The quality of a show can be judged by audience response. If the audience stands and yells "more," you can assume you've got a hit. The "audience" at Retail 2020 gave The Gourmet Retailer the equivalent of a standing ovation. Scheduled to close at 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 22, the attendees, wrapped up in roundtable discussions on "Marketing and Public Relations" and "How To Get the Deal," stayed for an additional two hours. That's a long standing ovation.

Retail 2020, the first conference designed specifically for the specialty food and kitchenware industry, made an indelible and positive impression on the 150 professionals attending the event at the Mohegan Sun Resort in Uncasville, Conn. The two-day conference was an amazing exchange of information between retailers, vendors and manufacturers. The conference included keynote addresses by experts in the field, retailer-to-retailer roundtable sessions, panel discussions and plenty of time for networking and roaming the exhibit floor.

Thursday's agenda included keynote addresses by author Harold Lloyd and ZingTrainer Maggie Bayless. Friday, Todd Hale, senior vice president of Consumer & Shopper Insights, Nielsen Consumer Panel Services, gave the morning's keynote speech. Hale provided retailers and suppliers with consumer shopper insights and trends across the retail food industry based on the vast amount of data available from Nielsen Business Media.

Hale asked the audience the following questions:
• How are you equipped to compete against value, variety or convenience?
• Are you providing value, variety and convenient solutions to category consumers and retail shoppers?

According to Hale, this can be achieved by innovation; and being innovative begins with knowing your audience and their buying habits as well as knowing your competition.

Hale told retailers they can grow their sales by:
• Increasing their shopper base
• Driving shopping frequency
• Building baskets

Retailers should leverage categories and brands that impact one or more of these components:
• Driving "need state" trip opportunities. Those opportunities include:
Health & wellness
Meal occasions
Large vs. small trips
Time-starved consumers

According to the consumer analyst, record high gas prices, food and beverage inflation, along with declining consumer confidence, will cause consumers to do more of what they have been doing:
• Combining shopping trips
• Eating more meals at home and doing more at-home entertaining
• Seeking the right mix of value, variety and convenience

Hale reiterated that consumers will continue to do all these things, but at accelerated levels.

He then asked the final question: What are you doing differently?

Those questions were answered during the remainder of the day with panel discussions, retailer-to-retailer talks and an even exchange of information between retailers, manufacturers and suppliers.

Todd Hale's entire presentation will be available online within the next month, in addition to all the other speakers' excellent information. You'll be able to see all Hale's relevant statistics, news about Wal-Mart's foray into the specialty retail market, more ideas on improving your specialty retail business and what others had to say about their Retail 2020 experience. So come back for more …