Agenda

In anticipation that you will need some relaxation and down time, the Midwinter Refresh Lounge is open to all attendees during peak conference hours. It’s the perfect spot to re-energize between conference events, SEE meetings and education sessions, and is conveniently located in the Living Room Lounge of the resort clubhouse. Complimentary snacks and beverages will be available for your enjoyment.

Living Room Lounge & Veranda

10:00 AM
The Iron Man Suit for Retail & Consumer Goods
David Moran, Co-Founder and Chairman, Eversight

Join the discussion to explore how machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence deliver value to retailers by enabling coaching networks. We are seeing a shift toward machines assuming rote data processing and pattern recognition tasks, while surfacing important information to merchants through coaching-based user interfaces. This allows merchants to spend their time solving interesting problems that they are uniquely well suited to make judgment calls on.

10:10 AM
Pricing and Promotion Opportunities of Automation
Jose Gomes, President, North America, dunnhumby

Like it or not, automation will be the game changer that enables early adopters to gain competitive advantage through pricing and promotions efficiencies. There are opportunities for retailers of all sizes to automate elements of their pricing and promotions. Learn the three areas that can deliver the biggest impact to your business.

10:20 AM
Innovating Ecommerce Product Discover with Attribute Data
Dave Byman, Vice President Business Development, Label Insight

Today's shoppers buy value-added products like "gluten free" and "paleo," often regardless of brand or price. Building these types of consumer-focused attributes into the search and filter features in your ecommerce experience can drive significant increases in product discover-ability, expanded assortment presentation and ultimately sales growth and customer satisfaction. See what an attribute-rich environment looks like.

10:30 AM
Tools for Tomorrow’s Workforce
Joey Alfano, CPO & Co-founder, GoSpotCheck

Over 2 billion retail workers don’t have tools to do their jobs most efficiently. But leading brands are adopting new technologies to gain store-level intelligence, monitor supply chain efficiencies, increase sales, save labor, and inform marketing spend. Learn how new tools are leveraging machine learning and image recognition to revolutionize work.

10:40 AM
Prescriptive AI for Optimizing Total Customer Experience
Kaustubha Phene, Founder and CEO, Pristine Infotech

Can artificial intelligence profitably synchronize assortment, placement, price, promotions and personalized offers? Deep learning detects infinite customer behavior patterns from big data. Prescriptive recommendation engines make AI actionable with precision and speed. Learn how real time customer intelligence, AI and recommendation engines can optimize total customer experience.

10:50 AM
Solving the Retail Labor vs. Workload Puzzle
Kevin Saum, VP of Sales, Reflexis Systems

To maintain a nimble retail environment and offer excellent customer service, top grocery retailers ensure that their labor is optimized based on real-time store workload. By aligning labor schedules with work in stores, you guarantee store associates can execute all work efficiently and still deliver an engaging customer experience. Learn the strategies and solutions to optimize store execution and labor operations.

11:00 AM
Transparency, Traceability, Point-of-Sale, Engagement and More with a Single Digital QR Code
Maryann Moschides, Chief Marketing Officer, Scanbuy, Inc.

QR codes can help you manage the complex environments of product regulatory mandates, consumer transparency, traceability and point-of-sale requirements –from a single product package.  Learn how QR Codes can deliver multipurpose digital links today and prepare product portfolios for UPC sunsetting.

11:10 AM
Moving to the Intelligent Enterprise: Focusing on the Digital Shopper
Randy Evins,  Industry Advisor, SAP

The food industry has always been a customer first industry. But in today's digital world that customer first focus has changed. The store is critical, but it is only one part of the strategy. SAP has designed a way to bring a comprehensive view of ALL shoppers into play and ensure that companies can truly focus on the shopper regardless of where they choose to interact.

11:20 AM
Wake up!  Avoid Ad Landmines and Spend Effectively
Andrew Mandzy, Sr. Client Partner, Oracle Data Cloud

Today almost half of digital ads are not viewable by humans, resulting in inefficient spend. Worse, grocers can’t be certain their ads won’t be placed on undesirable pages. Oracle Data Cloud will share best practices on how to face these challenges head on, along with real life examples of how marketers are successfully maximizing ad viewability and attention while minimizing brand safety concerns.

11:30 AM
Automation is the New "Online", Do Not Miss It! 
Francois Chaubard, CEO, Focal Systems

What would happen if retailers took 10% of their online budgets and applied it to in-store automation using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence? We’ll walk through pro forma income sheets for major retailers, proving that this would drive an 8% increase in operating profit per year. Learn how this is possible now with modern deep learning computer vision and how we are doing this for more than 10 of the largest retailers today.

11:40 AM
Maximizing Shopper Engagement and Loyalty with Technology
Carl Preller, President North America, TCC Global

Your shoppers’ share of wallet is greatly fragmented. They are looking for ways to make their weekly shopping trips easier and more efficient and for reasons to engage with your brand in new ways. From loyalty programs to e-commerce and augmented reality, technology plays an increasingly important role in engaging shoppers throughout their journey and overall customer experience. Learn more about the role of technology in shopper engagement.

11:50 AM
The New Age of Data Science
Brian Murphy, Managing Director, emnos USA

What is the next bright shiny star? What is the next moonshot? Stay on earth and get grounded in new methodologies in applying data science to your business.

Imperial Ballroom

Your opportunity to sit face-to-face with your technology partners is here! These Tech Exchanges are designed to give you that personalized time you need. Each appointment will last 25 minutes.

Questions? Contact Pat Walsh at pwalsh@fmi.org

Imperial Ballroom

FMI Midwinter presents a rare opportunity for food retail independent operators to meet with hundreds of key suppliers, expand existing partnerships and share ideas with other industry leaders.

In this invite-only session, independent operators will identify optimal digital solutions, capitalize on trends like online shopping, in-store experiences and explore strategies to maintain sustainable growth and exceed customer expectations.

Crystal Ballroom

The SEE program offers you a venue to meet face-to-face with top food retail and wholesale company C-level peers in the supplier and manufacturing communities, through pre-arranged, one-on-one appointments. 

Questions? Reach Marc Thomas at mthomas@fmi.org or 202.220.0804

Spa Suites & Bobby Jones

Mingle with many first-timers and FMI staff to make the most of your investment! A few veteran attendees will be onsite to answer any of your questions and provide tips about how to most effectively use your time at Midwinter.

A little bit country, a little bit rock ’n roll — a whole lot of party! Join PepsiCo on opening night for the rock barbecue event of the year! Enjoy southern cuisine, craft cocktails and conversation on the patio followed by a rockin’ performance by American Idol finalist and Grammy Award Nominee, Daughtry in the Grand Ballroom.

There is no disruptor more at the forefront of changes in food retail today than that of the growth and potential of omnichannel shopping. Over the last three years, FMI and Nielsen have been working to identify the size and velocity of growth in online food and beverage purchases and help retailers assess their readiness to serve their customers’ needs. In 2018, we released six key areas that are imperative to digital success. In this first of two sessions, we offer how-to options for tackling these imperatives. In this session experts will explore three foundational areas that provide the basis for success in all areas of omnichannel: strategic organizational structure, master data accuracy, and integrated forecasting.

Imperial Ballroom

We know that personalization works. For marketers whose customers purchase primarily in offline retail environments, however, data and technology limitations have prevented the implementation of advanced digital marketing tactics used by other businesses that rely on online conversion. This gap leaves the goal of true personalization unrealized.

All this is changing.  With the advent of new technologies and new data sources, marketers can now use deterministic offline behavior at scale in almost real time.  Strategies involving frequent targeting optimization, tactic optimization, machine learning and augmented decision making are finally available to an industry that is demanding greater effectiveness from its marketing spend. Join this session to learn how retailers and manufacturers that embrace these capabilities and embed these disciplines within their operations and execution can finally reach the personalization capabilities that their consumers have been demanding. It’s about time.

White & Gold Ballroom D

Optimization of the shelf takes on a new meaning and opens up new opportunities as digitally connected commerce becomes the norm. At the same time that the digital shelf becomes intimately smaller to fit the mere  4.7 inches on an iPhone 7 screen, it is also infinitely larger and deeper than its physical counterpart and potentially, far more dynamic. As changes in media consumption, advertising and shopping behaviors are creating new opportunities, finding your course of action based on cohesive shopper insights and identifying the right platform for presentation are a challenge.  In this session, you will hear insights on how to create a simplified approach to a complicated landscape with shopper insights, marketing & promotions, digital shelf optimization and the right presentation platform for you.  Plan, activate, measure! 

Imperial Ballroom

The SEE program offers you a venue to meet face-to-face with top food retail and wholesale company C-level peers in the supplier and manufacturing communities, through pre-arranged, one-on-one appointments. 

Questions? Reach Marc Thomas at mthomas@fmi.org or 202.220.0804

The frozen foods aisle is in the midst of a strong comeback. For several years, the food retailing industry has touted the strength of the perimeter, but the focus has been on the fresh departments (produce, meat, deli, prepared foods, etc.).   Developing an understanding of the drivers for growth in frozen foods will help manufacturers and retailers further align innovation, products, merchandising, marketing and branding with how shoppers live, shop and cook. Sales numbers can tell part of the story.  But understanding consumer behaviors and attitudes about frozen foods, as well as the usage of frozen foods in the home, tells a much more complete story to drive continued growth in this category.

White & Gold Ballroom D

AI seems to be the next big “thing” in business. But what is it and what does it do? What business outcome/benefit should you expect if you engage and invest in it? And how can your organization transform from a “wait and see”, slow technology adopter, to a company that embraces technology and allows innovation to drive business. As the industry considers digital transformation as the new mantra, AI, and its closely related cousin Machine Learning, can help facilitate that process. Implementing technology that can intelligently learn and solve business problems, and better yet IMPLEMENT solutions resulting from that self-analysis, are cornerstones to leading digital transformation. Whether you approach this technology innovation in your supply chain, store operation, category management or customer marketing areas, it is already proving to provide deep insights and compelling business value to those that adopt it. Hear from industry experts on how AI can get you headed down the path to that elusive digital transformation.

Imperial Ballroom

The fresh sector has evolved over the past few years and we have seen shifts in what consumers are buying and where they are buying. Some perimeter products and solutions are winning more than others, but why? During this session, IRI will delve into why trends work in some areas but not others by uncovering insights on the multifaceted U.S. consumers’ purchase and consumption habits of Fresh. This session will look at consumer trends from a multicultural, generational and socioeconomic status perspective, examining segmental attitudes towards fresh and actual behavior. IRI’s investigation will share new and actionable insights that retailers and manufacturers can use for driving innovation and creating in-store programs that will drive retail traffic.

White & Gold Ballroom D

The advancement and adoption at scale of artificial Intelligence and automation technologies introduces significant disruptions to the food retail industry, particularly in alleviating SG&A pressure and enhancing decision making. At the same time, this signifies meaningful adaptation needed in the workforce. This session will focus on why management teams need to get ahead of workforce planning to support their technology adoption roadmap, including but not limited to, role redesign, retraining, reskilling of existing and new workers, and handling displacement of existing workers to position the organization for success.

Imperial Ballroom

None of us wants to relive the public relations and government affairs nightmare spurred by the GMO labeling debate. So how do we avoid having the new biotech tool of gene editing trundle down the same treacherous path? Join a frank discussion of:

• The science behind gene editing that differentiates it from GMO technology,
• The regulatory landscape regarding this new bio-engineering tool
• The anticipated challenges in consumer acceptance of this technology
• Industry attitudes about this hot emerging issue

White & Gold Ballroom D

This provocative panel will review macro dynamics and their impact on the food retail sector and discuss prioritizing investment spending required to compete and examine strategic implications across our rapidly-changing sector.

White & Gold Ballroom D

As the retail space evolves with changes in consumer behavior and technological innovation, high wages and turnover remain on the rise. No matter what role you play in the grocery space, shifts in the workforce have implications for everyone. Amid this rapidly evolving landscape, traditional strategies will not solve the new challenges facing our industry. Brad Oberwager will argue that the single most significant factor that will drive our success as an industry is labor. In this provocative talk, he will assert that the key to unlocking our impending labor crisis is an unorthodox shift in how we think about the future of work.

Imperial Ballroom

Grand Ballroom

In today’s world the consumer can buy anything they want anywhere and anytime they want. This is a world where the old tenets of success in retail—price, product and convenience—are no longer enough. In this world, it is all about the shopping experience and how this experience aligns with the particular goals and values of the individual consumer. There are disruptors and innovators everywhere, vying to offer consumers something new in their shopping experiences. Who’s trying what? Does anyone have it figured out? What’s on the horizon? What are the technologies and operations driving the opportunities?

In this keynote, two presenters will share postcards from the future of shopping. First, Chris Walton, Co-Founder of OmniTalk, will explore the many ways in which the practice of retail is changing, what is on the near horizon and where there are new opportunities. The second presenter, Chieh Huang, CEO and Founder of Boxed.com will describe the origin story of his company, one of the disruptive new players in the field.

Just as there are many new, personalized choices in food and diet, there are also no longer only 3 distinct political identities – Democrat, Republican and Independent.  New identities like Progressives, the Freedom Caucus, Problem Solvers and others have the same potential to upend how we interact with elected officials and how public policy goals can get enacted.  Get an inside view of the new political environment and implications for public policy issues impacting our business and our customers.  

2018 recipients of FMI’s Executive Leadership Awards for statesmanship, innovation and trading partner relations share their insights on leadership in today’s fast-paced food retail industry. Celebrate and learn from the winners of the William H. Albers, Sidney R. Rabb and Robert B. Wegman awards.

Join your colleagues and friends for the 3rd Annual FMI Midwinter Sunrise Run/Walk! It’s a great way to kick off your conference day. Runners and walkers of all speeds are invited to participate. Registration is open to all FMI Midwinter conference attendees and guests. All participants will receive a race number and commemorative race t-shirt. Music and morning refreshments will be provided.

Please visit www.fmi.org/sunriserun to officially register for the event and save your spot!

Your opportunity to sit face-to-face with your technology partners is here! These Tech Exchanges are designed to give you that personalized time you need. Each appointment will last 25 minutes.

The SEE program offers you a venue to meet face-to-face with top food retail and wholesale company C-level peers in the supplier and manufacturing communities, through pre-arranged, one-on-one appointments. 

Questions? Reach Marc Thomas at mthomas@fmi.org or 202.220.0804

11:10 AM
Improve Store Promotion Execution Using Automated Data & IoT Technology
Erik McMillan, Founder & CEO, Shelfbucks

Does your organization suffer from poor store execution? Do you even know for sure? Suffer no more. It is now possible to improve results with real-time data for every execution in every store, every day. This is possible with new, low cost Internet of Things sensors and automated store alerts. No more expensive labor or audits. Learn how this works with real industry case studies you can take to your team for swift implementation.

11:20 AM
See Your Consumer’s Online Journey from Search to Purchase Without Violating Their Privacy
Gilles Haumont, Chief Commercial Officer, TSquared Insights

What would you change if you could see your consumers’ online behavior through non-intrusive digital data? How would you optimize your online digital investments? Would you change your paid search parameters? Find out how data collected from tens of millions of devices in a non-intrusive way is reshaping the insights industry.

11:30 AM
Finding Growth in the Omnichannel Marketplace
Bob Jennings, Regional VP, Sales, Numerator

Non-traditional retailers are rapidly gaining market share, and private label products account for 20% of annual consumer spending. Find out what's really happening in these emerging channels. How are online pure-play retailers and value-based retailers disrupting he market? Who is the private label shopper, and which retailers are winning the private label war? With a variety of fulfillment options, how are shoppers using services such as click & collect?

11:40 AM
Phygital Shopper – Strategies for the New Era Physical Store
Joao Antonio Gomes Claro, CSMO, Xhockware

Do you really know your shoppers? Are you generating a meaningful and positive impact on their lives? Learn how to digitize the physical store, hyper-personalize and engage with every shopper. In a time where hard promotion no longer works, we share insights and strategies on how to drive customer satisfaction, increase basket size up, and keep costs down.

11:50 AM
The True Cost of Floor Execution Issues
Michael Schweibinz, Enterprise Account Executive, CB4

How do you measure the impact of floor execution issues on your customer experience and bottom line? What's the most efficient way to find and fix these issues across your chain? Learn how to uncover the costliest issues using machine learning and just one input, one you already collect: simple aggregated POS data. Discover a way to easily calculate the number of hidden issues you should expect to find across your chain and their impact on your bottom line.

Seize this unique opportunity to spend quality time with senior-level retailers at the FMI Food Industry Golf Tournament, a premier networking event. The tournament will be held on the legendary Blue Monster Course at the National Doral Miami. A luncheon will begin at 11:00 a.m. with a shotgun start at 12:30 p.m. Thanks to our generous sponsors, FMI retailer and wholesaler members may join at no cost.

Contact Julie Schrei at jschrei@fmi.org to learn about sponsorship opportunities.

Today’s consumer wants to know far more about what is in their food and the products they use in their homes and on their bodies than in any previous generation. Their reasons for wanting this information vary from avoiding allergens or perceived negative ingredients to promoting health and wellness to interests in sustainability and fair trade practices. As consumers demand more information in order to curate their own personal shopping lists, retailers and manufacturers must find new ways to keep up with the constantly changing list of “want to knows.” In this roundtable session, experts from Label Insight will share new findings from recently released transparency research conducted in conjunction with FMI and will engage in discussion with participants about the value and application of the new consumer emphasis on transparency.

White & Gold Ballroom A

In this dynamic and unscripted roundtable session, we’ll explore the multi-billion dollar growth opportunities in GM and HBC by flipping the script and giving you the microphone. In past roundtable sessions, we’ve shared trends, shopper insights and best practices from winning retailers. Now it’s your turn. Both manufacturer and operator executives will have the opportunity to share with their peers their perceptions, intentions, challenges and progress related to growing GM and HBC development in grocery stores. The results of a pre-event survey will serve as the foundation for a lively discussion and live polling technology during the session will provide an instantaneous finger on the pulse of additional follow up questions.

White & Gold Ballroom B

The 2018 Thanksgiving week romaine lettuce crisis aimed a spotlight on the challenges of maintaining a safe food supply from farm to fork and everywhere along the way. When the government issued a nationwide consumer advisory on all romaine lettuce just days before the biggest food holiday of the year, the operational impact was massive and the repercussions continue today. The costs and losses are astronomic. Who will pay the price? What lessons have we learned? What would we do differently next time? In this session, panelists will discuss the retailer response, consumer reactions, and how to mitigate the impact of future issues. Panelists will engage participants in a forward-thinking discussion aimed at building proactive solutions for the future.

White & Gold Ballroom A

The food industry is experiencing a tsunami of change, and the pace of that change is faster than ever. Change is hard, it takes time, and it often fails. Why? People! The executive teams can only pave the way, while your people leaders on the front lines of your business are the ones who actually lead the organization through change. What if your people leaders knew what you know about the changing marketplace and how to lead through change? This interactive session will explore:

• The big picture of the changing food industry marketplace  
• The secrets to leading change
• How to engage everyone in your business in the why, what, and how of change

White & Gold Ballroom B

In his report on all things FMI, Board Chairman Joe Sheridan will provide one review, one current view and one preview. The review will be a quick video recap of FMI accomplishments in 2018 that shows, in real time, the benefits of FMI membership. The current view will provide a glimpse of FMI Board leadership including the 2019 slate of officers. And Sheridan will offer a high profile of FMI’s new strategic plan, designed to ensure FMI can be responsive to the rapidly evolving needs of its members and that puts FMI on the trajectory to be the gold standard of association service and advocacy for its constituents.

Grand Ballroom

2018 recipients of FMI’s Executive Leadership Awards for humanitarian service, consumer affairs and public policy discuss corporate social responsibility and community in a consumer-value driven marketplace. Celebrate and learn from the winners of the Herbert Hoover, Esther Peterson and Glen P. Woodard awards.

Grand Ballroom

The first two decades of the new millennium have released unprecedented changes on the food and consumer products world. Every facet has been touched by technology, transforming the traditional food chain with its distinct links and responsibilities into a high-speed, fiber-optic strand with each aspect – from seed and manufacturing facility to sales - interwoven with all others. The rapidity of all this change has left many spinning and in search of recognizable landmarks from which they can get their bearings. Data from the most recent editions of FMI’s premier research, U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends and the Food Retail Industry Speaks, point to directional stability for the industry and paint a picture of hope and new horizons. Join Leslie Sarasin as she presents a state of the industry that provides evidence of food retailers’ deliberately innovating, creatively collaborating and imaginatively serving the new consumer – giving rise to a new day and the dawning of a new golden age for food retail.

Grand Ballroom

The competitive landscape in retail changed dramatically during the last decade. Brick and mortar retailers that do not give their customers a compelling reason to buy from them risk the fate of more than 6,000 stores that closed in 2017. At the same time, digital technologies are increasing the demands on store operations. To thrive in this environment, retailers need strong processes and a motivated and capable workforce who can solve customer problems, interact with new technologies, and drive performance.  Yet, many retailers are far from having that workforce. Their stores have high employee turnover and absenteeism, are often understaffed, and are full of operational problems that reduce customer service and financial performance. In these stores, managers often spend their time fighting fires rather than leading people and improving performance. In her talk, drawing on more than fifteen years of research, Zeynep Ton will describe the key elements of a system, which she calls the Good Jobs Strategy, that drives a capable and motivated workforce, satisfied and loyal customers, and stellar financial performance. She will also offer examples of successful transformations.

Grand Ballroom

The SEE program offers you a venue to meet face-to-face with top food retail and wholesale company C-level peers in the supplier and manufacturing communities, through pre-arranged, one-on-one appointments. 

Questions? Reach Marc Thomas at mthomas@fmi.org or 202.220.0804

Spa Suites & Bobby Jones