Schedule

Begin your conference experience by teeing off at the gorgeous Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

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An introduction to the CGA Strategic Conference theme, “Minding the Gaps.” Together with Scott Stratten, we’ll explore the disruptive forces reshaping the grocery industry and lay the groundwork to inspire action in the face of change.

In this keynote, Scott will walk the audience through what is real and what are only smoke screens in the business world today. Audiences will walk away understanding the following:

• The Millennial Myth:  The younger generation may create new challenges for business, but not in the way people are saying.
• UnBranding: How everyone in the company creates the brand on a daily basis.
• The Disruptors: Disruption simply means change without time to resist it. Learning how to anticipate and deal with it as it comes.

Read more about Scott.

Still buzzing from the Opening Experience, the Opening Reception offers the opportunity to connect with peers over appetizers and refreshments.

Sunday evening’s networking doesn’t end at the Opening Reception.  Grab your newfound friends and retire to the picturesque setting of the Renaissance Palm Springs Resort pool for a casual after-hours mixer.

From cannabis and wellness to contractor laws, industry experts present trend reports in a digestible, collaborative format. Attendees build their own educational track by selecting two, 45-minute sessions.

Here’s a list of the sessions that will be offered:

• From Service Providers to Innovation Partners — Diana Medina joined Inmar in September 2017 as the director of e-commerce solutions. She leads the development of innovative e-commerce solutions to help Inmar’s retail partners compete and stay ahead in the digital retail environment. As a group, we will explore examples of third-party services and tools that retailers are leveraging for everyday business operations, as well as for more innovative, long-term initiatives.
• The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: Where Does Your Brand Stand? — John Bajorek, EVP of Strategic Growth & Innovation, will share findings from WD’s proprietary data. With responses from nearly 10,000 people on 100 of the world’s biggest retail brands, he’ll share the results, how the grocery industry is ahead or behind other verticals and where the opportunities lie.
• Hemp Extracts and CBD: Understanding the Benefits, Opportunities and Mechanics — Scott Riefler is currently chief science officer for SōRSE Technology, an innovation leader of materials development for edible product forms within the cannabis space. Join us for a deeper dive into this emerging market, how to responsibly and safely bring hemp extracts into your stores: understand the plant and its components, extraction paths, the regulatory landscape, the reported health effect and how to navigating  supply chains.
• Is the “Gig” Up For Your Employee Hiring Programs? — Karen Tynan is an of counsel attorney in the Sacramento office of Ogletree Deakins. What operations areas are best-suited for gig workers (delivery, stocking shelves and inventory audits)? How might it evolve? What are the employment law issues related to using freelancers? This group discussion will explore the trends, the pros and cons of hiring employees vs independent contractors, and possible new laws in 2020.

Where are we now and what are the defining issues that impact our grocery community? Featuring state-of-the-industry addresses from CGA President & CEO Ronald Fong, CGA Board Chair Kendra Doyel and The Illuminators Headlight Tracy Lape, the General Session will identify industry blindspots and orient us towards solutions.

Following these opening remarks, Ron Tite — marketing, branding and creativity expert — will share how organizational and personal performance doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be focused.  This entertaining presentation will not only inspire your people to change their thoughts and actions to align with the organization. It’ll also give them the tools to do it.

Read more about Ron.

The Independent Grocers Forum is the ideal place for California’s independent operators to gather, discuss best practices, collectively participate in vendor presentations and socialize with industry colleagues.

During this forum, we’ll hear from Michael Tchong, who is on an indefatigable quest to decode the future. Michael is an adjunct professor of innovation at the University of San Francisco, where he teaches how to correctly interpret the dynamics of Ubertrends and the opportunities they present.

Read more about Michael.

Working closely with the Enterprise Risk Protection (ERP) Committee the CGA Strategic Conference has expanded its targeted educational content and successful one-on-one meeting format to professionals in the areas of ERP. Last year, this event element attracted an additional 50 leaders responsible for retail/vendor relationships and daily oversight of critical safety and asset protection issues.

After a productive day of meetings, join your colleagues for a sip of bourbon inspired cocktails and craft brews.

Leave behind the comfort of what you know to be true about the grocery industry. Through three, TED-style presentations, conference attendees will be challenged to investigate convention, spot the gaps in established thinking and discover new avenues for growth.

Here’s a list of the speakers in store for you:

• Founder and CEO of Miyoko’s, Miyoko Schinner, sparked the rise of the multi-million dollar plant-based cheese revolution by engineering a proprietary technology for making dairy from plants. As “the Queen of vegan cheese,” Miyoko is a bestselling author, chef, and entrepreneur that has dedicated 30+ years to affecting social change and sustainability through veganism and activism.
• Karen Howland is a Managing Director with CircleUp Growth Partners. She has 15 years of investing experience across both the public and private sectors, and across all different elements of the consumer landscape, including retail, direct-to-consumer and consumer products. Focused on investing in visionary founders, CircleUp Growth Partners is CircleUp’s venture fund for innovative early-stage consumer brands.
• Shawn Lange brings more than 20 years of domestic and global experience in the industrial automation industry. Most recently, he led his start-up, L2F Inc., to #2 in engineering and #237 overall on the 2016 Inc.5000 list of fastest growing private companies.

After a delicious lunch provided by The Illuminators, the keynote concludes our educational program. Featuring one of the brightest minds in business strategy, this capstone session will search out the answers for an industry in transition.

Chip Conley is the iconic boutique hotelier who helped Airbnb’s founders turn their fast-growing tech start-up into a global hospitality brand. Along the way, he wrote Wisdom@Work, having been inspired to build the world’s first “midlife wisdom school,” the Modern Elder Academy, with a 3-acre oceanfront campus in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Chip is an active mentor to six young CEO founders in the hospitality/tech world, and serves on the boards of the Burning Man Project, Encore. org and the advisory board for the Stanford Center for Longevity. He believes curiosity is the elixir of life and has taken up learning Spanish and surfing at age 58.

Read more about Chip.