Speaker Spotlight

May 8-9, 2025 | EMBASSY SUITES DOWNTOWN DENVER CONVENTION CENTER

Convenience Store News is now accepting proposals from retailers, research and consulting firms who are interested in speaking at the 2025 Convenience Foodservice Exchange.

If you believe you can educate and inspire c-store retailers to become leaders in providing their customers with a complete fresh food and dispensed beverage experience at their stores, we invite you to submit your proposed session topic right away.

CFX is an exclusive, invitation-only summit for convenience store foodservice executives. With an emphasis on expert presentations, research, store and food tour experiences, collaboration, networking and idea exchange, this event brings retailers and their supplier partners together to maximize opportunities, solve problems and prepare for future growth.

SUBMIT PROPOSAL

PROPOSAL DEADLINE: January 20, 2025

The Theme of This Year is...

We all speak of having a great culture. Some even identify their company culture as being food forward. But who decides and drives that definition? Is there truly buy-in on the front
lines? And how do customers perceive that culture?

As of the most recent U.S. Census, millennials, Gen Zers and Alphas make up approximately 52-54% of the U.S. population. As a food-forward convenience store operator, how does your
culture affect the lives of these employees at store level, particularly as it relates to food operations, and how does your culture impact the experience for your customers?

From an employee perspective, are there incentives, pay structures, brand identities and strategic visions that truly drive the food culture? From the customer perspective, do these young c-store shoppers “get it” or are your elevated food efforts lost on them? A successful foodservice program must move fast enough to introduce new products to millennials, Gen Zers and Alphas, who like adventure and new flavors, without alienating your base and heavy users.

Whether you already have a well-established culture with a food-first identity or are on the road to creating one, the Convenience Foodservice Exchange is designed for you.

 

SEE BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Convenience Store News relies heavily on two components when choosing content for a session:

  1. Content that matches the interests identified by our audience through surveys and session evaluations.

  2. Speaker references to ensure the quality of our programming efforts.

Speaker presentations should be quick-hitting, 15-20 minute “TED-Talk" like discussions that leave a minimum of 10-15 minutes for questions and interchange with the audience.

2025 Presentation Proposals Should Attempt to Address One or More of These Themes:

  • Simplifying the Complex: How can operators simplify operations and programs when they have so many moving parts? What technologies can help them produce easy-to-prepare, yet high-quality foods and reduce busy work?
  • All About Value: It isn’t necessarily about selling lower-retail items. How can operators build their assortments to deliver value for the money with high quality and great taste?
  • The Critical Synergy Between Foodservice, Technology & Marketing: How do you make foodservice, technology and marketing work together to gain critical market share?
  • Competitive Differentiation in 2025 & Beyond: Who’s going to win the battle for share of stomach among c-stores, QSRs, casual dining and grocery stores? How can c-stores come out on top despite their space and equipment constraints, inflation and rising costs?
  • Building a Food Destination: Prepared food, dispensed beverages and bakery should all come together to make your c-store a food destination. How do you achieve that?
  • The Evolving C-store Customer: What’s the latest research on changes and emerging trends in consumer behavior for convenience store foodservice?
  • Menu Innovation: How do you drive growth with new product development?
  • Creating a Safety-First Culture: What are the best practices to ensure food safety?
  • Knowing Your Customer: What are the top tools to gather this knowledge? What are the best strategies for then using this knowledge to grow your foodservice business?

As a CFX speaker, you will get:

  • Complimentary registration to the 2025 Convenience Foodservice Exchange event, which includes admission to all seminars and activities, as well as attendance at the annual Foodservice Innovators Awards reception.

  • Roundtrip coach airfare to the event, with a maximum value of $300.

  • 1 night hotel accommodations based on your scheduled speaking time.

  • Industry recognition for yourself and your company or brand.

  • Extensive publicity on CSNews.com, in Convenience Store News magazine, multiple promotional emails, conference marketing materials, newsletters, and on social media sites including Facebook and LinkedIn.

  • Excellent networking opportunities to interact with leading brands and retailers.

For proper consideration, you are asked to supply the following information:

  • Your name, title, company, email address and phone number

  • Speaker’s name, title and company if you are submitting on behalf of someone else

  • Short speaker biography (50-75 words)

  • JPG or TIF photo, minimum 300 dpi, 5x7”

  • Session title (one line)

  • Short summary of content to be delivered (100 words), followed by three bullet points of what audience members can expect to take away

  • Summary of previous conference speaking opportunities

  • Two speaker references, including name, company, email address and phone number

The Convenience Foodservice Exchange will receive many proposals for limited speaking slots. CFX takes great care in carefully reviewing each submission in order to compile the most outstanding educational lineup possible.

Proposals are reviewed by a selection committee and rolling notifications will begin in February 2025. The final speaker roster will be posted at events.csnews.com/cfx2025.

For more information, or to discuss a potential topic, email Don Longo, Editorial Director Emeritus, [email protected].

To help you understand the caliber and reputation of our speakers, as well as topics covered, check out this recap of last year’s CFX:

NOTE FOR INDUSTRY SUPPLIERS:

The Convenience Foodservice Exchange encourages c-store industry suppliers to take part in our conference program. However, supplier speakers must participate in one of our various sponsorship programs. For information on conference sponsorships, please contact Sandra Parente at [email protected].