Western Grocer Serving the industry since 1916
Grocers across the country are eagerly anticipating Canada’s premier grocery conference and trade show this October 16th and 17th at the Toronto Congress Centre.
The conference kicks off with a keynote from Ken Wong, distinguished professor of marketing at Smith School of Business at Queen’s University on the subject of how new technologies, consumer buying behaviour and corporate concentration rates have dramatically altered the economics behind who should be doing what functions in a distribution agreement and at what cost. This is followed by a presentation from John Pecman, commissioner of competition – Competition Bureau.
Attendees can then break into concurrent workshops. Marketing Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Shane Schick will help you to learn a simple but proven way to generate truly breakthrough thinking for your organization. Avinash Chidambaram, vice-president, product & platform development at Interac will provide insights into the rise of mobile payments, changes in consumer behaviour, how it is affecting the industry and what to look forward to. Steve Horwood, vice-president of sales and operations at Neelands Refrigeration will provide insight into pending Climate change legislation and how it will impact your decisions on store design, maintenance and sustainability. Ken Wong will also provide a presentation on what smaller firms should exploit, what larger firms should fear, and how it effects suppliers.
While on the trade show floor, attendees can go to the Insights & Innovations Stage to catch sessions on a variety of topics. Korean grocer Galleria Supermarket’s category manager Chris Yu talks about fermented foods along with the healthy benefits and upcoming trends in global flavours. Maple Leaf recipe developer Samantha Lazuric will be demoing creative and innovative recipes for utilizing hot dogs in the off season. Carman Allison, Nielsen vice-president of consumer insights discusses how centre-store brands can increase their sales and reinvigorate the centre of the store.
The keynote speaker for the following day is Jeff Swearingen, senior vice-president, PepsiCo North America’s Demand Xcelerator, who will outline how it is possible, even in a rapidly changing marketplace, to understand your shoppers like your neighbours, and to translate highly granular insights into assortment, merchandising and marketing plans that create distinction in the marketplace and speak directly to your most valuable customers.
Mark Baum, chief collaboration officer, Food Marketing Institute will conduct a “Super Session” discussing “Trends Driving Change”: Impacts and Opportunities for Food Retailers”.
That afternoon, attendees can once again go to the Insights & Innovations stage to hear Suthamie Poologasingham present exclusive data and insights, on how Canadians are shopping online, based on the only semi-annual survey of Canadian consumers, the J.C. Williams Group RetailWATCH – Etail Report.
Of course, this is all over and above the regular award presentations and the many opportunities for networking that attendees will have.
Be sure to attend!
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