The way technology is shaping the future of eating and drinking-out was put under the full spotlight this week with the launch of the wagamamago pay-and-go app. Wagamama’s CIO Richard Tallboy (pictured left) will be talking about that and the brand’s wider commitment to tech innovation when he joins the speaker roster at CGA Insight 2018 conference on April 19 in London.
Tallboy will be joining Jungle Creations’ founder Jamie Bolding and US restaurant tech investor Michael Atkinson on the conference’s Disruptors panel in what promises to provide one of the afternoon’s hottest discussions.
Bolding’s Jungle Creations is the most viewed media company on Facebook, delivering high-quality content, much around food and drink, to an audience of almost 59 million Facebook followers worldwide – and now its Twisted cooking channel, which has over 10 million followers, has launched a delivery-only restaurant in East London, allowing every recipe video posted on the Facebook page to be ordered via delivery.
US food and restaurant tech entrepreneur and investor Michael Atkinson believes technology will be the saviour of the eating-out market and is now pioneering voice-activated ordering solutions. His experience includes running restaurants in the US, working on Wall Street and launching and investing in a string of restaurant tech projects, including FohBoh, the original online B2B community for global foodservice.
Also new to the list of high-profile conference panellists is Claudia Nicholls-Magielsen, marketing director at Weight Watchers UK, who has also held top marketing roles at the Consumers Association and Yum Brands, who will bring an alternative view on consumer behaviour and the food market.
She’ll be joining Casual Dining Group’s chief customer and digital officer Celia Pronto, whose background includes senior marketing roles with Bookatable and Ford’s retail group, on the Meeting the challenges panel to discuss the attraction and effectiveness of new techniques for understanding consumers and a brand’s DNA – and a wide range of other big issues facing the broad food and drink arena.
Yet another highlight of the afternoon will be the Driven to Drink session, when boss of the award-winning Alchemist bar group Simon Potts, whose expanding brand is bringing the art of mixology to the mainstream, will join craft beer brewer and bar owner John Gyngell, founder of another award-winning business, Leeds-based North Bar and North Brewing Co, to examine how the premiumisation of drink is now central to driving the evolution and quality of the out-of-home experience – and changing the way alcohol itself is marketed.
Meanwhile CGA’s own insight experts will present the latest thinking on both tracking brand success and understanding what is driving consumers’ food and drink preferences – through its pioneering consumer segmentation work.
The conference will again be chaired by CGA’s vice president Peter Martin, who said of the event’s themes: “With competition at its hottest and margins at their tightest, the need for the out-of-home food and drink market to get thoroughly under the skin of its customers, and understand the trends shaping their preferences, in the wider world too, has never been greater,” said Martin.
CGA’s new Insight 2018 conference will spotlight new and developing market patterns, new analytics and new technologies that should already be shaping company strategy, operations and most importantly marketing.
The conference is on Thursday, April 19, at 30 Euston Square Auditorium, London, NW1 2FB. To request a place at this exclusive invitation-only event, go here.
The conference is open to senior executives from across the out-of-home sector – strategists, marketers, insight teams and all those influencing new thinking in their businesses.
There will be much to debate and discuss, so reserve your place today.
