The convenience industry is in the midst of significant change. With e-tailers offering just-in-time delivery, endless choice and competitive pricing—that consumers can access from the comfort of home—why should anyone visit your stores? It’s a question that, in the face of lackluster margins and declining trips, retail leaders are asking themselves. The answer lies in exploring the boundaries of the physical store itself. Getting the answer right, and evolving the physical space accordingly, is key to survival in the bricks and mortar retail world.
Convenience retailing is going through an accelerated metamorphosis. Retailers have to turn themselves into destinations (and exciting ones at that), that provide speed, selection and a customized shopping experience. The physical store itself will have to get smarter at figuring out what customers want, providing a frictionless and memorable experience.
Embarking on this metamorphosis brings with it painful challenges and difficult decisions. Along with the executive peer networking that is a hallmark of the Leadership Forum, our 2019 event will help you navigate this disruption. Speakers at NACS Leadership Forum will reveal the decisions they are making, and the strategic and operational implications these decisions imply.
If you would like to receive an invitation for this year’s event, visit our registration tab for more information.
The NACS Leadership Forum is a world-class event that brings together established leaders from the convenience and fuel retailing industry to explore high-impact and meaningful approaches to business in a dynamic setting.
Below is the draft schedule for the 2019 Leadership Forum. Exact times of sessions may vary slightly and will be updated as content is confirmed.
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11:00 am – 5:00 pm
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Registration Opens
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1:00 pm – 4:55 pm
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Top-to-Top Business Appointments (by invitation only)
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3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
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Afternoon Networking
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5:00pm – 6:30pm
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General Session
The Cost of Growth
In the century-long history of the industry, the cost of growing a firm’s store count has never been higher. Whether through acquisition, construction of new-to-industry stores, or remodeling existing stores, retail operators are finding opportunity around every corner. Moderated by NACS President and CEO Henry Armour, this panel discussion will explore the cost of growing your business in this current climate. We will talk with retailers who have embraced different philosophies of growth: those who have acquired to achieve company growth, those who have been acquired and those who have grown organically on their own.
Moderator: Henry O. Armour, President and CEO, NACS
Panelists:
- Sonja Hubbard, former Chief Executive Officer and President of E-Z MART, Inc.
- Ari Haseotes, CEO, Cumberland Farms
- Glenn Plumby, Senior Vice President and COO, Speedway SuperAmerica LLC
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6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
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Welcome Receptions
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Evening
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Supplier-Hosted Dinners (by invitation only)
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8:00 am – 5:00 pm
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Registration Open
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8:15 am – 9:00 am
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Networking Breakfast
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9:00 am – 10:15 am
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General Session
Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane
The Internet and smartphones are the latest in a 250-year-long cycle of disruption that has continuously changed the way we live, work and interact. The coming Augmented Age, however, promises a level of disruption, behavioral shifts and changes that are unparalleled. Futurist Brett King will talk about what this Augmented Age bring: Will robots take our jobs, and AI’s subsume us as inferior intelligences, or will this new age usher in a time of great abundance? How will our lives—and the lives of our consumers—be affected? The world will change more in the next 20 years than it has in the last 250 years. Are you and your companies ready to adapt? If history proves anything, you don't have much of a choice.
Speaker: Brett King, futurist; CEO of Moven; author and radio host
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10:15 am – 10:45 am
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Networking Break
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10:45 am – 12:00 pm
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General Session
Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane (Breakout)
Moderator: Brett King, futurist; CEO of Moven; author and radio host
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12:00 pm – 1:15 pm
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Lunch
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1:15 pm – 2:30 pm
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General Session
Speaker: Oren Cass, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and author of The Once and Future Worker.
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2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
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Afternoon Networking
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3:30 pm – 5:25 pm
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Top-to-Top Business Appointments (by invitation only)
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6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
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NACS Reception & Dinner
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9:30 pm – 10:30 pm
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NACS After-Dinner Cocktails
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8:00 am – 11:00 am
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NACS Hospitality Lounge Open
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8:15 am – 9:00 am
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Networking Breakfast
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9:00 am – 11:00 am
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Closing Session
Strategic Agility: How to Build Adaptablity into Decision-Making
After glimpsing our disruptive future during the previous day’s session about the Augmented Age, Dr. Kathy Pearson will help you develop a strategy and mindset for navigating and managing uncertainty. You’ll discover a framework for balancing short-term versus long-term objectives during this engaging session. Pearson will help you identify barriers to agility as well as help you discover actions for strategic agility by identifying knowns and key uncertainties and by dynamically monitoring the external environment. You will learn how to build culture of agility and how to evaluate future forces in developing a three- to five-year plan for survival.
Speaker: Kathy Pearson, PhD, President and Founder of Enterprise Learning Solutions; Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
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Interested in being invited? The NACS Leadership Forum is by invitation only, and predominantly top executives (CEOs, COOs and Vice Presidents) of successful convenience retailing companies operating 50+ stores. If you fit these criteria and would like to be considered during the selection process, please sign up below.
The Leadership Forum is an exclusive event made available to our Hunter Club supplier members. Hunter Club Gold members are eligible to register up to four (4) company representatives, Hunter Club Silver two (2) and Hunter Club Bronze one (1). The registration fee for Hunter Club members is $6,000 per person. Additional Hunter Club company personnel over and above their allotment will be $7,500 per person. NACS reserves the right to limit the number of additional registrations in order to maintain an appropriate balance between retailers and suppliers.
Registration is open to non-Hunter Club companies based on availability, and they are limited to one (1) participant at $10,000.
Please contact Nat Keller for more information.
Show Bio
Henry Armour is the president and CEO of NACS. He grew up working in his family’s retail businesses, Armour Oil Company, rising to the position of vice president and COO in 1977. In 1980, he joined The Standard Oil Company of Ohio, where he served as manager of development strategies. He later founded West Star Corporation, which grew to include 59 NOW! convenience stores, truck stops and quick-service restaurants in the Pacific Northwest until he sold the company in 2004. In 1988, Armour founded Epoch Corporation, which operated retail enterprises in California.
He became president and CEO of NACS in July 2005, having also served as the association’s chairman in 2002 and 2003. Armour earned a BA in economics from Stanford University, an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics, and an MBA and PhD in economics from Stanford University.
Show Bio
Oren Cass is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and author of The Once and Future Worker. Cass worked previously as the domestic policy director for Senator Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, was a management consultant at Bain & Company, and an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Show Bio
Brett King is a futurist and speaker, an author, and a media personality who covers the future of business. He has appeared as a commentator on CNBC, BBC, ABC, Fox, Bloomberg and more. He advised the Obama administration on Fintech policy and the Future of banking and advises regulators and bank CEOs around the world on technology transformation. King hosts a radio show on FinTech called "Breaking Banks" (140 countries, 3.6 million listeners). He is the CEO and Founder of Moven, a successful mobile start-up, which has raised more than $24 million, with the world's first mobile, downloadable bank account. His latest book is Bank 4.0, and another one of his books, Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane, is an international bestseller.
Show Bio
Kathy Pearson, PhD, is a strategist, Systems Thinking expert, and authority in decision making. She is president and founder of ELS, a firm focused on executive development and learning across industries. Kathy is also a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and has served as an adjunct associate professor in the Operations and Information Management Department at The Wharton School, both at the University of Pennsylvania. Pearson’s work spans a wide variety of industries and geographies, and her client list includes organizations such as Cardinal Health, Children’s Miracle Network, Coca-Cola, Comcast, The Estee Lauder Companies, GlaxoSmithKline, India Ministry of Finance, Merck, Novartis, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Royal Bank of Scotland and the World Bank.
Eden Roc Miami Beach Resort
Miami Beach, FL
www.edenrochotelmiami.com
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For Invited Retail Attendees: Hotel accommodations will be made by NACS as part of your registration process. Invited Retail Attendees will have their first night stay (Feb 12 or 13) covered directly by NACS as part of the registration. Additionally, they Invited Retail Attendees, who participate fully in the Leadership Forum events, may also apply for reimbursement of up to $350 for travel and lodging-related expenses.
Supplier Attendees: Supplier attendance is limited to Hunter Club Member companies. For more information on how to participate please contact Nat Keller, nkeller@convenience.org
Nearby Airports: Ground Transportation to and from the NACS Leadership Forum is on own.
Miami International Airport (MIA) 11 Miles, 20 minutes
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) 25 Miles, 45 Minutes