Presented by Technomic, this in-depth look at the state of foodservice will address current headwinds facing the industry. Our discussion on industry sales and traffic data and over-arching trends will highlight technology’s growing impact on foodservice using Technomic’s Transaction Insights sales-performance tracking tool.

Jimmy Wales speaks on a wide range of issues surrounding the future of technology, shedding light on the opportunities and threats for businesses and organizations in a globally connected world. Speaking fluidly about artificial intelligence, automation, and other new technologies that lie at the heart of disruption, Mr. Wales illuminates how open-source, open-content technology is changing the face of the internet and how businesses can adapt in order to compete and innovate. He reveals opportunities in tapping into new technologies—whether implementing new collaborative tools, or cutting-edge ways to interact with customers, distributors, and suppliers—to ultimately reveal what is needed to thrive in a Wiki future.

Today, restaurants need to understand their guests better than ever before. From operations, to menu, marketing, and the guest experience, the lens of the guest is can be a strong competitive advantage. In this session, Cogensia CEO Brad Rukstales and innovative industry leaders will share how a comprehensive guest focus can drive sales, and improve financial performance.

Join Caesars Entertainment, iCertainty and Zebra Technologies to learn how using the Internet of Things (IoT) to leverage sensors and automation can reduce costs and improve quality in the kitchen. This session will explore the food safety solution deployed at Caesars and how they use IoT technology to enable real-time monitoring, recording and reporting of temperatures across different food storage systems there by making it easier for the F&B teams to focus more on their core work vs having to spend time in manually recording, tracking and reporting the operations of the cooler/ freezer systems.

As digital experiences evolve, restaurants must address how to build out scalable infrastructure across the enterprise. Toast's Sarah Kabakoff will be joined by key industry leaders to share their experiences in expanding the technology stack with mobile, cloud-based solutions to support their vision for the future, including implementation pain points and successes.

Where are you in the digital lifecycle? Develop a proven 90-day go-to-market digital readiness strategy that will drive revenue, align brand-customer experiences, improve employee efficiency, and integrate new technology seamlessly. NuArx has worked with hundreds of restaurant brands undergoing digital transformations – join us as we unlock the five keys to a successful digital future.

What does it take for customers to really love your restaurant brand? This panel delivers unique perspectives in building passionate customers through food and service, personalized loyalty, and shareable memorable marketing experiences. James Smith, CMO of Punchh and his expert panel will offer candid insights based on their business and clients. What is a modern loyalty program? Why do some brands succeed where most fail? How do you create a bigger universe of known customers? How do you best leverage customer data? Why is AI and Machine Learning so critical for your loyalty program? You will leave this session with a great understanding of how to deliver best in class customer loyalty for your restaurant brand that will lead to increased sales.

To gain competitive advantage and boost profits, top operators are increasingly turning to a key operational lever: team execution. Specifically, they’re investing in initiatives and technology that will give them an edge in both making store and field employees more efficient and that will raise the bar on the quality of execution across every one of their stores.

In today’s fight for talent, equipping employees with the tools and insights to identify potential issues earlier, make better decisions, surfacing where additional coaching and training is needed most is essential to success.

Join this panel discussion with Sprinkles Cupcakes CEO and VP of Ops to learn how they’re prioritizing initiatives and technology investment decisions to scale operations by elevating team execution and creating a great experience for both employees and customers.

Stop Making Your Guests Hangry: Meet Their Needs with Conversational AI

Common inefficiencies, like inaccurate orders and long wait times, not only lead to hangry guests, but also cost you money and result in missed sales. So, how can you remove these inefficiencies from the equation to achieve maximized sales and guest loyalty? Automating tasks like guest ordering and guest care with Conversational AI can provide a more efficient experience for your guests while maximizing operational efficiencies by allowing you to:

•Deliver exceptional guest experience to create loyal guests

•Increase upsell opportunities with personalized options

•Decrease inaccurate orders that cost you time and money

•Reduce missed sales from abandoned calls and drive-bys 

Restaurant Business recognizes companies that are revolutionizing their business model by using technology that results in operations improvements or an enhanced guest experience—and ultimately bottom-line growth. From among the three winners—one each from a national chain, a growth chain and a “nontraditional” foodservice operation—one will rise to the top. Join us as we celebrate the innovations and accomplishments of sweetgreen (Growth Chain), Wingstop (NationalChain), and 7-Eleven (Nontraditional). And then, of course, enjoy the excitement as we announce the Tech Accelerator of the Year!

Is Bitcoin going to take off as a form of payment in restaurants? Probably not anytime soon. We hear about all of the new technologies, but we also know that cashless hasn’t proved to be the best bet, so what does the future landscape look like? As debates wage on about the fairness and/or viability of cashless restaurants, the best form of digital ordering and payments—website or in-app—and whether or not tap-and-go/NFC technology is worth turning on, operators need to address how consumers will want to pay tomorrow, and what technology is and will be available to get there.

Thinker, tinkerer, inventor, problem solver, backyard engineer, special effects wizard, pyromaniac.. and co-host of the hit series MythBusters on the Discovery Channel.  Adam Savage has proven that it's cooler than ever to be a geek.  From his unique way of thinking to his unique experiences as a designer, expect Adam's presentation and interactive moderated Q&A session to be insightful, entertaining and unforgettable. Look at science and innovation and risk taking in a whole new way--lessons applicable to all types of businesses and organizations.

We don’t have a crystal ball to predict the future, but our panelists have been making strides testing many new technologies. Emerging technology is transforming foodservice from the Internet of Things, Big Data and blockchain to robots, ghost kitchens and food halls. How do you separate the shiny objects from legitimate problem solvers? We discuss BOH and customer-facing technologies that are changing the game.

Join thought leaders from some of the industry’s top OEM & solution providers to hear real life cases of how they are breaking the mold in restaurant technology by helping operators bring enhanced customer experiences through efficiencies realized in their selection, deployment and ongoing maintenance & support models.

It’s adapt or die for the food service industry in today’s Now Economy. Neither you nor your customers are satisfied with delivery. In this session, you will hear from leaders at Panera, Puesto, and one additional special guest, who will share their perspectives on:

•How brands are balancing the demand of delivery with the mandate to fulfill dine-out orders with dine-in food quality

•How brands are innovating customer experience with technology

•Which solutions are providing strong ROI as well as increased customer satisfaction

According to the 2019 National Restaurant Association and Technomic study, Harnessing Technology to Drive Off-Premise Sales, 58 percent of restaurant occasions are off-premise. Welcome to the era of the multichannel kitchen where restauranteurs must skillfully juggle preparing dine-in, drive-thru, takeout and delivery orders to remain relevant. Join us as we share kitchen optimization and production best practices for successfully navigating this new paradigm, including how to plan and prepare for anticipated spikes in order volumes, build secondary make lines to accommodate digital orders in your existing footprint, and gain insights from your kitchen data.

In this fast moving environment, integrating delivery platforms to POS integrations is becoming table stakes. What is next? What is a true POS integration? What is a true two way third-party integration? Let's talk about the system of records? What about the service component in this POS integration? For the multi unit operators, how can we truly solve the pain points generated by these delivery services? ItsaCheckmate invites a panel of operators who have been there and done that to talk about it.

While the features and functions of your back office platform are important, the partner behind the platform is what truly determines the success of any BOH initiative at your restaurant. This session will feature a panel of experts with decades of experience deploying back of house systems in complex operating environments. They will cover the entire back of house journey, from identifying need and selecting your vendor through implementation and continued support. You’ll get a peek behind the curtain and learn how to avoid common pitfalls, while walking away with a checklist of what to consider to maximize the success of your implementation.

Labor costs are skyrocketing. Increases to the minimum wage coupled with low unemployment make controlling labor costs a real challenge for all operators, regardless of size. With the ever-increasing complexity of labor laws putting additional strains on every organization, keeping compliant is becoming a nightmare for many restaurant operators. Come and learn from our panel of successful restaurant operators as they share their experiences surrounding this hot topic.

Innovation in the restaurant technology space are growing exponentially every year. Restaurants big and small are entrusting their integration and marketing needs with external parties and cloud services. We'll be discussing the pros and cons of having services off-site, when it's a good idea to bring services back in-house, and the value of owning your own data - including the potential pitfalls of providing the wrong partner with access to your POS data. This Forum is relevant for restaurant brands of all ages and sizes.

With the proliferation of restaurant technology over the past decade, the multiple disparate systems restaurants use today are perceived as a technology stack with the POS system as its hub. With the advent of the cloud, interconnectivity between systems is now achievable, however, the restaurant industry is lagging behind the technology curve. See how the old-school technology stack with the POS system as its hub is about to be taken over by a new-age technology ecosystem with fully integrated POS, accounting, back office, payroll and reporting.

Disruption is consistently an ever-present force in the restaurant industry- one that will not sit idle for long. Restaurant owners who do not adjust their strategies to accommodate flexibility and acceleration, by aligning with the right technology partners will suffer. Join Paul Rubin, Chief Strategy Officer at PAR, as he shares his vision on the key strategic initiatives you can’t afford to ignore; as restaurant operators work through today’s challenges while simultaneously preparing for tomorrow’s.

We are on our 3rd generation of digital POS. Yes, things have gotten somewhat easier – better Uis, and such. However, the process of configuring, daily management and monitoring of your system is still an enormous amount of work, and not much different than 20-30 years ago. In fact, to some extent the effort is growing because of the proliferation of technology: kiosks, online ordering, delivery, etc.. Something has to change, because there will continue to be more technology, not less, going forward. We need solutions built with a whole new paradigm – where the system “runs itself”. Is this possible? When? How might that work? Let’s explore what POS SHOULD look like sooner rather than later.

Mobile Digital Transformation and Managing Change are macro industry levers used to address today’s business challenges, all leading back to costs reductions, revenue generation, and market relevance. The evolution is on and businesses that survive adapt to change the fastest. Join industry expert, Paul Bradley of PlayerLync, and learn why you current mobile content strategy could be negatively impacting your transformation -- or worse, not giving you the edge you need to compete in today’s fast-paced environments.

Whether you’re looking to grow revenues through new delivery partners or wanting to take the manual cost and strain out of labor management, the need for systems integration has never been greater in the restaurant industry. In this session you’ll hear how leading operators are connecting a number of different types of system to help them grow.

The customer journey starts with a question, and a question shows intent to buy. Consumers search for food more than any other business category, and optimizing that journey drives transactions in your restaurant and your digital channels. In this session, we'll explore how you can supply the right answers to search queries (even the unbranded ones), map the customer journey across AI-powered discovery services, and drive measurable results— leading hungry consumers to your tables, counters, and drive-thrus.

As the Grammy Award-winning guitarist for The Doobie Brothers and one of the founding members of Steely Dan, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter is particularly skilled in looking at existing technologies to see other ways they can be used.  As he said in an interview some years ago, this "happens in music all the time and happens to be what terrorists are incredibly good at." He successfully brings his creativity and passion for music to his work today, which includes consulting for the U.S. Department of Defense at the highest levels.  Baxter highlights creative, unconventional problem-solving and planning techniques by showing audiences how to apply knowledge gained in one area to advance goals in completely different fields. He explains how to approach issues with new "logic templates" and how to leave preconceptions behind. Through humor and lateral thinking, Baxter helps corporations and colleges map effective strategies and rediscover the drive to innovate and ignite passion.

"Owner of well-known and highly loved “fan favorite” brands like Carvel®, Cinnabon®, Schlotzsky’s®, Jamba Juice®, Moe’s Southwest Grill®, Auntie Anne’s®, McAlister’s Deli®, and Seattle’s Best Coffee®, Focus Brands manages more than 6,000 restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops and bakeries in over 50 countries around the world.

Join this session with Focus Brands’ CIO, Michael Verdesca, to learn how Focus Brands is putting the power of data to work in its restaurants by capturing, structuring, interpreting and applying insights to delight guests, drive satisfaction and loyalty, and optimize restaurant operations. "

How do you create a better customer experience using technology? Where are you going to get the most bang for your buck? Listen to a panel of expert restaurant operators share real insights on how they effectively engage customers and make their technology decisions. Hosted by Ivan Matkovic, CEO of Spendgo, this session will give you knowledge and best practices to radically increase customer acquisition, avoid costly technology mistakes, boost sales, and create more repeat visits.

Hughes Interview with Courtney Radke, SONIC Drive-In Manager of Retail Network & Infrastructure

Network security plays a critical role in profitable restaurant operations.  When done well, it builds trust, encourages customers to engage, and provides a safe environment for employees to serve.  When done poorly, it can ruin the brand experience, threaten customers, and drive away business. This session will provide restaurant executives with a functional understanding of network security.

Restaurants already look and function much different than they did 20 years ago. And as innovation continues to rip through the industry at warp speed, we can expect even more changes in the future. So what does the restaurant of tomorrow look like? This session provides a peek into the technologies and ideas that are poised to change the game. 

“Humans make noisy predictions” says world-leading Artificial Intelligence researcher and economist Ajay Agrawal. Author of the game-changing book Prediction Machines and founder of U of T’s Creative Destruction Lab—which boasts the greatest concentration of AI start-ups of any program on the planet—Agrawal’s talks illuminate the incoming realities of AI: how machine prediction, stripped of all that noisy (and expensive) human thought, is on the verge of presenting us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the way we do business, “drive” cars, run governments, and provide healthcare.