Retail 2020: Visions of Success
By Michelle Moran
The Gourmet Retailer Magazine held its first-ever educational conference this past summer. And I guess the first thing that I need to express right now is my gratitude. I am so extremely grateful for those sponsors and retailers who had faith in our brand enough to commit their dollars and their time to support us and attend. I know it was a leap of faith for us all -- even for me -- as we've never attempted anything of this magnitude before. I am so fortunate to be working in an industry filled with people who I truly consider friends, who share with me a passion for learning and hold an intense need to spend time with one another to develop our connections and impart our own lessons.
And so we all leapt together and gathered in Connecticut this past August. I admit that prior to the first walk through the space the eve of the event, I still had my trepidations -- not for our brand and its image, but for those who filled the rooms. I wanted desperately for this event to electrify each attendee -- to recharge their own personal batteries, fill them with new ideas and bring them a sense of vision for their own business. That was my simple mission when creating the content for the event -- build an environment that fosters education, networking, a place to share ideas and build new visions.
My dream was to design a conference where members of the specialty food and kitchenware retail industry would gather in a retreat-like setting -- from owners to floor personnel to managers -- and take the time to access not only the road map of their business but how that road map was working in their personal life. I wanted to give them a place to not only learn, but a space to disconnect with the everyday and connect with their peers and educational leaders who would provide them with new directions and ideas that they could bring home and implement almost immediately.
It was amazing to see my dream come true and to share it with so many of you who had the faith to leap with us. This was the most incredible educational forum I have attended since becoming a part of this industry over a decade ago. I am so honored that I was called upon to build this project and privileged to have provided a successful program to one of the most amazing groups of business professionals I have ever been involved with in my 20-plus years as a journalist.
I know I will see all who attended this year again next August at our second annual Retail 2020 conference in California; I also know I will see many more of you who were not able to attend this year. I am so confident in what we have designed, and what we will design for 2009, that I have no qualms when I say this will be the most important conference you and your staff could ever attend.
I also learned some lessons this year -- as communicators, we failed to impart to you what exactly this conference was all about. I am amazed by that, but it is the feedback expressed to me from a panel of attendees I trust completely. And so I am putting out the call now for volunteers to help lead a Retail 2020 Committee (both vendors and retailers) -- those of you willing to review our content plans and marketing materials to keep us on track and make sure our message is clear. I also want to be sure we continue to design a conference with the best content available -- information that is relevant and essential to you. I am blessed to have an incredible Retailer Advisory Board that guided me in 2008, but I would like to open the Retail 2020 Committee to anyone in the industry who would like to help facilitate education and networking.
So call me if you are willing to lend a hand (239.992.2404) or drop a line to mmoran@gourmetretailer.com. I would also encourage all industry associations that want to get involved to call on me – this program is designed to facilitate communication and learning – we should all be involved in its development and success
In the meantime, if you missed the event, we have content available for download right here. This is also the place where you can read comments from attendees and stay tuned to what our plans are for 2009. Please also take the time to respond to our survey. We are also adding a link on this site to a survey gauging interest for next year's dates and location (we're leaning toward early August in Napa or San Francisco, but we need to know if that's a time and location that works for you!).
Each day that passes, I reflect back on our inaugural Retail 2020 and my excitement grows. For me, the conference provided a personal road map to guide me in my growth in the industry, as well as a business plan and guidepost for continued success in developing future conferences and events specifically for you.
Cheers!
Michelle Moran
Editor-in-Chief
mmoran@gourmetretailer.com |
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TODD HALE:
Todd Hale, senior vice president of Consumer & Shopper Insights, Nielsen Consumer Panel Services, presented Gourmet Cooks: Cooking Up Retailer Opportunities. 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. 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, which is combining shopping trips; eating more meals at home and doing more at-home entertaining; and seeking the right mix of value, variety, and convenience. He provided insights into key areas the specialty retailer can focus as well as a more positive view of the future for the gourmet market. Click here to download his report. |
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PHIL LEMPERT:
Phil Lempert delivered an informative and entertaining presentation titled 21st Century Consumers - Getting Ready for Tomorrow's Specialty Food Consumers. In ad dition to being entertaining, the Supermarket Guru is a television and radio news reporter (The Today Show, The View), newspaper columnist, author, consumerologist, food marketing expert, and website futurist. For Retail 2020, he was a teacher. His first lesson was “Don’t follow the elephant, get in front of it.” The message was, don’t follow the trend (the elephant), get ahead of it to see what’s next and begin your own trend. To discover more insights from the Supermarket Guru, click here. |
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MAGGIE BAYLESS:
Visioning — for a business or for oneself personally — is defined at Zingerman’s as “what things look like, at a specific point in the future, when everything has turned out well.” Maggie Bayless, Managing Partner of ZingTrain, takes you through the steps to creating a vision explaining the hows and whys. See her illustration of Zingerman’s initial strategies when they began their business and how it led to a successful vision. Download his presentation here. |
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HAROLD LLOYD:
Harold C. Lloyd addresses the question of Am I the leader I need to be? Not want to be, or have to be, or even should be, but need to be to compete in this ever expanding and competitive market place. Lloyd, a leading expert in the retail industry, and author of Am I the Leader I Need To Be ? took retailers through the task of defining a genuine leader. He also spoke to them in a later session on retail merchandising, providing tips on store flow and demonstrations, click here to download handouts on his merchandising tips. |
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RONALD JAKUBISIN:
Ronald Jakubisin, principal of Ronald Jakubisin & Associates, discusses ways to better use the web to find new and retain old customers. Innovative and common sense strategies that use digital promotions, newsletters and blogs to increase traffic in stores. Response rates from existing customers can be as high as 25% compared to 2% with direct mail! Learn how to mine the internet for resources that can build your business here. |
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