NACS State of the Industry Summit

NACS Retail Member Registration Information

Retailer registration is limited to NACS Retail Members only. If you are not currently a member of NACS and would like to participate in this event, please contact Keith Harlow for membership information at kharlow@convenience.org or (703) 518-4206.

• State of the Industry Survey Participant (Complimentary for one attendee): Registration for the NACS State of the Industry Summit is complimentary for one (1) individual per retail member company if your company submits data* for the NACS State of the Industry Survey by Friday, March 13, 2020. The survey form is now available. Take the NACS State of the Industry Survey and receive 1 free registration. Additional attendees, beyond the one complimentary registrant, may be added for $299 per person. Your company's data is treated confidentially; it will only be used for analyses with data from other submitting firms and will never be seen by another participant.
• Regular Attendee ($999 for the first attendee): If your company chooses not to share its data for industry analysis, the minimum registration fee will be $999. Additional attendees can be added for $299 per person. All attendees must be employees of the NACS member company. Company consultants, bankers, and company board members are not eligible to participate.​

Please Note: CSX and Study Group subscribers need only ensure your company's retail data is current and fill out a brief demographic survey to receive the complimentary registration. By encouraging all attendees to share data, NACS hopes to deliver better metrics.

NACS Supplier Member Registration Information

Supplier registration is limited to NACS Supplier Members only. If you are not currently a member of NACS and would like to participate in this event, please contact Nicole Walbe for membership information at nwalbe@convenience.org or (703) 518-4229.

In order to optimize participation among retail attendees, space for supplier company representatives will be limited. Please choose from one of the two registration packages listed below.

• Registration & advertising package ($9,850), which includes:
  • Event registration to the NACS State of the Industry (SOI) Summit for one (1) attendee.
  • Additional attendees may be added for $2,000 per person.
  • One, full-page 4-color advertisement in CSP Magazine's NACS State of the Industry Summit publication (circ. 94,500).

• Registration only package ($6,000), which includes:
  • Event registration to the NACS State of the Industry (SOI) Summit for one (1) attendee.

Additional attendees may be added on a space available basis for $2,500 per person.

Sarah Alter is president and CEO of the Network of Executive Women, a nonprofit learning, leadership and advocacy organization that represents more than 13,000 members, with over 1,000 corporate partners and 22 regions in the United States and Canada. NEW advances gender equality and diversity in the retail, consumer goods, financial services and technology industries. Alter joined NEW in 2017 and has wide-ranging experience in the markets NEW represents. She served as vice president for Discover Financial Services; vice president for digital sales and marketing for online retailer Quill.com; and was chief marketing officer for General Growth Properties, where she developed marketing strategies for 200 shopping mall properties and their top retailers. Alter has served on a number of non-profit boards and is an accomplished fundraiser. She is an organizer of Chicago’s annual JDRF Gala, which has raised millions of dollars for Type 1 diabetes. Alter is a graduate of Northwestern University and has a Harvard MBA.

Anirban Basu is Chairman & CEO of Sage Policy Group, Inc., an economic and policy consulting firm headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland with offices in Pennsylvania and Cambodia. The firm provides strategic analytical services to energy suppliers, law firms, medical systems, government agencies, and real estate developers among others.

In 2014, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan appointed him Chair of the Maryland Economic Development Commission. He also serves as chairman of the Baltimore County Economic Advisory Committee. He is also the Chief Economist to Associated Builders and Contractors and Chief Economic Advisor to the Construction Financial Management Association. He serves similar functions for Visit Baltimore, the Maryland Association of Realtors, and Marcum, LLC.

He lectures at Johns Hopkins University in Global Strategy and has also taught international economics, urban economics, micro- and macroeconomics at Hopkins. His radio show can be heard weekdays on 88.1FM, WYPR, Baltimore.

In both 2007 and 2016, the Daily Record newspaper selected Mr. Basu as one of Maryland’s 50 most influential people. The Baltimore Business Journal named him one of the region’s 20 most powerful business leaders in 2010.

Mr. Basu has been on many boards over time, including First Mariner Bank, the Baltimore City Public School System, Port Discovery, the Baltimore School for the Arts, and Union Memorial Hospital. He is currently on the boards of St. Mary’s College, the University System of Maryland Foundation, the Center for Emerging Media, the Lyric Opera House and the Archdiocese of Baltimore School System.

Mr. Basu earned his B.S. in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1990. He earned his Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and his Master’s in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park. His Juris Doctor was earned at the University of Maryland School of Law.

Jose currently heads up dunnhumby’s business in North America, with responsibility for leading growth and expansion journey in the region. With over 10 years in the industry, Jose brings a wealth of retail, consultancy and brand experience, and a fantastic understanding of the complex retail market.

Prior to this, he was Managing Director of Latin America and Africa, where he oversaw an explosion of growth and expansion of dunnhumby's presence to Mexico and Argentina. Before that, Jose lead the start-up of Digital Media Services in Latin America for dunnhumby by building and taking to market products developed in partnership with the likes of Facebook and Google. During that time, he was responsible for personalizing the customer experience for thousands of shoppers of major Latin American and African Retailers and FMCGs, such as Raia Drogasil, Grupo Exito, Grupo Pão de Açucar, Shoprite, Dia and AB Inbev. Before joining dunnhumby, Jose worked in Investment Banking with BPI.

Soren Kaplan is the bestselling and award winning author of Leapfrogging and The Invisible Advantage, an Affiliated Professor at the Center for Effective Organizations at USC’s Marshall School of Business, a writer for FastCompany and Inc. Magazine, a globally recognized keynote speaker, and the Founder of InnovationPoint; and upBOARD. He has been recognized by the Thinkers50 as one of the world’s top thought leaders in business strategy and innovation.

As a leading expert in disruptive innovation, innovation culture, and business model innovation, he works with Disney, NBCUniversal, Kimberly-Clark, Colgate-Palmolive, Hershey, Red Bull, Medtronic, Roche, Philips, Cisco, Visa, Ascension Health, Kaiser Permanente, CSAA Insurance Group, American Nurses Association, and many others.

Soren previously led the strategy consulting group at Hewlett-Packard and is a co-founder of upBOARD, the world’s first “no-code” software platform for business process best practices.

He has lectured at the Harvard Business School, Copenhagen Business School, and Melbourne Business School. His Wall Street Journal bestseller, Leapfrogging, was awarded “Best Leadership Book” and his latest book The Invisible Advantage received “Best Business Book” by the International Book Awards.

He has been quoted, published, and interviewed by Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, CNBC, National Public Radio, USA Today, and The International Handbook on Innovation, among many others. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology and possesses dual US-French citizenship.

Jeff Lenard oversees NACS’ industry-wide external communications campaigns to advance the role of convenience stores as positive economic, social and philanthropic contributors to the communities they serve. Lenard also serves as lead spokesperson and has conducted more than 6,000 media interviews about trends and innovations at the nation’s 153,000-plus convenience stores. In addition, he is the creator and co-host of the association’s award-winning weekly podcast, “Convenience Matters,” and oversees the long-running video series “Ideas 2 Go.”

Prior to joining NACS in 1999, Lenard served in communications and marketing functions for several energy-focused associations. He earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. in marketing from Syracuse University.

Charlie McIlvaine is the Chairman & CEO of Coen Oil Company, LLC, a diversified holding company. Together with his brother Andy, they manage Coen Markets (a convenience retail chain in the Tri-State region of Pittsburgh, PA) and Coen Tire (a retail tire platform). Charlie is also Managing Partner of Thomaston Capital, LLC, a private investment firm that invests in growth or later stage companies primarily in the consumer/retail sector.

Charlie was previously a member of Avista Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in New York with $4 billion under management, where he focused on investments in the consumer sector. Prior to working in private equity, Charlie was Co-Global Group Head and Managing Director of the Global Consumer Group for Deutsche Bank. In this capacity, he had responsibility for managing a group of 50+ professionals across three global investment banking offices which generated revenues over $300 million. DB’s Global Consumer Group advised on mergers & acquisitions and raised debt and equity capital for clients in the food/beverage, household products/personal care, retail/restaurant and business services sectors. Previous to DB, Charlie was a senior member and Managing Director of J.P. Morgan’s Global Consumer Group in investment banking. While at J.P. Morgan, he executed financings and mergers and acquisitions for a wide range of consumer companies. He began his career as an investment banking analyst for Merrill Lynch based in New York and London.

Charlie holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, attended New College of Oxford University, and earned a BA in economics from Duke University.

Thomas H. Talbert, RD is the Vice President, Culinary Marketing at CSSI, Marketing + Culinary, a full-service culinary and marketing communications Marlin Network agency. He leads a team of chefs and account planners in creative culinary development and innovation for the foodservice industry.

Thomas has years of experience in the foodservice industry, with a multidimensional background in culinary arts, product development, and dietetics. He is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University with an associate’s degree in Culinary Arts and a bachelor’s degree in Culinary Nutrition as well as a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s dietetics programs.

Thomas has worked at an assortment of fine and casual dining restaurants and consulted with the industry’s leading manufacturers and operators and has led product innovation and introductions into the retail channel.

Helping food manufacturers and restaurant chain operators develop and implement successful innovation practices is Thomas’ major focus at CSSI. His depth of knowledge is firmly grounded in experience as a chef and registered dietitian—presenting new culinary concepts and menu trends that have driven innovation at many of the top restaurant chains. Coupled with his expertise in product development, sales support and marketing strategy, he has helped clients achieve foodservice success in the U.S., South America, Asia and the Caribbean.

For more than 20 years, Chris Wolf has been helping marketers to anticipate and address emerging consumer opportunities through strategy, innovation and brand development for companies including Tyson Foods, PepsiCo, 7 Eleven, Campbell Soup Co., M&M/Mars, Gerber/Novartis, McDonald’s, Nestle, Yum!Brands, Brinker International, Subway, Burger King, and Starbucks.

As a professional speaker and former journalist for The Food Channel and QSR Magazine, Chris’ forecasts, recommendations and ideas have attracted the attention of the media as well, including CBS This Morning, NPR, Psychology Today, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, as well as many trade publications. Wolf has a master’s degree in strategy and marketing from Kellogg Graduate School of Management and has taught marketing at Missouri State University and Drury University.

Chris has held roles at agencies, innovation consultancies and food manufacturing companies. He now leads planning and insights for the Marlin Network, managing a team that helps inspire consumer- and customer-led strategy to drive growth for brands.

MARLIN NETWORK
The Marlin Network is a subsidiary of Advantage Sales & Marketing, and includes Marlin Co., The Alchemedia Project, CSSI, and the Halverson Group, specializing in marketing, creative and culinary services for brands focused on hospitality and the experiential consumer.