With their front-row view of industry performance and trends, the authorities at Technomic and Restaurant Business will provide a timely and data-backed look at what is challenging operators and what strategies are used to build traffic, sales and consumer demand among top brands. Peter Romeo and Joe Pawlak will cover sales trends, consumer demands, a look at new approaches to menu and marketing, and more, in an overview tailored for restaurant growth enterprises.

In this session, we will get to know more about ProStart, a cornerstone program from the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation. It is a two-year, industry-backed culinary arts and restaurant management program for high school students. It annually reaches approximately 150,000 students in more than 1,900 schools in all 50 states, the territory of Guam and Department of Defense Education Activity schools in Europe and the Pacific. ProStart gives students a platform to discover new interests and talents to open doors for fulfilling careers. Join us to hear more about this incredible organization and how you can align your brand with this cause.

Today, most fans know Guy Fieri as the Food Network superstar with the spikey hair. They’re unaware that he climbed to fame through operations and kitchen jobs at several chains that would fit right in with the Restaurant Directions audience, from Louise’s Trattoria to a casual brand owned by Stouffer’s. He even proved himself an able concept creator, turning a tricycle into The Awesome Cart to sell soft pretzels in his hometown—at age 10. He’s been involved with the food business ever since, not only as the host of such hit TV programs as “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” but also as an entrepreneur who’s opened more than 63 restaurants worldwide. He showed his devotion to “real” food when he rebelled as a kid against his parents’ macrobiotic and natural cooking. Yet he hates eggs, loves kale, and can’t bake a cake (his son Hunter is the pastry chef in the family). Join Fieri as he shares behind-the-scenes stories about his TV shows, the 17 one-of-a-kind restaurant concepts that bear his name today, his six best-selling books and his many escapades in cooking, dining and traveling.

Restaurants of all types are conserving resources, reducing waste and connecting with environmentally aware guests. They are also providing opportunities to engage their employees through volunteering and community support.  Want to learn more about how they do it?   This panel discussion of industry experts who are leading the way in sustainable practices will share their success stories.

With disruptive forces assaulting business from every direction, creativity has been labeled the single-most important business attribute. To succeed, leaders must be focused on creating a resilient culture where everyone’s engaged; a torrent of fresh, creative ideas needs to flow from every level of the organization. Top leaders then employ a secret weapon: a systematic approach to selecting and launching the ideas that will best drive growth and innovation. Josh Linkner weighs in with a fresh perspective on this critical leadership challenge. A highly successful serial entrepreneur and now a tech investor, Linkner shows leaders how to employ his simple but effective framework to ramp up the creativity and identify/launch ideas that will break through and defy gravity. This presentation will help leaders:

•Challenge assumptions and conventional wisdom

•Build courage to foster responsible risk-taking

•Authentically express your own creativity and tap into the hidden creativity of your team members

•Develop “everyday creativity” to attack business problems of all sizes

•Deploy creativity beyond R&D to re-imagine processes, drive efficiency, and improve operations

•Uncover fresh approaches for reinvention and growth

No surprise – people want what they want when they want it. Companies like UberEats®, GrubHub® and Postmates® are changing expectations and raising the bar. It’s all about decreasing friction and making lives easier without sacrificing the experience, so it’s no surprise that takeout and delivery are more popular than ever. And it’s not slowing down. Join Lamb Weston as we share how Farmer Boys brought the restaurant experience home.

According to the most recently published data by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 61% of the foodborne disease outbreaks and 42% of all associated foodborne illnesses in the United States were caused by restaurants (CDC, 2018). In the most recent report by the FDA on the risk factors that lead to foodborne disease outbreaks, restaurants that were using a well-developed food safety management system to achieve Active Managerial Control of these risk had significantly fewer food safety behaviors/practices out-of-compliance during inspections. This breakout session will discuss how restaurants can implement a food safety management system to achieve Active Managerial Control using digital technology that can enable real-time monitoring of the necessary controls that can prevent foodborne disease outbreaks.

Given today’s increasingly competitive restaurant landscape, understanding guest behavior is challenging to grasp yet critical to succeed. Loyalty program data provides operators with meaningful insights, but information is limited to participants. In response, mobile technology and guest experience trackers are working together to provide operators with a more holistic—and realistic—view of their guests and their behavior outside the four restaurant walls.

In this session, we will showcase the marriage of attitudinal and behavioral data and will share some of the real-world consumer findings applicable to restaurant operators. Learn how the integration of these two approaches provides operators both the eyes and the ears to grasp the “what” and the “why” behind the occasion and brand loyalty.

We’ve all heard food can heal a heartbreak, but what about using food to reduce common health issues such as inflammation, blood pressure and weight management? As consumers become more interested in enjoying spices and herbs for health benefits, explore how medicinal food can truly be utilized through a holistic approach using ancient and ethnic applications. Take it a step further using plant-based proteins as vehicles to deliver these flavors and spices. Join in the conversation and movement and how trends are just for independent restaurants.

Traditional print and TV marketing isn’t as effective as it once was, so operators are turning more to social and digital channels to expand their reach. But that’s not enough. Today’s consumers want to feel like brands know them and are speaking directly to them. But how can an operation speak to new guests when they’re just trying to acquire them? Operators share strategies for growing their audience through different marketing tactics.

The restaurant and foodservice industry needs to attract 650,000 16 – 24 year-olds over the next ten 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 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 recently 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 price, promotion and loyalty apps.

If you’re looking for new marketing ideas, this is a session you won’t want to miss.

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.


Vice-President & GM,  Small-Medium Business, Keith Dunphy, 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. "

Today’s consumers expect beef, chicken, pork, seafood, and increasingly plant protein foods as center-of-plate items on most menus. But, which plant-forward dishes should be added, and how should they be positioned to appeal to mainstream consumers? In this session, Zak Weston from the Good food Institute will walk through market data, consumer research, and case studies on the best ways to drive plant-based dish sales. 

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

Learning Objectives:
•Understand the new role of automation and tech in the foodservice industry to streamline labor, broaden offerings, cut waste, heighten hygiene and build your brand.
•Understand the when-and-why behind crucial upgrades, investments and competitive approaches.
•Discuss how automation and technology can be implemented in your restaurant without sacrificing the human element or your brand identity. 

In this workshop you will learn available Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for operators to improve their operations. Topics include, but are not limited to, asset management, food safety, HACCP digital checklist and AI for energy saving.

Sight, smell, sound, touch and taste: your brand’s story and flavors come to life through every element of how your guest interacts with your restaurant and product offering. The guest journey begins the moment they walk through your doors; and making or breaking their return relies on appealing to their every sense.

Join us as we discuss why an active and engaging guest experience can be a differentiator for your brand. We’ll provide tactics that showcase how strategic displays and thoughtful guest touch points can drive impulse transactions, enhance the food experience, fit seamlessly into your operations and further elevate your brand story. 

When competing for share of stomach in an increasingly crowded foodservice industry, limited-time offers are an effective strategy in attracting consumers. Learn about the five types of LTOs and what ingredients, flavors, formats and even menu descriptions capture the most interest from consumers.

Cash is the most popular payment mechanism in the world, as dictated by your customers. Cash in circulation is growing, while low consumer confidence and lack of universal access to electronic payment networks mean “going cashless” is not the answer, and may even become illegal.  Cash is a legitimate customer choice but it can also be your operational headache.


Learn how to exploit the market’s most reliable Cash Automation technology from Glory at all your points of service – kiosk, counter and drive thru – to turn cash into an electronic payment, providing customer choice and a positive checkout experience for everyone, however and wherever they choose to pay, while at the same time, eliminating those operational cash management issues.


An all-inclusive & customer consistent ordering and payment experience for cash and non-cash


• Engage and excite customers to increase order size and up-selling


• Enable accuracy and improve speed and reliability for your cash transactions


• Redeploy staff to focus on service, customer experience and building brand • Reduce shrinkage through minimizing or eliminating employees physically handling cash


• Improve order accuracy


• Enhance the journey for customers, managers and employees 

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. ItsaCheckmate will introduce a panel of industry experts to discuss how to streamline your operation, increase revenue and successfully adapt to the growing market through 3rd party delivery.

Signature sauces easily differentiate your menu and change the game into condiments that you don't just giveaway. Take a journey into America's leading signature sauce combinations that are so easy to prep and can become a new profit center for your operation.

With so much new technology on the market, it can be hard for growth-minded operators to decide where to spend their dollars, and when. Similarly, it’s a challenge to determine which “hot” innovations have lasting power versus those that are just fads. This panel will address the types of technologies that actually make a difference to the bottom line—those that customers will notice, those that will have a positive impact on operational efficiencies and those that just make sense for restaurants today.

Exploring broad consumer trends can lead to mixed messages, as different groups often behave in very different ways. Instead, this deep dive into three demographic groups that are critical to restaurants---millennial parents, Gen Z and Hispanics---will provide insights into their habits and preferences, as well as stealable ideas to get them in the door. 

So much interest around the Future 50 comes from what type of concepts are on the list now. Not just which brands are the up and comers, but what are the new trends/categories rising up. This panel will feature from those type of concepts, with a conversation around what’s new and what could change the emerging chain world.

If gochujang was the next Sriracha, what’s the next gochujang? This session will explore this question and many others as they relate to restaurant menu trends of today and tomorrow. Using Technomic’s Ignite menu data, bolstered by predictive analytics, Pat Cobe and Lizzy Freier will delve into the ingredients, flavors, foods and beverages driving menu innovation. Take away business-building ideas for powering your menu in 2019 and beyond.

Every year, restaurants and other food service entities in the U.S. squander $161 billion due to excess food purchasing, preparation and disposal.  By methodically tracking and reducing your restaurant’s excess food, for every $1 invested in food waste reduction, your business can save $7.  In this session, you’ll learn about the environmental and economic impacts of wasted food, how to leverage EPA’s Food Recovery Hierarchy, and strategies & tools for measuring and reducing the volume of surplus food generated on a day-to-day basis.

Social media can be a great leveler for restaurant chains that lack the big marketing budgets of a national brand. Any Gen Z’er with a smart phone knows how to tweet, post, “like” or troll. But how can an emerging operation get the most out of digital media? And what are the pitfalls to avoid? This highly interactive session will look at what’s worked and what hasn’t for growth concepts. Get answers to the questions every chain leader is asking about this often confusing means of engaging consumers.

Take a picture of consumers dining in your establishments today and compare it to three, two, even one decade from now. The images will portray a distinct evolution toward a more diverse consumer as the growth of Hispanic, Black/African American, and Asian populations continues to transform both the consumer landscape and the foodservice industry. The food and dining preferences of these groups have been and will continue to be influential and far-reaching. Learn what you can do today, and in the coming decade, to prepare for these impactful and long-lasting demographic and cultural shifts.

Delivery is here to stay. Sharing Technomic’s consumer data and research, principal Melissa Wilson explores the next wave, and what you can expect in 2019 and beyond.

The looming labor challenge isn’t getting any easier. Good workers are hard to find and even harder to keep. You’ll hear stealable ideas and best practices to take back to your business – along with some lessons on what not to do.

What do investors think of the restaurant business today? And how can small chains get the investment they need to add units and grow? This panel will help answer these and other questions growing chains are asking as they try to raise funds and compete in today’s ultra-competitive market. 

In a prior life, Phil Rosenthal built the popular sitcom “Everyone Loves Raymond” around an Everyman character who finds delight in the un-extraordinary, be it a family dinner or a chance to needle his brother. It’s the same approach Rosenthal takes in eating his way through his current hit show, “Somebody Feed Phil,” a foodie’s tour of the best of the restaurant mainstream. He’s just as likely to introduce his cult audience to a chicken sandwich joint as some Far Eastern market stall specializing in fisheye stew—even as he proudly declares, “I’m exactly like Anthony Bourdain if he was afraid of everything.” His friend Patton Oswald describes him as “the Mr. Rogers of food.” Rosenthal will tap that proto-customer approach in discussing the trends he sees unfolding in restaurant menus and concepts.