Compiled through work with franchisees, corporate leaders, human resource and diversity professionals across the country, this session will present the most prevalent culture and inclusion challenges in today’s business environment. Attendees will be introduced to proven strategies for White male leaders to improve cultural intelligence, leverage the power of inclusion, and deliver better business results.

Learn how to increase profits by maximizing your beverage platform! 40-50% of consumers are interested in “better for you” products. What exactly does this mean in food vs. beverage? There is an untapped profit center available and S&D will demonstrate how to tap in to increase your revenue.

Helen Griffith will also provide a beverage trends update and explain how to evolve your beverage menu to determine what to include today, tomorrow and in the future.

Cloud POS shines brightly with saving and innovation promises, but the path to implementation can often be as distant as a star. Learn lessons from brands like Taco Bell and Bojangles in how to hack the conversion process and evolve to the cloud today.

Restaurant operators face numerous challenges daily. To succeed, you must navigate consumers’ changing needs, economic cycles, cost pressures, fluid financial markets and an increasingly competitive environment. Todd Jones will share insights about how First Tennessee Franchise Finance assesses the trends and metrics affecting your business. Understanding a lender’s perspective about these factors and their impact on your business allows you to make more-informed decisions.

For small and mid-sized businesses, keeping their locations staffed is a constant struggle. No-shows, callouts, shift swapping, seasonal surges, and high turnover create ongoing scheduling gaps and challenges that have a massive impact on not only the business but to the staff and customers. With the current imbalance in the job market, even well established and larger companies are faced with the challenges of maintaining a functioning staff on an ongoing basis. Learn how applying technology and the gig economy as a solution for the daily burdens of staffing and operating a business can transform struggle into success.

Diners expect more than just great food when they dine out – they crave great experiences. In this session, we'll discuss strategies for growing your business by delivering more five-star guest experiences. What new technologies bring in and retain diners? How can you leverage data to grow dine-in revenue? What are the hot new food and beverage trends that diners want to photograph and share? Join us to find out!

Join Epsilon to learn how to identify and acquire your best guests and build brand affinity. Walk away with a clear plan on how to connect with your guests in the moments that matter to get the results you need.

Innovation has filled restaurants with tablets, surrounding your point of sale like life support. Restaurants are looking more like electronic stores than comfortable dining experiences. When the POS is supposed to be the heartbeat of the restaurant, why is it often ignored? In this talk, we will explore how the future will be integrating all your technology into one system; the POS.

In the last year, more than 50% of restaurant customers ordered online or through a mobile app. Digital tools like online and mobile ordering, kiosks, and delivery are being adopted by customers at an unprecedented rate, and restaurant brands are rapidly enabling these programs to stay competitive. But which of these technologies actually drive sales? Can they keep guests from going to a competitor? And once your programs are in place, what metrics should be used to measure success? In this interactive session, Tillster CMO Hope Neiman will answer these critical questions and more, using insights from exclusive, independently conducted consumer research and actual consumer adoption metrics.

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. He will reveal the latest industry sales data and over-arching trends that span the restaurant space and that are fueling industry growth. Top performers in the Annual Technomic Top 1500 chain restaurant brands review along with exclusive data on a snapshot of monthly sales performance for the top 200 chains utilizing Transaction Insights will be covered along with consumer and menu-based insights factors driving success for these industry growth and leading players. In a bonus for RLC attendees, Wells Fargo will make the SOI study available to all!

Consider any of the trends currently re-invigorating the restaurant industry—from delivery to clean menus—and chances are high you’ll find a connection to Ron Shaich, the longtime CEO and now chairman of fast-casual pioneer Panera Bread. He’s a serial innovator who believes in transforming his charge every six years or so, looking out a half-decade to where the market is likely to be – which is why he was chosen by the editors of Restaurant Business as the 2018 Restaurant Leader of the Year. Join us in a standout session of the conference as we present Shaich with the award and ask him to share his experiences in creating Panera and his thoughts on what’s ahead.

When a few women land high-profile positions in industry, government and the arts, it is easy to assume they are not alone. Unfortunately, she often is.  Only one in five C-suite leaders is a woman and women are still promoted far less frequently and earn less than men – even though research shows gender diverse companies provide better customer insights, increase innovation, win the war for talent and boost the bottom line.  To attract, retain and advance talented women, you need a deep understanding of the obstacles they face and evidence – based best practices proven to turn the tide. Gain those insights from the first food industry-specific research about women at work and learn how unprecedented collaboration is driving culture change that will make the food industry the employer of choice and enable breakthrough organizations to reap big wins. Join an industry panel and learn how to:

• Address challenges specific to the food industry
• Turn unconscious bias into conscious inclusion
• Paint a picture of possibility for women in your organization.

Join us for an in-depth look at how restaurants can capitalize on the $60 billion that corporate diners spend every year on business meals. Independent research fielded from restaurants nationwide, provides insight into business diner personas, and dispels common misconceptions. Hear from industry experts who have successfully implemented B2B programs attracting the biggest corporate spenders – including meeting and event planners, executive admins, road warriors, pharmaceutical representatives, and others.

Join successful growth leader Jason Morgan (Zoes Kitchen, Bellagreen, Original ChopShop) to hear how he has strategically slimmed down his restaurants’ organizational structures in order to maximize profitability.  Jason is joined by J.J. Pledger of Twisted Root, Michael Haith of Teriyaki Madness, and J.B. Edwards of Abacus for a conversation about what the strategies that successful multi-unit operators are using to minimize costs and maximize revenue.  You’ll leave this session with a  list of 3 crucial technology tools that every winning operator must use and a whole new perspective on organizational structure.

When things go wrong, do your customers know who’s at fault? Join this session where you’ll learn about the third-party delivery experience through the eyes of 65,000 customers. The exclusive research will get you closer to what’s working in the industry, where brands fall short, and what you can do to shape your third-party delivery strategy.

Join us as we reveal how restaurants can grow sales, improve loyalty and win with Millennials by investing in and leveraging their gift card programs. Learn firsthand how leading restaurants have optimized the value of their programs with modern ecommerce experiences and great in-restaurant execution. In addition, this session will address how to drive return visits through flexible promotions and open new channels with B2B gift card programs.

Engaging your customer has become critical in both retaining existing customers and acquiring new customers.  Engagement requires true customer Knowledge and Segmentation and that requires using YOUR customer data to Answer “WHO Are Your Customers, WHY Are They Your Customers, How Do They Interact With Your Brand and What To Do NEXT!”

Learn how to use your data (POS, Email, Catering, OLO) to understand WHO your best customers are to Drive NEW CUSTOMER Traffic and increase spending of EXISTING CUSTOMERS through greater engagement.

The 2018 U.S. restaurant market has evolved into an $800+ billion mega-industry, spanning dozens of distinct segments – from tableservice and quickservice restaurants to institutional and military foodservice. A convergence of rapidly moving trends in technology, consumer demographics, labor-force composition, food and economics is reshaping the historical restaurant model and altering future foodservice and supplier markets. New data from the National Restaurant Association will offer strategic insights into the restaurant industry’s unique opportunities and challenges to successfully meet the growing demand for food and beverages prepared away from home.

Specific trends and allied opportunities to be covered will include:

• Industry Sales Changes by Segment and Historical Performance
• The Evolving Role of Labor
• Industry Share of the Food Dollar
• Menu Price Inflation and Commodity Costs
• Pent Up Demand for Restaurants
• Restaurant Operator Top Challenges
• Restaurant Performance Index Insights
• The Off-Premises Market
• What’s Hot 2018 Culinary Forecast: Critical Food and Alcohol Trend
• Restaurant Sustainability and Wellness Developments
• Technology Integration in Foodservice
• Regional/State Performance Variances

The best restaurants build a brand that transcends the dining experience itself. It all starts of course with food, service and atmosphere — but how do you continue to build on a great in-restaurant operation when customers aren't at the restaurant. We will discuss paid and "earned" customer acquisition, visual branding and storytelling, the power of customer retention, and how to measure the strength of your restaurant's brand in real metrics like traffic and incremental revenue.

“For here?” or “To go”?  Many of us remember when the simplicity behind these questions became the basis for our operational decisions.  The complexity of today’s omni-channel marketplace has changed the guest experience and subsequently the operating environment of our restaurants.   How do our colleagues in the industry simplify the approach and still prepare for the future?  Join NCR for a perspective in supporting today’s more challenging questions.

Come learn how chocolate is made from bean to finished product! In this class you will learn all about chocolate and be able to touch, see, smell and taste each element of the step by step chocolate making process. This class will also cover key chocolate applications for restaurants and how to set your chocolate menu items apart.

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 leading restaurant executives and active private equity investors on deal activity and what operators need to know to attract the right financing partner and, perhaps most importantly, manage a successful company after close. The panel will discuss: 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.

The next generation of consumers already conducts the vast majority of their commerce, retail, and banking activity online, a development that presents opportunities and risks for every industry. Dan Schulman helps businesses identify these opportunities, navigate these risks, and innovate products and practices to best meet the expectations of tomorrow’s customers. Drawing from his role in the Fintech (r)evolution, Schulman discusses the intersection of disruption, technology, and commerce in an era in which the rate of change for business is exponential and organizations must be nimble, adaptive, and forward-thinking. As a sitting CEO at one the largest companies in the online financial space, Schulman faces these questions every single day. He helps audiences understand how to foster a culture of innovation and manage the common security concerns inherent to advancing technology.

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. 

Looking beyond the uncertainty of today, John Kerry evokes optimism by challenging turbulent trends to provide audiences with an encouraging analysis of the current global political climate and a positive vision for the future. Drawing from a distinguished career as a veteran, public servant, and diplomat, Kerry discusses the continued need for commitment to effective diplomacy, negotiation and compromise in order to safeguard the future for generations to come. As a leader on the world stage and the face of U.S. diplomacy as the 68th Secretary of State, Kerry shares first-hand accounts from his tenure as secretary, discussing lessons learned from navigating some of the most important policy issues of our time.

A relentless defender of diplomacy and one of the most effective statesmen in U.S. history, Kerry explains how to be an agent of positive change in a rapidly transforming world. Providing a comprehensive look at global affairs, he offers audiences an uplifting outlook on the path to the future.