Georgia on my Mind
Starting this coming Tuesday, a big chunk of our industry will be heading to Atlanta, GA, and the Branded team will be there (loud and proud).
From September 8 to 10, the QSR Evolution Conference hits Year 4, and it has quietly become one of the best rooms in the business.
This week's Shoutout goes to the people who build it. To Danny Klein, the editorial director of QSR and FSR and the architect behind the whole thing, and to the team at Arrowfly and QSR Magazine: thank you. Danny describes QSR Evolution as "a conference by operators, for operators, with content at the center of everything we do," and that's exactly what it delivers. This isn't a trade-show hall of pipe-and-drape and lanyards. It's a real exchange of ideas, and the guest list proves it, with stages featuring the CEOs of Shake Shack, White Castle, Texas Roadhouse, and Krispy Kreme, and the president of Chick-fil-A, among many others.
Branded is showing up, and showing up big, and for avoidance of any doubt, we don't get to do that alone.
We're bringing our full suite to Atlanta: recording our Hospitality Hangout podcast on-site, hosting our Cocktails & Connections event, and breaking bread at our Culinary Connect dinner. None of this happens without our partners who make it possible, so a loud and genuine thank-you to SupplyCaddy, PizzaCloud, Olo, Foodbuy, Comcast Business, and Square. These are companies that don't just sell to our industry, they invest in it, and they show up for the operators who run it.
That's really the whole point of a week like this. QSR Evolution is loaded with two kinds of people: the operators grinding it out every day, and the technology companies that genuinely want them to win. Put them in the same rooms, the same dinners, the same late-night conversations, and something good happens. Problems get solved. Deals get started. People get better.
Which is the phrase I keep coming back to. QSR Evolution represents the best of what our industry does when it gathers, and it does it with a simple, powerful purpose, let's get better together.
If you're heading to Atlanta next week, I look forward to seeing you!
If you would like to connect with the Branded Hospitality to discuss opportunities for media activations at conferences, events or outright, please click here or contact me directly.
