Monday, April 29, 2019

3:00 PM
- 5:30 PM
Office Hours
Location: Chambers 1 & 3
Here’s your chance to sit down with an ezCater Strategic Account Manager to optimize your account. Book a 30-minute session to receive personal recommendations for increasing order volume, streamlining your business, and understanding data insights. Attendees will receive an email with instructions for booking their appointment prior to the conference.

4:00 PM
- 8:00 PM
Registration
Location: Roosevelt Foyer
CaterUp! registration is open in the Roosevelt Foyer. Stop by when you arrive to pick up your badge and conference materials!

5:30 PM
- 7:30 PM
CaterUp! Launch Party: Welcome to the Big EZ
Location: Roosevelt Pool Deck
Mix and mingle with fellow attendees on the pool deck at The Roosevelt. Partygoers will enjoy hors d'oeuvres and cocktails. 

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

7:30 AM
- 8:30 AM
Registration
Location: Roosevelt Foyer
CaterUp! registration is open in the Roosevelt Foyer. Stop by when you arrive to pick up your badge and conference materials!

Breakfast & Sponsor Showcase
Location: Waldorf Astoria Ballroom

Office Hours
Location: Chambers 1 & 3
Here’s your chance to sit down with an ezCater Strategic Account Manager to optimize your account. Book a 30-minute session to receive personal recommendations for increasing order volume, streamlining your business, and understanding data insights. Attendees will receive an email with instructions for booking their appointment prior to the conference.

8:30 AM
- 9:00 AM
Welcome Address: A Roadmap for Success
Location: Crescent City Ballroom
How do you grow a catering business and what are the key components to making that happen? It’s one of the most common questions asked in today’s off-premises-first world. In this kickoff session we unveil the roadmap to building a successful catering operation: where to play, asset allocation, and developing a playbook for growth.  

9:00 AM
- 9:30 AM
Technomic x ezCater: The Catering Opportunity - Understanding a $60B Market
Location: Crescent City Ballroom
 

We teamed up with Technomic to uncover new catering industry trends You’ll get the first look at this report, which covers how valuable operators expect catering to be to their overall business, the investments they plan to make, and the segments of catering they’ve seen the most success in.


9:30 AM
- 10:15 AM
The Catering MVPs: Office & Sales Pros
Location: Crescent City Ballroom

In the catering world, your most valuable customers are the office and sales pros who keep the business running and the sales flowing. You’ll hear directly from a panel of these pros who will share their catering experiences and expectations, and how you can keep your brand top of mind.


10:15 AM
- 10:30 AM
Morning Coffee Break
Location: Roosevelt Foyer

10:30 AM
- 11:00 AM
B2B Ordering Trends
Location: Crescent City Ballroom
With 11 years of catering ordering data under our belts, we’ve uncovered some trends…and we’re sharing ‘em! You’ll get a deep look into the business catering buyer persona – from most popular daypart for placing orders to menu items they can’t get enough of.

11:00 AM
- 11:45 AM
Keynote: Aligning Your Catering Business with Your Brand
Location: Crescent City Ballroom

Scott Davis has defined his career with innovative brand transformations. With a unique panoramic perspective on catering business needs, Davis reminds all of us that catering is much more than "putting sandwiches on a platter and getting them out the door.” From his time as the first Chief Concept Officer at Panera Bread to his current role as the President of CoreLife Eatery, Scott knows how to make great catering concepts thrive. Scott's former Panera Bread colleagues Jim Rand and Nicole Jackson will join him on stage following the keynote for a Q&A with the audience.


11:45 AM
- 1:00 PM
Lunch & Sponsor Showcase
Location: Waldorf Astoria Ballroom

Office Hours
Location: Chambers 1 & 3
Here’s your chance to sit down with an ezCater Strategic Account Manager to optimize your account. Book a 30-minute session to receive personal recommendations for increasing order volume, streamlining your business, and understanding data insights. Attendees will receive an email with instructions for booking their appointment prior to the conference.

1:00 PM
- 1:40 PM
Insight from the C-Suite
Location: Crescent City Ballroom

Executive buy-in is crucial for any business lines’ success. This session brings together C-suite executives from top brands where they’ll share what got them committed to catering and how they determined  the level of investment and resources they put into it.


1:40 PM
- 2:00 PM
Networking Break

2:00 PM
- 2:45 PM
Round Robin: Assessing Your Capabilities — Physical Capacity
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
Most restaurants were not built to run a full-scale catering business. You’ll learn from a panel of capacity experts on how to navigate and think creatively about your current space. You’ll hear how these leaders are shifting their approach on everything from food inventory and production to smart scheduling, equipment, and more.

Round Robin: Assessing Your Capabilities — People Capacity
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
People are your most important asset. You’ll hear from a panel of people experts on how they’ve built best-in-class teams and how they’ve approached shifting trends in labor. You’ll learn how to find the right people, train and retain them, and elevate their performance.

3:00 PM
- 3:45 PM
(Encore) Round Robin: Assessing Your Capabilities — People Capacity
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
People are your most important asset. You’ll hear from a panel of people experts on how they’ve built best-in-class teams and how they’ve approached shifting trends in labor. You’ll learn how to find the right people, train and retain them, and elevate their performance.

(Encore) Round Robin: Assessing Your Capabilities — Physical Capacity
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons

Most restaurants were not built to run a full-scale catering business. You’ll learn from a panel of capacity experts on how to navigate and think creatively about your current space. You’ll hear how these leaders are shifting their approach on everything from food inventory and production to smart scheduling, equipment, and more.


3:45 PM
- 4:00 PM
Afternoon Break: Beignets and Coffee
Location: Roosevelt Foyer

4:00 PM
- 5:00 PM
ezCater Keynote: Partnering in Growth
Location: Crescent City Ballroom

ezCater’s co-founder’s, Stefania Mallett (CEO) and Briscoe Rodgers (CPO), take the stage. After 11 years, 70M+ people served, and 4M+ ratings and reviews it’s clear that catering is different. This keynote will combine insight on why ezCater is more obsessed than ever with customer experience and the latest product features designed to help partners grow their catering business.


5:00 PM
- 6:30 PM
Office Hours
Location: Chambers 1 & 3
Here’s your chance to sit down with an ezCater Strategic Account Manager to optimize your account. Book a 30-minute session to receive personal recommendations for increasing order volume, streamlining your business, and understanding data insights. Attendees will receive an email with instructions for booking their appointment prior to the conference.

Happy Hour in Sponsor Showcase
Location: Waldorf Astoria Ballroom
Grab a drink in the Sponsor Showcase before we head to the Bon Temps Reception as a group. 

6:30 PM
- 9:00 PM
Bon Temps Reception
Location: New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute
We're rolling out the Green Carpet for a dinner and drinks reception at the New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute. Rendezvous at the Sponsor Showcase before heading over to a spectacular soiree at this newly-opened venue. Transportation to NOCHI will be provided. 

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

7:30 AM
- 9:00 AM
Breakfast & Sponsor Showcase
Location: Waldorf Astoria Ballroom

9:00 AM
- 9:55 AM
Keynote: The Science of Engagement
Location: Crescent City Ballroom

How do you keep someone’s brain engaged so that you can increase the likelihood of being memorable? An intriguing approach to understanding engagement is to view it from the angle of its absence. Is it possible for the brain to disengage, especially in the age of overstimulation? The answer is yes. Cognitive scientist, Carmen Simon, will share evidence-based, practical guidelines, which you can use immediately to create meaningful engagement for your catering audiences.


9:55 AM
- 10:00 AM
Introduction to F.E.E.D
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
Time to build a playbook that will take you all the way. You’ll learn a model for building a winning catering action plan, which we call F.E.E.D: Foundation, Experience, Execution, Demand. Each strategy session will dive deep on one of the four elements.

10:00 AM
- 10:15 AM
Morning Coffee Break
Location: Roosevelt Foyer

10:15 AM
- 11:00 AM
F.E.E.D Strategy Sessions: Foundation
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
The foundation of your catering business is a mix of the right menu, pricing, technologies, and facilities. Top leaders who have built some of the strongest catering strategies in the industry will discuss how to brand your catering program so it's consistent with your restaurant’s brand, the types of technologies that streamline operations, and equipment needs you should think about.

F.E.E.D Strategy Sessions: Customer Experience
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
 
Even without the ambiance of a restaurant, your catering offering still needs to create a positive and consistent experience. You’ll learn how our panel of customer experience experts established a catering experience that lives up to their brand, implemented best-in-class hospitality processes, and create brand evangelism at every customer touchpoint.

F.E.E.D Strategy Sessions: Operational Execution
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
 
The key to proper execution lies in a few areas: learning what matters to your customers, designating a Catering Operations Leader, and developing your standard operating procedures. This panel will discuss labor management, menu and food assembly training, and techniques for order and packaging production.

F.E.E.D Strategy Sessions: Demand
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
Build demand for your catering offering! A panel of marketing experts will discuss how they drive demand to fuel their marketing program. You’ll learn their approaches to developing unique branding materials, motivating talented salespeople, forging third-party partnerships, and building loyalty programs and experiences.

11:00 AM
- 11:15 AM
Morning Coffee Break
Location: Roosevelt Foyer

11:15 AM
- 12:00 PM
(Encore) F.E.E.D Strategy Sessions: Foundation
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
 
The foundation of your catering business is a mix of the right menu, pricing, technologies, and facilities. Top leaders who have built some of the strongest catering strategies in the industry will discuss how to brand your catering program so it's consistent with your restaurant’s brand, the types of technologies that streamline operations, and equipment needs you should think about.

(Encore) F.E.E.D Strategy Sessions: Customer Experience
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
 
Even without the ambiance of a restaurant, your catering offering still needs to create a positive and consistent experience. You’ll learn how our panel of customer experience experts established a catering experience that lives up to their brand, implemented best-in-class hospitality processes, and create brand evangelism at every customer touchpoint.

(Encore) F.E.E.D Strategy Sessions: Operational Execution
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
 
The key to proper execution lies in a few areas: learning what matters to your customers, designating a Catering Operations Leader, and developing your standard operating procedures. This panel will discuss labor management, menu and food assembly training, and techniques for order and packaging production.

(Encore) F.E.E.D Strategy Sessions: Demand
Location: Roosevelt Ballroom Salons
Build demand for your catering offering! A panel of marketing experts will discuss how they drive demand to fuel their marketing program. You’ll learn their approaches to developing unique branding materials, motivating talented salespeople, forging third-party partnerships, and building loyalty programs and experiences.

12:10 PM
- 12:45 PM
Technology and the Future of Innovation
Location: Crescent City Ballroom

Hubs, robots, and AI, oh my! New technologies are directly impacting the restaurant industry and will change how we do business. In this session, technology leaders in the restaurant industry will discuss how these innovations are changing consumer expectations, how you need to make changes to keep up,  and which technologies require the most immediate attention.


12:45 PM
- 1:00 PM
Send Off
Location: Crescent City Ballroom

We’ll recap our top takeaways and say farewell until next year!


1:00 PM
- 1:30 PM
Farewell Lunch

*SUBJECT TO CHANGE