WASHINGTON — The International Food and Beverage Technology Association (IFBTA) has announced its partnership with the National Retail Federation (NRF) to produce an inaugural food and beverage technology workshop during NRF 2019:Retail's BIG Showon Monday, January 14 in New York City.
Produced in partnership with the IFBTA and NRF, this half-day workshop targets those in food and beverage who operate and include foodservice within their retail locations. Participants include top food, beverage, and retail executives who will delve into the latest trends in foodservice technologies and discuss the challenges and successes they've encountered as well as the crossover areas to consider and leverage in retail and foodservice technology.
"Although foodservice and retail are different but within similar industry segments, there's a fine line that deserves to be crossed when discussing technology," IFBTA CEO Rob Grimes said. "We are thrilled to partner with the NRF and bring a taste of food and beverage technology to the retail segment that likely has similar challenges and opportunities that technology can support across the industries."
Grimes further added "this NRF's BIG Show is the obvious place to discuss and showcase the relationship of foodservice and retail technology, and the first step in working with the NRF on expanding the footprint of industry technologies to both organizations and our respective members and communities."
The focus of this workshop is technology used across various industry segments – AI, loyalty, digital platforms, cybersecurity, and the ever-emerging conversation on blockchain. Attendees will hear first-hand experiences from speakers representing Inspire Brands, Red Lobster, TGI Friday's, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Compass Group, among others.
"Our goal at NRF 2019 is simple. Provide the content and tools necessary to help retailers of all categories succeed with consumers year-round," NRF Senior Vice President Susan Newman said. "By partnering with IFBTA, we're able to bring a new layer of content to the show that we haven't been able to deliver before. We're excited to see what attendees will achieve when they implement some of the key learnings, they will obtain during these workshops curated by IFBTA."
Looking to the future, both the IFBTA and NRF plan to use this partnership and workshop as a way to kickstart a global conversation on food and beverage technology. To learn more about this workshop, visit https://nrfbigshow.nrf.com/food-and-beverage-technology.
Source: International Food and Beverage Technology Association
