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Chris Lybeer | September 30, 2022 |
In this blog post, I’ll share my perspective as Revel’s Chief Strategy Officer on our team’s attendance at industry conference FSTEC. In case you missed my last blog post, I reflected on Revel’s current momentum in the enterprise point of sale (POS) space.
FSTEC is without a doubt the most comprehensive technology event for restaurant operators. It’s the place to learn about the latest and greatest in technology innovation catered specifically to food service operations. In my opinion, FSTEC is unmatched in its ability to bring the right people together and truly share meaningful information in the form of speakers, events, and technology demonstrations.
For these reasons, it’s an easy choice for Revel to have a big presence at FSTEC each year. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through just some of the happenings that took place at FSTEC 2022—which had record attendance—and dive into the takeaways from the team that had boots on the ground for this jam-packed three day conference.
General Session: CEOs in the Hot SeatThis year, sessions at the conference highlighted how technology has a larger-than-ever role in restaurants today, and why having the right tools and expertise is critical to the success of your business. I couldn’t agree more!
Our Revel team had the pleasure of introducing a great session on opening day of FSTEC: CEOs in the Hot Seat | Concepts Pushing Foodservice Boundaries in Cool Ways!
Revel Enterprise Account Executive Dan Costello did a tremendous job introducing the session alongside Winsight Vice President of Enterprise Sales Marcus Viscidi. This was a stacked panel, which included the following industry leaders:
So, why did Revel decide to sponsor this session? Our team is fueled by clients that opt to fearlessly push the boundaries of innovation. I've been in this industry for nearly four decades, and there is no doubt that the pandemic kicked in an innovation cycle of epic proportions.
Revel was created to push boundaries in the restaurant industry—we got our start as the first iPad-based point of sale (POS) platform when the market demanded technology mobility and agility reform. It was also the very first fully cloud-native platform, and that allows for a lot of flexibility for brands to continue to innovate.
As I’ve shared in this blog series before, this cycle of innovation has led to very blurred lines between QSR, fast casual, and even table service verticals. Singular concepts are offering table service, drive up windows, curbside, native delivery, and third-party delivery. It sounds very complex, but it’s possible with a platform that easily handles mixed ordering and delivery channels. Fortunately, Revel does this very well. When done right, the hybrid model allows restaurants to meet the needs of so many different consumers.
Looking back on the panel discussion, Clay, Stephanie, and Andre all backed up my claim that a passion for innovation is at the core of any successful franchise or company. There was also a general consensus that your digital tech stack must be agile and easy to deploy.
Outside of the panel, the team also heard from clients and prospects alike that they’re focused on food and labor cost reductions as the word “recession” keeps ringing in everyone’s ears. On the technology front, artificial intelligence (AI) and robots were hot topics. When the use case is right, these automation alternatives are of interest to multi-location operators. Lastly, cryptocurrencies and nun-fungible tokens (NFTs) for payments were common threads, but most think, and I’d agree, the industry is still a ways off from utilizing these payment methods and that they’re not a priority.
In addition to the conference program, my team had the opportunity to get together with extended members of the Revel family—our clients and friends in the industry—for a special event at the Gaylord Texan Resort. A very special thank you goes to our incredible partners 7shifts and Delphi for putting on the event with us. If you were able to attend the event, I hope you enjoyed the opportunity to network and enjoy some live entertainment Texas style!
All in all, FSTEC was a very busy three days, and busy is good! I look forward to making it back to this conference next year so I can have the chance to participate in the unmatched networking and learning opportunities firsthand. Until next year, FSTEC.
In case you weren’t able to make it to the conference this year, or if you have additional questions after meeting the Revel team at the show—schedule a meeting with us here!
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