Plenty to Do & See in Hotlanta

While the NACS Show in Atlanta will probably never draw the kind of record-breaking attendance figures that the show does in Las Vegas, there’s still plenty of activities planned for the 46th edition of the convenience store industry’s biggest national showcase.

Among the many show-related activities, Convenience Store News holds two important industry events: our sixth-annual Top Women in Convenience awards gala, and our 2019 Technology Leadership Dinner and Roundtable.

It was in Atlanta in 2016 that our Convenience Store News Top Women in Convenience (TWIC) awards really took flight. Nearly 300 industry leaders came to our third-annual TWIC awards gala at the Omni Hotel, across from the Atlanta World Congress Center. Since then, the industry’s first and only awards program that recognizes women leaders in the c-store industry has only continued to grow.

This year, we once again will fill the Omni Hotel ballroom as we honor 42 women for their outstanding contributions to their companies and the industry at large. My heartfelt congratulations go to this year’s Women of the Year: Sarah Bibbs of Eby-Brown; Deb Hall Lefevre of Alimentation Couche-Tard/Circle K; Jayne Rice of Yesway; JoAnn Saverino of Saverino & Associates; and Rebecca Troutman of 7-Eleven.

This year’s TWIC awards gala is being held Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 5 p.m. If you’d like to attend, email me directly at [email protected] to inquire about an invitation.

The Atlanta NACS Show in 2016 was also the site of our inaugural CSNews Technology Leadership Dinner and Roundtable. Nearly 20 tech leaders from leading c-store retailers met here to launch a discussion on using technology to better service their customers.

This year’s fourth-annual Technology Leadership Dinner and Roundtable will examine the digital transformation currently underway in the retail and CPG industries, and how this will affect c-store retailers’ future technology plans. Our program kicks off at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1, with a reception and tour of CNN’s World Headquarters, followed by dinner and a moderated roundtable discussion.

Our after-dinner speaker is Greg Parker, founder, chairman and CEO of Parker’s Convenience, based in Savannah, Ga. In addition to being one of the c-store industry’s most progressive retailers (and one of our 50 Most Influential People in Convenience Store History), Greg is a former winner of both the CSNews Technology Leader of the Year award (2013) and the Foodservice Leader of the Year award (2018).

Following Greg’s talk, we’ll make our formal presentation to this year’s Technology Leader of the Year, 7-Eleven Inc. This annual award goes to a technology leader (individual or company) that not only contributes to the success of their organization, but also to the advancement and growth of the convenience store industry as a whole.

However you choose to spend your time in Hotlanta, enjoy the show and stop by our booth (#4015) to say hello.