Mary Coppola, senior director of marketing and communications with United Fresh, has provided us with a very good list of marketing-specific sessions and other events at the June 25-27 show in Chicago. For a full session line-up and a complete list of activities and speakers, visit http://www.unitedfreshshow.org/schedule.
Monday, June 25, features the noon–5 p.m. United FreshMKT Conference. This is a half-day of sessions, panels, and presentations designed to inspire and influence your business strategies and features keynote speaker Emanuel Lazopoulos, senior vice president of North America sales, marketing, and product management for Del Monte Fresh Produce, Inc., N.A. The session will focus on “Closing the Loop on the Consumer Marketing Experience,” “The Digital Retail Landscape,” a snack break that will feature exhibits of “grab-n-go and snacking solutions for you to sample and discover,” “Food Media, Food Culture, and Making the Everyday Connection” and “Strategic Insights from Retail Icons.”
The session is followed by a happy hour from 5-5:45 p.m. with great networking opportunities.
The United Fresh Opening Party will run from 6-7:30 at the Field Museum.
Tuesday includes the 8-10 a.m. United Fresh Breakfast General Session with a keynote address from Stanford University Professor Bob Sutton. He will share principles from his New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t
The United FreshMKT Expo will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both Tuesday and Wednesday in the South Hall of McCormick Place with the United FreshTEC Expo, the Global Cold Chain Expo, International Floriculture Expo and the NEW SmartFood Expo™. You’ll see the latest trends in fresh produce products in the Featured Product Showcase along with marketing solutions at the Marketing Solutions Zone.
New organic products are featured in the Organic Showcase, and attendees can vote for their favorite innovative products at the Innovation Awards.
Tuesday also features an 11-11:30 a.m. X-Change Discussion session led by industry peers. Topics will include Crisis Management: What Would You Do? and Produce Packaging Design Challenges.
From 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. there will be a session on Fresh Convenience to Meet Consumer Demands. From noon to 12:30 there will be Smooth Sailing: Preparing for and Navigating a Sale, Merger, or Acquisition. Other sessions include The ABCs of Selling to Schools, Women in Produce: Inspiring the Next Generation, Produce Branding Best Practices, Measure Brand Success: Know Your Equity, New Packaging Concepts to Appeal to Consumers, Leadership Journey: Growing Your Career in Produce, The Five W’s of Measuring Marketing Data and The Growth of Private Label at Retail.
The Fresh Festival for School Foodservice, a separately ticketed event, will run from 3-5 p.m. Tuesday. For info, email Andrew Marshall.
A 4:30–5:30p.m. Reception Honoring Women in Produce will feature 2018 Honoree, Cindy Jewell, VP of marketing for California Giant Berry Farms.
Wednesday gets started with the 8-10 a.m. United. Mary said, “We’ll pay tribute to the ‘best of the best’ on the frontline of our industry by honoring outstanding retail produce managers and recognizing leading chefs for their excellence.”
See the 25 Retail Produce Managers being honored at http://www.unitedfreshshow.org/networking/retail-foodservice-breakfast/retail-manager-awards. You can also see the eight Excellence in Foodservice honorees at http://www.unitedfreshshow.org/networking/retail-foodservice-breakfast/foodservice-awards.
Tuesday’s sessions include The State of Organic Produce in 2018, Take a Bite: Ask the Foodservice Experts, The Current Immigration Landscape, Retail Observations from Visionary Produce Managers, Taking it to the Street: Guerilla Marketing, Building Your Workforce: Recruitment, Retention, and Recognition, The Evolution of Foodservice-Supplier Relationships, Analyzing Consumer Behavior for Maximum ROI, Avoiding the Crash: Relief from Information Technology Overload, In-Store Sampling: Will it Work for You? and Capitol Hill Update: Produce Industry Government Relations.
