National Restaurant Association Show Announces the 2019 SuperSession: The Future of Restaurants

(Chicago, IL) The National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show® is thrilled to announce the 100^th anniversary Show’s SuperSession theme and speakers. This session, to take place on Monday, May 20^th at 11 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom S100, is entitled SuperSession: The Future of Restaurants.

From voice commands to robotics to automation, restaurants are becoming more high-tech, and the technology options for restaurateurs are growing exponentially. Both consumer-facing and back-of-house innovations are allowing restaurants to leverage technology to drive restaurant traffic, improve back-of-the-house efficiencies, and significantly improve the customer experience. This year’s SuperSession brings together experts in restaurant tech including robotics, voice-activated technologies, mobile tools, and autonomous delivery to discuss with the audience the ways these tools can – and probably soon will – drive their business forward.

Come to see their innovation in action and hear a discussion on how tech will continue to change and shape the restaurant industry.

Participants in this year’s SuperSession come from some of the most innovative restaurant brands and technology companies in the foodservice space.

• Christopher Thomas-Moore is the Vice President of Global eCommerce and Digital Marketing for Domino’s. Thomas-Moore has responsibility for all digital-driven acquisition and retention programs within the organization. In addition, he leads the organization’s global eCommerce & mCommerce experience strategies. Since his start with Domino’s in mid-2018, he has been part of a number of cutting-edge technology advancements and campaigns. Prior to Domino’s, he spent 7 years at Extended Stay America as the Vice President of eCommerce & Digital Marketing.
• Melissa Burghardt is the Chief Operating Officer at Miso Robotics, a leading robotics and artificial intelligence solutions company. Burghardt is a proven leader with more than 20 years’ experience growing businesses globally. Prior to joining Miso Robotics, Burghardt was a product strategy consultant as a growth partner at thrv ("thrive"). She was also Senior Vice President of Media Products at YP (formerly AT&T) managing local advertising products for more than 300,000 small and medium sized businesses. At Open X, Burghardt led the US publisher services team, including sales engineering, analytics, monetization services, and technical account management as Vice President for Partner Services. While at Yahoo! in London, Switzerland, and in Los Angeles, Burghardt held several key roles focused on network yield management and international monetization. Burghardt earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Caltech. She currently resides in the Los Angeles area.
• Allison Page is the Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder of SevenRooms. Since inception, Page has led product strategy, vision and user experience design for SevenRooms, transforming the daily operations of properties in over 100 cities globally. Prior to founding SevenRooms, Page started her career in investment banking at Credit Suisse. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance & Real Estate from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and was named one of six ‘Rising Stars’ in the hotel industry by Hotel Business.
• Sara Rush Wirth is the Executive Editor at Restaurant Business, plans and executes Restaurant Business magazine, developing, managing, and contributing content for print and digital channels, with a focus on covering and speaking about the restaurant industry’s technology and off-premise trends. Sara’s background in food writing includes both foodservice and culinary experiences. Prior to joining Restaurant Business, Sara was a cookbook editor as well as an editor with Restaurant Business sister company Technomic, a market-research firm within the foodservice industry. Sara holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a Professional Cookery Certificate from Kendall College in Chicago.

SuperSession is open to all registered Show attendees, exhibitors, and media, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The 2019 National Restaurant Association Show runs May 18-21 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. For more information about this year’s Show, please visit https://www.nationalrestaurantshow.com/. To register to attend visit https://www.nationalrestaurantshow.com/registration.