Filter Speakers

Mitch Joel

President of Twist Image, Author

Monday, September 22, 2014

8:30 AM – 10:30 AM

CTRL ALT Delete
Reboot your business… your future depends on it

Retail, consumerism and how we buy has changed in the past few years, like never before. How we buy has so fundamentally changed, that it’s not uncommon to hear the question: “do shopping centers have a future?” It’s important to understand the new retail landscape. When e-commerce first kicked in, it was clunky (some would argue that it’s still a little clunky). Dynamic merchandising is a challenge online. Consumers are mostly looking at products in a thumbnail-like photo and the process lacks a brand experience where serendipity meets exploration. Online, we tend to shop for the things we’ve indentified, while retail outlets can suck consumers in by surrounding the products we went to the store for with other opportunities. Yes, the e-commerce world has countless stories of brands who have both optimized and perfected the experience (think Amazon, Zappos, Fab, etc…) while retail has continued to evolve their physical experiences in an attempt to make them more engaging to the consumer (think Apple LEGO, Lululemon, etc…).

There are five new movements that have changed business forever and yet, the vast majority of brands are doing nothing about it. The next five years of business will be about the convergence of these five major movements that will require companies to adapt like never before. Adapt or die? Some will struggle with this shift while others will simply roll along as the adoption incurs. The trick is in capitalizing on this moment in time, understanding these movements and being ready for your future (a future that will move at a much quicker pace). We have the technology. We have the data. We have the new media channels and platforms. We have the opportunity to publish whatever we want – in text, images, audio and video – instantly (and for free) to the world. What we do with this moment will be telling. It will also set the pace for everything that flows out of our brands for the next decade. The opportunity is now. Take charge of your future. This is your reboot.

Speaker Bio

When Google wanted to explain online marketing to the top brands in the world, they brought Mitch Joel to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. Mitch Joel is President of Twist Image - a digital marketing and communications agency. Marketing Magazine dubbed him the "Rock Star of Digital Marketing" and called him, "one of North America's leading digital visionaries." In 2006, he was named one of the most influential authorities on Blog Marketing in the world. He has been called a marketing and communications visionary, interactive expert and community leader. He is also a Blogger, Podcaster, passionate entrepreneur and speaker who connects with people worldwide by sharing his marketing insights on digital marketing and new media. In 2008, Mitch was named Canada's Most Influential Male in Social Media, one of the top 100 online marketers in the world, and was awarded the highly prestigious Canada's Top 40 Under 40. Most recently, Mitch was named one of iMedia's 25 Internet Marketing Leaders and Innovators in the world. Marketing Magazine has named Twist Image one of the Top 10 agencies in Canada for two years running (and the only digital marketing pure-play to make the list).

Joel is the Past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Marketing Association and a former Board Member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada. He has been involved with the content committee for both Shop.org and the Web Analytics Association, and is on the advisory council for many businesses and charitable organizations.

Joel frequently speaks to diverse groups like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and has shared the stage with former President Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson, Malcolm Gladwell, Anthony Robbins, Tom Peters and Dr. Phil.

Joel is frequently called upon to be a subject matter expert for, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Marketing Magazine, Profit, Strategy, Money, The Globe & Mail and many other media outlets. His newspaper business column, “New Business - Six Pixels of Separation,” runs bi-monthly in both The Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun and he also has a regular column, “Media Hacker,” on The Huffington Post. His first book, Six Pixels of Separation, named after his successful Blog and Podcast is a business and marketing bestseller. His most recent book, CTRL ALT DEL, was published in the Spring of 2013.

Private Equity

Stephen Babson, Managing Director, Endeavour Capital, Kevin Davis, President & CEO, Bristol Farms, Rob McDougall, President & CEO, Gelson’s Markets

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

8:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Private Equity Panel Discussion

Recent grocery industry headlines have been dominated by announcements of mergers, acquisitions, high-flying public offerings and companies being taken private. While these shifts are not unusual as companies look for growth in this highly competitive industry, the instances seem to have taken on increased urgency.
What rational or strategy is behind large public grocery companies going private, while some are doing the exact opposite? Why do some family-owned grocery companies choose to sell to a private equity investment group only to grow, sell to another and never elect to go public?
Join us for an insightful panel discussion with three top industry executives as they discuss the trends, underlying motivations, risks and rewards of private equity investments specific to the grocery retail sector. The panel will explore the nuances of financing growth and increasing corporate valuations in this fast-changing industry. Learn from an investor’s perspective how they view this industry, what they look for and how they choose investments.
Our panel includes a highly successful private equity leader that is active in the grocery retail sector and the CEO’s of two privately owned California retail companies. They will discuss the opportunities and growth they anticipate and the future impact of private equity investments in the grocery industry.
Featuring:
Stephen Babson, Managing Director, Endeavour Capital
Kevin Davis, President & CEO, Bristol Farms
Rob McDougall, President & CEO, Gelson’s Markets

Nick Hodson

Vice President, Strategy& (Formerly Booz & Company)

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

Front of the Line: How Grocers Can Get Ahead for the Future

Nick Hodson, Vice President with Strategy& will discuss the evolving grocery market both in terms of “supply” (i.e. new formats, offerings, etc.) and in terms of “demand” (i.e. shifting consumer demands and likely new requirements in the future) based on more than three years of work in partnership with the Food Marketing Institute.

Speaker Bio

Nick is a member of Strategy&’s Consumer, Media & Digital professional community. He has over 15 years of consulting experience, specializing in retail strategy and performance improvement.

Nick originally joined Strategy& in 1994 in the London office after INSEAD and five years in the downstream oil industry. After three years, he transferred to San Francisco and was elected partner in 2002. In 2006, Nick left the firm for stints with Safeway and McKinsey. Nick returned to the firm in January 2010.

In the early part of his consulting career, Nick focused on energy clients, particularly marketing for downstream oil companies, before transitioning gradually to strategy in general and retail in particular. Today, his work focuses on general retail clients such as grocery stores, convenience stores, fuel stations, etc. where he leads strategic transformations. Over the years, Nick has also led strategy and transformation work in industries as diverse as commercial airplanes, railroads, chemicals and ISPs.

Nick earned a master’s degree in Geology from Oxford University and an MBA from INSEAD.

Tina Wells

CEO and Founder, Buzz Marketing Group

Sunday, September 21, 2014

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Getting it Right: Connecting with Grocery’s Next Generation

For this year’s California Grocers Association Strategic Conference, Tina Wells – CEO and Founder of Buzz Marketing Group – will discuss her most recent research on the shopping habits and preferences of the Millennial generation. She will delve into the implications of her company’s research findings on the nation’s grocery industry and provide recommendations on how it can stay ahead of the curve.

Speaker Bio

Tina Wells is the CEO and founder of Buzz Marketing Group, which creates marketing strategies for clients within the beauty, entertainment, fashion, financial, and lifestyle sectors. She has authored the youth marketing handbook Chasing Youth Culture And Getting It Right and the tween series Mackenzie Blue. In addition to serving on the Young Entrepreneur Council, the United Nation’s Global Entrepreneurship Council, and The Franklin Institute's board of directors, Tina is also the Academic Director of Wharton's Leadership in the Business World program. Her long list of honors include Essence’s 40 Under 40, Billboard’s 30 Under 30, Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, and Inc’s 30 Under 30.

Maxine Bedat

Co-founder Zady

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

12:30pm - 1:30pm

Grocery with a Conscience – Connecting with Today’s Consumer

Increasingly consumers, and in particular Millennials, are seeing businesses as the driver of social change, not governments. Shoppers are “casting their votes” by supporting retailers and brands that express and connect with their values. The old ways of doing business that lack transparency, or read as inauthentic will not survive in this brave new world.

We are pleased to be joined by two executives with truly global backgrounds that have built successful businesses on the cutting edge of these trends: Maxine Bedat, co-founder of the fast-fashion industry pioneer Zady and Ido Leffler, the founder of Yes To and Yoobi, a company using the “one-for-one” business model to donate supplies to local schools.

This session will explore the concepts of participatory commerce, sustainability, and supply chain transparency as a means to establish authentic connections with today’s consumers. Following presentations by these two inspiring young executives, food industry veteran Michael Sansolo will sit down with our speakers and identify the key takeaways for today’s grocery industry.

Speaker Bio

As a pioneer in sustainable commerce, Maxine Bédat is a leading authority on sustainability in apparel supply chain and the application of mission and story-telling in brand development.
Bédat is the co-founder of Zady, which is among the first online retailers to seamlessly integrate commerce, rich media content and social media, providing its community with a truly dynamic shopping experience. Zady empowers customers to learn about the conscious consumer movement and purchase beautifully-constructed goods that are created with craftsmanship and artisanship. Zady was included in Fast Company’s “World’s Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in Retail,” was named by Entrepreneur Magazine as “Start-Up of the Month,” and has been named by Mashable as the “#1 Business that Rocks Content Marketing.”

Prior to launching Zady, Bédat worked in international law and advocacy, first at the United Nations General Assembly, where she served as an advisor and later at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda where she was a legal clerk. Bédat received her Juris Doctorate degree with honors from Columbia Law School.

During her time working in Africa, she had the opportunity to visit markets throughout the region. There, she discovered exceptional art and craft traditions and also learned of the threat these traditions faced in the face of globalization. From this experience, she launched the non-profit The Bootstrap Project, an organization dedicated to changing the lives of artisans in developing countries. The Bootstrap Project has become a platform for enterprising artisans to learn new skills, expand their businesses, share their customs and traditions, and revive the world’s most beautiful crafts.
Bédat’s experience working with Bootstrap artisans gave her an appreciation for how beautiful things are created. It also gave her the desire to understand how the other things in her life were made. She turned to her closet and, together with her high school friend Soraya Darabi, began researching the origins and supply chain of the apparel industry. What they discovered was a broken system, which left much room for innovation. Inspired by the work of John Mackey at Whole Foods, Bédat and Darabi launched Zady to reimagine the world of retail as one that is responsive to the coming generation’s desire to connect, its demand for authenticity and as a driver of sustainability across the industry.

Ido Leffler

Co-founder Yes To, Inc. and Yoobi, Consumer Futurist

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

12:30pm - 1:30pm

Speaker Bio

Ido Leffler is a leader among entrepreneurs. As a member of the United Nations Foundation Global Entrepreneurs Council, Ido advises a variety companies around the globe. As the co-founder of San Francisco-based Yes To, Inc., he and his team have built Yes To into one of the leading brands in the world, achieving distribution in more than 25,000 stores in dozens of countries.

Ido joined the United Nations Foundation's Global Entrepreneurs Council for 2013-14. He is one of 10 entrepreneurs under the age of 45 who was hand-selected to improve the United Nations Foundation's campaigns, partnerships, and programs-bringing them to the next level of innovation and impact. As part of a two-year term, Ido works with the other members to leverage networks and expertise as a means to broaden support for their goals and address the world's most pressing issues.

Ido's latest venture, Yoobi, features Target as its lead investor and brings the "one-for-one" business model to school supplies. For every Yoobi product bought, Yoobi gives one of their products to a U.S. school in need. By 2015, Ido expects Yoobi to have impacted 1 million students in over 30, 000 schools.

Ido's business acumen has earned him seats on the board of nine other companies. His think-outside-the-box approach to disruptive innovation and business strategy has been instrumental not only in building Yes To, but also in helping other businesses and nonprofits achieve success by taking measured and calculated steps that facilitate exponential growth.
With infectious enthusiasm and a knack for recognizing opportunity where others do not, Ido's unique approach to life, business, and rapid innovation have been pivotal to the success of not only Yes To and the companies he advises, but to the diverse array of audiences who have spent time with him and participated in his talks. He has lectured and advised for companies such as General Mills, Estee Lauder and the Gap, at countless sales and business development conferences, and is wildly popular with consortiums of business owners and leaders that include Entrepreneurs' Organization and many, many more.

In 2012, Leffler and Yes To launched the Yes To Hope campaign in partnership with Mama Hope, which seeks to feed 100,000 children each day through creating organic mini-farms near underprivileged schools in locations that include Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana.

Yes To and Ido have won hundreds of prestigious industry accolades and awards, including World's Best Cruelty Free Cosmetic Company by PETA in 2008, and being named one of the "Top 50 Australian Global Achievers" by Australian Unlimited in 2013.

In 2013, Ido and his business partner, Lance Kalish, released their first business book, Get Big Fast and Do More Good: Start Your Business, Make It Huge, and Change the World, on Amazon Publishing.

Michael Sansolo

Retail Food Industry Consultant

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

12:30pm - 1:30pm

Speaker Bio

Countless studies and years of work with some of the world’s most innovative companies gives Michael Sansolo a unique and diverse view of the changing nature of trends impacting shoppers, employees, competition, economics, supply chains and management. A long-time senior vice president of the Food Marketing Institute and now a consultant, speaker and author, Sansolo has traveled the globe working with companies on adjusting to new market conditions.

Sansolo is a frequent speaker and moderator at conferences and company meetings in the United States and around the globe, addressing crowds from 20 to 5,000, from college students to CEOs of Fortune 100 organizations. He conducts strategic planning retreats for companies and has designed conferences for a number of trade associations.

He serves as the research director of the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Councils of both North and Latin America, working with these groups on emerging business topics.

Sansolo co-authored The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies, a book that identifies creative lessons in leadership, marketing and workplace dynamics gleaned from movies. Sansolo also writes a weekly column on wide-ranging business trends for www.MorningNewsBeat.com, a daily blog with nearly 28,000 readers.

He is chairman of the board of The Food Institute, an industry research organization. Sansolo works with students at Western Michigan University, St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, George Mason University in Virginia and Portland (Oregon) State University.

In his 13 years as senior vice president at FMI, the largest food retail association in the United States, Sansolo had oversight over all education, supply chain and research activities. In this position he developed an in-depth perspective of the changing nature of cooking, eating and shopping. Prior to joining FMI, Sansolo was editor-in-chief of Progressive Grocer magazine and was a reporter for Gannett Newspapers. In his career he received a number of awards for excellence in writing and reporting.

Sansolo is a graduate of the State University of New York College at Cortland with a degree in political science, economics and journalism.