Knowing when it’s time to change operations in a restaurant business is tricky, but five fast casual CEOs have developed recipes for success and will share them with attendees of the Fast Casual Executive Summit Oct. 13-15 in New Orleans.
During the CEO Roundtable on Oct. 15, Carl Howard, CEO of Fazolis; Kelly Roddy, president of Schlotzsky’s, Mike Rotondo, CEO of Tropical Smoothie Café, Carin Stutz, CEO and president of Cosi and Andy Wiederhorn, CEO of Fatburger, will describe how their willingness to change business practices ended up leading to their success.
“Fatburger and Schlotzsky’s are both thriving after bouts with bankruptcy, and Cosi and Fazoli’s are back on top after launching rebranding strategies,” said Cherryh Butler, hostess of the event and editor of FastCasual.com, the Summit’s producer.
“They each have amazing come-back stories to tell,” she said. “Combine those with Mike Rotondo’s story on how Tropical Smoothie Café has positioned itself as a restaurant serving healthy meals, as opposed to just another smoothie chain, and attendees are going to learn from the pros of the industry.”
During the roundtable, which is the Summit’s grand finale, the executives will discuss everything from best practices in marketing, hiring and franchising, to how they use technology and social media to grow their chains.
“Setting this up as a roundtable as opposed to a standard informational session allows the execs to chat openly with one another and also the other execs in the audience,” Butler said. “They’ll answer specific questions from the attendees, so everyone will leave with advice to apply to their own businesses.”
Only senior level food service executives are qualified to attend the Fast Casual Executive Summit. Registration is now open at fastcasualsummit.com, and early-bird pricing is in effect.
ABOUT THE FAST CASUAL EXECUTIVE SUMMIT Networld Media Group, publisher of FastCasual.com, created this exclusive event for top-level restaurant executives, leaders and innovators of the fast casual industry. In its eighth year, the Summit’s goal remains to bring together an experienced group of restaurant professionals whose common interests and concerns are brought to the table for open discussion in a fun and relaxing environment.
ABOUT NETWORLD MEDIA GROUP Founded in 2000, Networld Media Group is a leading business-to-business (B2B) media communications company specializing in digital media, associations and events in the mobile, self-service, digital signage, retail, food service and financial services industries. Online properties include ATMmarketplace.com, DigitalSignageToday.com, FastCasual.com, KioskMarketplace.com, MobilePaymentsToday.com, PizzaMarketplace.com, QSRweb.com, RetailCustomerExperience.com, SelfServiceWorld.com and ChurchCentral.com. The company produces executive summits in the fast casual, retail, ATM and mobile payments industries. Its custom media division develops premium content and marketing services for associations such as the ATM Industry Association.
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