Craft beer brewer and bar owner John Gyngell (pictured left) and Casual Dining Group’s chief customer and digital officer Celia Pronto are the latest names to be added to the speakers’ roster for CGA’s new Insight 2018 conference in April.
They join online media pioneer Jamie Bolding, whose Jungle Creations social media house delivers quality content, much around food and drink, to an audience of almost 59 million Facebook followers worldwide, and US food and restaurant tech entrepreneur and investor Michael Atkinson, who believes technology will be the saviour of the eating-out market, and is now pioneering voice-activated ordering solutions.
Gyngell, founder of the award-winning, Leeds-based North Bar and North Brewing Co businesses, will join the panel examining how drinks marketing is fast evolving – and driving the quality of the out-of-home experience.
Pronto (pictured right), whose background includes senior marketing roles with Bookatable and Ford’s retail group, will discuss the attraction and effectiveness of new techniques for understanding consumers and your brands’ DNA.
Bolding and Atkinson will headline the conference’s Disruptors session. Jungle Creations is now the most viewed media company on Facebook, the most viewed cross-platform in Europe and second most viewed in the world. Its 16 social channels pump out 100 to 150 of the internet’s most shareable videos every day, with top food and drink brands, including McDonald’s, increasingly coming to it to create their own viral content. Its Twisted cooking channel has over 10 million followers and last November launched a delivery-only restaurant in East London, allowing every recipe video posted on the Facebook page to be ordered via delivery.
Atkinson’s 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. He’s now leading the advance of voice activation in the hospitality space.
“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 CGA’s vice president and conference chair Peter 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 to www.cga.co.uk/whats-on/cga-insight-2018
“In a fast-changing, highly competitive marketplace the imperative to stay fresh, relevant and engaged is undeniable – and that’s as true for event organisers as restaurant, pub and bar operators,” Martin added.
“That’s why we are evolving too – not just looking at what’s happening in the out-of-home market now, but putting it in the context of wider food and drink trends, decoding new consumer habits and brand success factors, understanding the marketing techniques and new technologies that are molding emerging attitudes and actions in the wider world.
“We’ll be hearing from operators and brand-owners, entrepreneurs and corporates, market disruptors and challengers of the status quo.”
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.
