ALEXANDRIA, Va. – When it comes to helping industry leaders identify opportunities and winning strategies for success, the NACS State of the Industry (SOI) Summit is the benchmarking authority. In fact, many consider it the industry’s crystal ball. Year after year, top performers across the convenience and fuel retailing industry have relied on this event to gain a preview of the newest metrics that will help guide their companies for months to come. Just announced, two more names have been added to this year’s speaker lineup at the SOI Summit, taking place April 11-13 in Chicago at a new host hotel—the Hyatt Regency O’Hare—having outgrown last year’s conference space.
Billy Milam, president of RaceTrac Petroleum Inc., and Andy Jones, president and CEO of Sprint Food Stores Inc., will join an already impressive lineup of top-ranked business professors, economists and retailers. Other speakers set to attend include:
- David Nelson, Ph.D., professor of economics at Western Washington University, and founder and president of Finance & Resource Management Consultants, Inc., will present “Liftoff—Now What? An Update on the Economy”;
- Todd Hale, Nielsen consultant, will present “Shopper and Format Trends”;
- John Martin, CEO of GenerationsMatter, will present “Transcendent Trends Reshaping the Future of Convenience and Fuel Retailing”; and
- Kevin Book, co-founder and managing director of ClearView Energy Partners LLC, will present “Energy Outlook.”
In total, more than a dozen experts will take to the stage in under eight weeks to deliver the first look at and analysis of the newest industry data, viewed through the lens of today’s most relevant topics.
The drop in fuel prices last year resulted in more disposable income for consumers. So how did retailers take advantage and what did they do differently in-store to sell more goods? Milam and Jones will kick off the SOI Summit’s jam-packed agenda with a retailer’s perspective of “The Numbers,” providing real-world examples and practical experiences to help the data come alive. Milam will cover top-line revenue growth to bottom-line pretax profitability measures in his presentation on financial and operational metrics to help retailers better assess the overall health of their businesses.
Next up, Jones will shed light on key drivers of the fastest growing categories as well as assess changing merchandise and foodservice trends to help retailers become better operators.
New this year, the SOI Summit will also include regional breakouts, offering in-depth performance category data related to six segments of the country. In the past, national data has been reported with some attention paid to regional metrics. Following suggestions from attendees in post-event surveys, the program has been reinvented to provide a localized look at the numbers. More information on the regional breakouts and the panelists will be provided in the final weeks leading up to the SOI Summit.
Reserve your seat now at the upcoming SOI Summit, April 11-13, to see what this year’s numbers will reveal about your business. NACS has negotiated a discounted hotel rate of $189 plus tax per room, per night for attendees. To secure your room and take advantage of this reduced rate, visit the Hyatt Regency O'Hare’s hotel reservations and click on “Make a Reservation.” Reservations must be made by March 25, 2016.