

In this presentation, you will learn how to assess the value of your POS (and your POS provider) to determine if your point-of-sale solution:  

• Protects and enhances your brand via holistic data security and cybersecurity

• Directly increases sales

• Decreases tangible expenses (including labor)

• Reduces the intangibles that deter profitability (time/effort)

• Provides options that fit your budget and scale to your growth

Join us and be empowered with the ability to determine what you need, why you need it, and when you are being “overpromised and underdelivered.”

Is your business disrupted by high employee turnover? Do you struggle to execute LTOs? Is employee training expensive and inefficient? Come hear how Taco Bell addressed these challenges by adopting a digital learning solution for their distributed workforce. Not only does Taco Bell now empower their employees with engaging learning to improve execution, but they also saved $2M in annual printing costs and have experienced a 5% increase in customer satisfaction scores.

In this session, you will learn:

•How reliance on paper-based training by 44% of organizations leads to low knowledge retention and disgruntled employees.

•Why 86% of restaurant executives state that the ability of frontline staff to meet customer expectations improves with mobile-enablement.

•How mobile learning addresses the lack of ongoing training hours for restaurant employees, who only receive three hours per quarter. "

Not long ago, the conversation we had with restaurant chains was about simply adding online ordering. Now it is about getting all the digital pieces right – mobile and online ordering, kiosk, delivery, loyalty, engagement and more. Most chains have dabble in the digital ordering world, but don’t know if their program is delivering against their KPIs. Others have fully implemented digital ordering, but perhaps all the pieces don’t work well together. Many operators believe their digital ordering programs are going well, yet don’t always know how to measure what is effective.

In this interactive session, Tillster CMO Hope Neiman will discuss these critical topics and more, using insights from exclusive, independently conducted consumer research and actual consumer adoption metrics. You will leave the session with key insights on:

     -The digital tools that will work best for your business goals

    -How to set the right priorities for your brand, and effectively measure against them

    -Measuring success in ways that not only matter to you, but also to your franchisees

    -Using data to provide a frictionless guest experience that keeps customers coming back 

Only 18% of restaurant marketers are extremely confident in understanding who their diners are after leaving their restaurants. With the constant ‘revolving door’ of customers interacting across channels, it’s hard to keep track of who’s who. Restaurant marketers need to focus on speaking to customers on a 1:You personalized level. 1:You is a holistic customer experience strategy that focuses on personalizing communications with the best choice for individuals across all touchpoints or interactions.

During the Epsilon Innovation Forum, you’ll learn how to:

• Determine who your best customers are and find look alikes

• Better understand customer behavior inside and outside your location, including competitors and other lifestyle brands

• Create an engagement strategy for customer retention and beyond

• Drive revenue through data-driven marketing techniques

• Use machine learning to improve product and offer personalization for re-purchase and menu recommendations This is a session you don’t want to miss.

Hot off the press – attendees will receive a copy of our latest research report in which we partnered with Nation’s Restaurant News - Driving one more visit: how restaurant marketers fare in the digital age. 

Join our panel of operations leaders led by Zenput’s CEO Vladik Rikhter, where we will explore how the important pillars of operational execution excellence - communication, visibility, training, collaboration, risk mitigation, and accountability -  allow restaurant operators to execute on the operations strategy that they design. We’ll discuss how these contribute to high brand standards, better food safety, higher impact marketing promotions, and in the end, improved store performance and great customer experiences.

Our team looks to us for answers. We're told to lead with vision. We're encouraged to set the roadmap and to lead by example. We're experts in the industry, and with experience comes wisdom.

Or does it?  It turns out some of the most innovative leaders in the world don't have THE answers, only questions. These executives don't set the roadmap or claim to be experts; they challenge their team to elevate their game. In a world full of experts, what we need are more visionaries.

In this keynote address, Andrew Davis will reveal the eye-opening power of curiosity. He'll challenge you to invite your team to chase answers. You'll learn the three critical ingredients to earning your employee's attention, and more importantly, you'll uncover the one thing that will transform your leadership style from expert to visionary.

What's the secret? Here's a hint: It's in the box.

Consumers are faced with endless choices when it comes to dining out. Understanding your customer, their dining behaviors, and the restaurant experience they’re craving is the key to capturing the next visit. From menu preferences to trend forecasting to delivery habits, leveraging the right data can help brands reach the people who matter most to them – their guests. Join Yelp COO Jed Nachman and IHOP President Darren Rebelez as the delve into how they’re successfully using rich consumer insights and real-time feedback to drive guest retention and attract new visits, create breakthrough campaigns, and increase sales. 

As impressive off the court as on it, Earvin “Magic” Johnson pivoted the discipline, teamwork and leadership he honed as an L.A. Laker and NBA All-Star into an entrepreneurial success story. Since retiring from the NBA, he has morphed into a business powerhouse worth about $1 billion dollars. He has also dedicated his life to leaving a positive impact in underserved urban communities. Having left the basketball court for the boardroom, Johnson parlayed the skills and tenacity he acquired on the court into a winning formula for successful business ventures. Oh, and one of his major investments? Like us, it was restaurants. Pure Magic.

Join Winsight's Chris Keating as he interviews one of basketball's legends - just ahead of the Final Four Championship game.

The restaurant and foodservice industry needs to attract 650,000 16 – 24 year olds over the next 10 years. Learn about a new, bold and innovative marketing campaign that will inspire this important segment to ditch the “cube farm” and choose restaurants for their next job or career.  

With the number of IP enabled devices expected to reach 20 billion in 2020, the Internet of Things (IoT) is having a big impact on the restaurant industry and your front line and IT staff – from device management to data analytics to hyper-personalization of the consumer experience.  Join us as we discuss how to connect the physical with the digital and turn the complexities of managing an IoT-enabled restaurant into opportunities to increase operational efficiencies, improve uptime and delight your customers.

This session will be co-presented by Venkat Ramamurthy, Vice President and General Manager of NCR Managed Services and Don Zimmerman, Vice President of Digital-First Restaurant Product Management

The foodservice landscape has changed. The habits of Gen Z to Boomer consumers are shifting. Understanding how the Digital Journey differs from an in-restaurant experience is critical in unlocking the opportunity or getting left behind.   Additionally, we are flooded with digital tools creating the need to experiment. We will take you through the moments where consumer purchase incidence is most likely to be influenced and preview PepsiCo’s newest capability to respond to the evolving landscape. 

The deal-making boom is not likely to slow down. Involving national chains, emerging brands or multi-concept operators, the M&A action is likely to come your way. Hear from Wells Fargo’s Investment Banking leader on deal activity and what operators need to know to attract the right partner and, perhaps most importantly, manage a successful company after close.  On the agenda:  driving multiples, the importance of strategic investment, why top talent and company culture matter, and completing a successful deal that drives growth and leads to better performance.

Restaurant marketing has evolved from the ‘spray and pray’ tactic of TV/radio/billboard to the ability to precisely measure the impact of advertising on driving incremental diners. We’ll share how forward-thinking marketers are using this new capability to drive increases in diners and sales.

Is there a better way to foster great innovation between suppliers and operators?  Is there a better way to tap into the value of your key suppliers?  Yes, there is!  And collaboration is the key.

S&D Coffee & Tea will outline an exciting new industry best practice called “Foodservice Collaborative Innovation”.  A panel of operators will then discuss how they worked collaboratively with S&D to develop more impactful and differentiating innovation. 

Fat Bottom Lines make the restaurant world go round!  But achieving bottom-line growth isn’t all about growing revenue - cutting costs makes long-lasting impacts on an operation’s net income. Join our panel of operators as we debate what cost-saving function has the biggest impact on overall profit. Our panel of specialists will ‘compete’ for the title of Biggest Bottom Line Bang for the Buck.

Learn the top techniques for controlling labor costs and reducing labor liability that every operator must know in 2019.  The largest and most successful chains in the world are already putting into place the tools and processes they need to manage labor.  When it comes to managing labor - time is money!

Consumers today expect brands to give them the kind of personalized experiences they get from big brands like Amazon, Zappos, Netflix and Dominos, who added about 9% on average domestic same-store revenue growth from 2015-2018 through their data-driven one-to-one marketing. While smaller brands aspire to deliver this level of personalization, few, if any, have been capable. Why? It all comes down to data. Join us to learn why personalized customer engagement is crucial to the success of your restaurant over the next decade, and how to use data to better engage your customers and drive revenue. 

• This Innovation Forum will address the emerging importance of Sustainability including Clean Menus, Natural Ingredients and Green initiatives in the restaurant industry.
• Rich Shank from Technomic will present proprietary research on the importance of Sustainability and Clean Menus to your consumers.
• The operator panel will provide their perspective on:
  • Overall Sustainability Strategies and how they relate to your consumer.
  • Issues, opportunities, challenges and rewards of implementing a Sustainability and Clean Menu strategy.
  • How the operator engaged with and partnered with their suppliers to support their Sustainability and Clean Label initiatives.
  • How to communicate (or choose not communicate, if that’s the case) the improved Sustainability and Clean Label position to consumers.

Wells Fargo and Technomic will combine resources to profile the current environment facing the industry with a look towards future expectations. Tim Quinlan will address the U.S. economy and financial markets and provide views as to where it's going, based on past and current conditions in today’s marketplace using Wells Fargo leading economic and financial analysis. Next, Technomic will have an exclusive look at the most trusted global market foodservice data, presented by Patrick Noone and Joe Pawlak. They will reveal the latest industry sales data and over-arching trends that span the restaurant space and that are fueling industry growth. This session will review the top performers in the annual Technomic Top 1,500 chain restaurant brands; offer exclusive data on a snapshot of monthly sales performance for the top 200 chains utilizing Transaction Insights; and feature consumer and menu-based insights that are driving success for industry growth and leading players. In a bonus for RLC attendees, Wells Fargo will make the SOI study available to all!

Greg Creed jokes that’s he just your typical Australian selling Mexican, Italian and down-home Southern food to Americans.  Under Creed’s direction, Yum! Brands—the world’s largest restaurant company—has rejuvenated KFC and Pizza Hut while continuing to extend Taco Bell’s daunting lead in the quick-service Mexican market. Consumers have embraced the brands because of their constant stream of head-turning new products and off-beat marketing. Investors see one of the best-performing and attractive companies in the business.  It’s easy to understand why he was chosen by the editors of Restaurant Business as the 2019 Restaurant Leader of the Year.  Following the Award presentation, Creed will share some of the how’s along with a glimpse of what’s next in a sit-down with RB’s Peter Romeo.

The dynamics of the rapidly changing work environment requires a deeper level of thinking. Executives must examine all perspectives, insights and ideas to effectively respond. Join an energizing conversation on the Impact of women and the unique solutions they bring. 

Generation Z is made up of teenagers and young adults that are increasingly dependent on foodservice. This session will explore what this next consumer generation is eating and drinking, and where, when and how they are consuming it. We’ll help you understand how this generation differs from previous generations, and what it means for your segment.

Today’s marketer faces ever more effective but specialized tools (loyalty, email, online ordering, mobile, catering…) without having easy access to a unified view of the customer and a unified execution strategy to drive sales growth.   In this session, Stephen Farr Jones will illustrate how to use your data to understand WHO your best customers are to drive NEW CUSTOMER traffic and increase spending of EXISTING CUSTOMERS with a more unified data approach.  ADMM will also cover how to segment existing and potential customer bases around your locations to unlock the varying potential lifetime value within each differing segment.

Few things are affecting the restaurant industry quite like third-party delivery—and it only continues to gain traction. Join this follow-up session from last year’s Innovation Forum where we’ll provide new + exclusive research on evolving customer behaviors, the financial impact of third-party delivery, and how to establish a winning strategy.

As one of the leading fast-casual restaurants in the US, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is known for its better-for-you food and smoothies with a tropical twist at more than 730 locations nationwide. The company’s rapid growth, coupled with changing customer expectations for convenience and value, required a complete reimagining of the way it supported its franchisee community. Join this session to learn how Tropical Smoothie Cafe has successfully leveraged digital technology to empower their large – and rapidly growing – franchisee community in their mission to deliver convenient, healthy food options to their customers. 

The gloves are coming off and the nerd speak and buzz words will be left at the door. In a spirited debate about the right and wrong answers to the challenges facing today’s full service operators—Mike Vichich asks four brand leaders why they’re winning the battle for guests and how they’re smoking the competition on every level (from SSS to the customer experience). Panelists include: Scott Lawton (bartaco), Chris Simms (Lazy Dog), Bill Long (Snooze) and Lauren Bailey (Upward Projects)

Predictability is the key to your business’ success. The more accurate your forecast, the better your plans can be executed, giving you the opportunity to be more profitable. Weekly averages or aggregations of data disguise the real picture and hide the opportunities. Look under the surface, and a different picture emerges. Join Fourth to understand Weighted Mean Absolute Percentage Error (WMAPE) and how we can shine a light on hidden areas of improvement for your unique business.

A new class of cloud-enabled, action-based engagement tools are available to understand store performance to make data-driven decisions to drive top line growth.

In this session, attendees will learn how these tools will answer the following questions:

● How does my performance compare across various sales channels?

● What are my customers saying about me on social media?

● How do I compare to my competitors?

● How can I engage my customers and drive measurable results? 

Gen Y and Gen Z employees expect to use the latest tech tools on the job, with interfaces that mirror the ones they use at home, and mobile strategies to engage them in the workplace are crucial. These employees also desire to work for a purpose, and to see how their contributions impact the business. Facing increased costs to serve, low unemployment rates, high turnover, training limitations, and food safety crises, leading restaurants are embracing mobile solutions that are helping improve retention, add labor efficiencies and reduce risk. In fast-paced environments where training is at a premium, mobilizing operational standards and providing guidance in-app has transformed restaurants’ ability to drive standards. Through gamification and creating cultures that reward solid food safety practices, top restaurants have placed the power to wow customers firmly in employees’ hands. Learn how Gen Y co-founder, Joey Alfano, and his team who were awarded CG Technology’s 2019 Editor’s Pick for software, think about how tomorrow’s workforce works. They’ll share best practices from Compass Group USA, Panera, and Dairy Queen who are successfully mobilizing their workforces and:

• Increasing operational efficiencies
• Building cultures of food safety
• Improving quality and consistency
• Identifying and preventing risks
• Managing crises
• Driving innovation & new product launches

The U.S. catering market is huge — Technomic puts it at $61.5 billion. Are you getting your share? In this session, ezCater will be joined by a panel of restaurant industry leaders who will share insights and strategies on how they’ve grown their brand’s catering business.

Panel discussion with restaurant operators, focused on the importance on entertainment solutions as part of the overall guest experience. Brief introduction from Technomic, followed by roundtable discussion on the challenges and opportunities of deploying and managing entertainment services to increase customer traffic, sales and loyalty.

From a new delivery app to an online ordering platform or POS upgrade, there is a seemingly constant barrage of new technology – and new tech partners – designed to help consumers connect with restaurants. If business owners are not equipped to manage these fast-paced and even faster changing trends, it could place undue strain on them. At the same time, restaurants are contending with exciting, evolving trends within the off-premise space that could benefit both operators and their partners, as delivery continues to mature. Instead of the unsightly, confusing, hard-to-manage tangle of devices that’s become known as tablet hell, for example, developments are starting to roll out to create efficiencies and ease operations.

In this session, attendees will first hear from Melissa Wilson, Technomic principal, about the state of off-premise, then learn why a tech roadmap and digital strategy to ordering and off-premise is now more critical to their business success, whether or not they partner with third-party marketplaces. Consumers are continually increasing their digital activity, especially around off-premise, and an integrated plan can have a positive impact on your brand, your operations and your relationships with customers.

Sarah Thomas is a woman of many firsts – she was the first female official to ever work a major college football game, the first woman to officiate a bowl game, and the first to officiate in a Big Ten stadium. She is also the first permanent female NFL official and made post-season history during the Patriots/Chargers 2019 AFC Divisional championship by being the first woman to officiate a playoff game. Now she’s sharing essential leadership lessons from her journey to the top of a male-dominated industry and vital insights on shattering the glass ceiling in the world of professional sports that can be applied to any field or industry. As an exemplar of what’s possible if you believe, Sarah brings audiences takeaways on breaking through in your own career, from staying focused under pressure and creating change to managing work-life balance and being the best you can be. 

Artificial intelligence is rapidly shifting how businesses transform and take a digital-first approach to building unique consumer and employee experiences. The advancement of leading AI technologies such as computer vision, conversational commerce and augmented intelligence is enabling a greater understanding of consumer behavior and more powerful decisions on the front-line. 

Restaurants have an opportunity to leverage AI to meet the growing expectations of consumers who are hungry for more convenience and personalization, and management and restaurant staff who are seeking ways to more effectively achieve their business objectives.

NCR executive, Dirk Izzo, will discuss the latest technology trends and present use case scenarios for how restaurant operators can leverage AI to drive new growth, capture the loyalty of consumers and achieve greater efficiency.

The only officer in the history of the CIA to rise from entry-level employee to director, Dr. Gates has consistently been a successful leader of change throughout an exceptional career. In this candid, inspiring presentation based on his book A Passion for Leadership, Dr. Gates draws on years of dedicated leadership at the CIA, Texas A&M University and the Department of Defense to offer wisdom and encouragement to leaders on how to successfully implement change and transform their organizations. In a time of change, companies have to change all the time to be competitive. How do you recognize and preserve the tradition and culture that made a company great, and determine what is in the way? Assessing the failures of big institutions, Dr. Gates offers innovative and practical advice, sharing personal anecdotes and experiences as most pertinent to the RLC audience. 

Having a B2B strategy is more important than most restaurants realize, and here’s why: consumer dining aside, when you add up $15 billion in catering, $9 billion in private dining, and $77 billion in travel meals, business dining accounts for a huge percentage of annual restaurant sales in the United States.

 Because the people picking up the tab for business meals are motivated by a different set of needs than consumer diners, having a strategy that speaks specifically to those needs can bring you high-dollar traffic on weekdays and at off-peak times.

 Join our panel of experts to hear more about different types of business diners, which ones are your most valuable target audiences, and how you can reach them.

 From our panel, you will learn:

• how business diners differ from consumer diners,
• key business dining market trends, and
• how B2B strategies can drive more catering and private dining sales.

From our session you will learn:

• what is a modern loyalty program?

• how can a loyalty program become secret sauce for your brand

• best practices to drive program success

• how to select a loyalty vendor

• how to select the right agency to get a strategic edge 

Your menu's meat offerings are under the microscope today. So how do you manage your meat messaging to an evolving foodservice patron? A patron group which now includes traditional carnivores, conscious carnivores, flexitarians and vegetarians. This new meat reality presents a great financial opportunity for your operation. In this session you will discover what today's patrons are looking for and tactics you can implement to maximize your meat messaging and ultimate success.

With the highest pressure on margins in years, understanding the difference between consumers segments is key to driving increased profit dollars.   Decoding the role that loyalists, value seekers and coupon savvy users play in your business is more important than ever. From a soon to be released Technomic study we will continue the discussion on activating all consumer segments, and how to give them permission to spend more.  We will also explore how each consumer segment is influenced through loyalty apps, price, promotion and quality of food.   If you’re looking for new marketing ideas this is a session you won’t want to miss. 

Restaurants are being bombarded daily with new, shiny objects promising to increase traffic.  Join this lively discussion as this panel of industry experts cut through the noise to discuss what is actually working to drive traffic in today’s turbulent environment.

Today, there are more ways than ever 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. Gold Star Chili is leveraging mobile technology to achieve consistent employee and customer experience, energize and engage their employees across generations and modernize business operations. 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning is no doubt improving labor efficiency and cost. But with such a heightened focus on automation, your talent pool is getting compromised.

•How do you adapt your organization to attract talent that will facilitate your growth and innovation?

•What technology is most important for connected teams?

•How do you establish trust and purpose in order to attract a favorable pool of candidates? We’ll dig into the latest engagement strategies and how they can help you overcome your biggest workplace challenges.

From the “wall of tablets” to the manual entry of orders to increasing labor costs- finding the right solution to the ever-growing demand of restaurant delivery can present a real challenge. Checkmate will introduce a panel of partner operators to discuss how they have streamlined their operations, increased revenues while having better control of their labor costs and are successfully navigating the growth in food delivery. Real life tips, tricks & solutions!

On the occasion of the National Restaurant Association’s 100th anniversary, restaurant operations that have thrived through long stretches of the century share the secrets to their perpetual youth and constant reinvention. How do they anticipate change in their markets and adjust accordingly without veering from their heritage? How do they attract new diners and embrace emerging trends while still continuing to serve the loyal customers who have filled their dining rooms for decades? Terry Erdle, Chief Operating Officer of the National Restaurant Association, will lead a power panel of veteran operators as they reveal their secrets for keeping restaurants relevant and agile.

“The panel will discuss government policy and its impact on restaurant trends and technology within the restaurant industry.”