LONG BEACH Calif. Hundreds of foodservice technology professionals are assembling here this weekend for the 15th Annual FSTEC conference and showcase, which this year features insights from Forrester Research. Top agenda items will be social media pros and cons, online and mobile ordering and bleeding edge innovative technologies set to spur growth.
Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester, a leading international research and business services organization, is a new conference research partner for the show, which is produced and managed by Nation’s Restaurant News with Robert N. Grimes of Accuvia. This year, FSTEC is held at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, Feb. 21-24.
Forrester has provided some of its brightest minds and resources to enhance keynote and breakout educational presentations, which, as always, are almost exclusively anchored by foodservice operators addressing their peers.
Listen to a preview podcast of analyst Nigel Fenwick discussing social media.
Along with the top information technology executives at large and mid-size chains expected at FSTEC — including CIO Panel participants Gary Johnson of In-N-Out Burger, Charles Lee of Taco Bell, Brian Pearson of BJ’s Restaurants and Allison Watanabe of El Pollo Loco — a variety of other technology stakeholders will be represented within the ranks of educational program presenters. They include the likes of Philip Gay, chief executive officer of high-end dining provider Grill Concepts Inc., and Tim McEnery, president of Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant.
FSTEC 2010’s theme is “Igniting Growth” and several of the educational sessions look outside the efficiency boosting prowess of core foodservice technologies to address the power of software code, silicon chips and the Internet to bolster sales by way of greater customer aggregation, service options and relationship management.
See a full agenda here at FSTEC’s homepage, www.fstec.com.
General sessions of note include:
Sunday: Social Media & Foodservice: The 4-1-1 from Operators and Academicians
Monday: Technology for Consumer Faces in Public Places, Positioning IT to Drive Growth & Differentiation
Wednesday: Where the Wild Tools Are — Unique Foodservice Technology Deployments & What They Yield
The Feb. 23 FSTEC 15th Anniversary Reception — just one of the conference’s nightly networking opportunities — will include a presentation ceremony for 2010 award winners.
This year’s company winners’ class includes:
- Wendy’s franchisee FourCrown Inc., of Oakdale, Minn.
- Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
- Legal Sea Foods Inc. of Boston
Distinguished Career Achievement Awards this year will go to Martyn Holland, who is Bethesda, Md.-based HMSHost’s chief information officer and senior vice president of information systems and national processing, and Bud Weist, who until last July was vice president of sales and marketing for technology supplier Epson America’s System Device Group.
Stay at NRN.com for FSTEC news, and visit NRN’s related site Show News by NRN for editor blogs and snapshots.
FSTEC’s Diamond Sponsors are Micros Systems Inc., Par Technology and Radiant Systems Inc. Altametrics is the Platinum Sponsor and the Gold Sponsors are CrunchTime! Information Systems, DTT Surveillance, HyperActive Technologies and Patni Americas Inc. Additional information is available at www.fstec.com.
Contact Alan Liddle at [email protected].
