ECRM's Foodservice Week last month, which included our Campus Foodservice, Commercial Foodservice and Foodservice at Retail sessions, featured keynotes from industry experts on trends and best practices for foodservice operators and suppliers to deploy in their operations.

Datassential's Director of Customer Solutions Kelley Fechner gave two of the keynotes -- one about the campus dining consumer, with an emphasis on dining trends among Gen Zers, as well as a presentation on how grocerants can best address the steep competition among them. Restaurant expert and author Donald Burns spoke about successful hiring practices for foodservice operators.

In the videos below, ECRM's Foodservice team members Amanda Tomsik and Stephanie Nicklos and VP of Content Joseph Tarnowski interview each of the speakers about some key takeaways from their presentations. Links to the slide decks from each presentation are also included below.

The World of Food on Campus (Kelley Fechner, Datassential)

A college campus has more dining/eating options than almost any other establishment in the U.S. today. Students can utilize all of the options on campus, visit a restaurant nearby, or they can have food delivered directly to them by a human and potentially a robot. Campuses have a unique opportunity to teach students about new and different ethnic items and foods in general. In this interview, ECRM’s Joseph Tarnowski and Datassential’s Kelley Fechner discuss the foods and restaurants that are most loved by students today, and how to focus your efforts to keep students on campus for their eating occasions. Click here to download the slide presentation: 

ECRM College & University Datassential 2019.pdf

The Hire Attitude: How to Attract, Train, and Retain Top Talent (Donald Burns, Author of Your Restaurant Sucks!)

Donald is The Restaurant Coach and author of the award winning book, Your Restaurant Sucks. He has been named one of The Top Restaurant Experts to Follow in 2016, 2017, and 2018 and is and authority on how restaurant owners, operators, and culinary professionals go from just good to becoming outstanding. He is a sought-after advisor in the areas of: leadership, branding, social media marketing, culture, operations, restaurateur mindset, team development, behavioral dynamics, productivity & peak performance. In this interview with ECRM’s Stephanie Nicklos, he discusses how restaurants and foodservice operators can hire the right people to drive success. Click here to download the slide presentation:
The Hire Attitude Workshop ECRM.pdf

The Many Layers/Flavors of Competition for Grocerants (Kelley Fechner, Datassential)

Grocerants have more competition than the average restaurant. Consumers at lunch have restaurant competition, but the dinner consumer competes with restaurants, cooking a meal at home, or even a take and bake/heat meal. In this interview, ECRM’s Amanda Tomsik and Datassential’s Kelley Fechner discuss how grocerants are best situated to take advantage of food trends with the massive inventory of ingredients they have on-hand for their retail stores. Click here to download the slide presentation:

ECRM Foodservice at Retail Datassential 2019.pdf