May 11, 2016

National Restaurant Association Show presents new twist on traditional keynote address

New thought-leadership series brings industry game-changers on stage to discuss how the business of hospitality is evolving and to engage in dialogue with the Association’s CEO Dawn Sweeney and NRA Show attendees on May 22

(Chicago) The National Restaurant Association announces a new format for the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show®’s longstanding keynote address. This year, Dawn Sweeney, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, will host three thought-leading executives who are reinventing the restaurant, foodservice and hospitality industry during “Signature ’16: Turn the Tables.” Sweeney will facilitate an open discussion between these change-agents and the industry at-large, challenging attendees to stretch their thinking about how to transform their business. Signature ’16: Turn the Tables, presented by American Express, takes place on Sunday, May 22 at 2 p.m. at McCormick Place’s Grand Ballroom.

Signature ’16 will pose provocative questions and bring thought-leaders to discuss them with the NRA Show audience. For example:

Can slow food successfully scale?
Kimbal Musk says it can.
The Kitchen’s Kimbal Musk is on the board of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Tesla Motors and SpaceX. His personal mission is to strengthen communities through food. Kimbal is a co-founder of The Kitchen, a growing family of restaurants that sources directly from local farmers, stimulating local farm economies to the tune of millions of dollars a year, and creating quality jobs. In 2011, Kimbal co-founded The Kitchen Community, a complementary non-profit organization. The Kitchen Community builds Learning Gardens in schools around the U.S. reaching hundreds of thousands of students every school day, improving their vegetable intake and academic achievements. Follow Kimbal on Twitter @Kimbal and Instagram @KimbalMusk.
 
Can a traditional brand be taught new tricks?
Red Robin is all in.
Red Robin President Denny Marie Post oversees the brand’s Strategy, Marketing, Menu Innovation and Implementation, Company Operations, New Restaurant Opening and Enterprise Transformation teams, as well as leading Franchise Operations, Red Robin restaurants in Canada and development of Red Robin Burger Works and Alternative Platforms. Denny has more than 30 years of leadership experience in consumer-driven marketing and product innovation as well as building teams to develop and execute on strategies that increase brand awareness and drive sales.
 
Can a 3rd party delivery service deliver on your brand?
Let’s talk it out with Uber.
Uber Everything's Jason Droege is focused on leveraging Uber's extensive logistics network to launch new business ventures. Under his leadership, the company has brought innovative same day services such as UberRUSH and UberEATS to market in 13 cities across 4 countries and 3 continents. Jason's expertise as a successful founder and business leader across e-commerce, enterprise software, and internet services has resulted in the development of a robust logistics platform that is revolutionizing the delivery industry. Follow Uber on Twitter @uber.
 
Voice of the Industry: Dawn Sweeney
As President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Restaurant Association, Dawn Sweeney leads the primary business association for the restaurant industry. Since taking the helm in late 2007, she has led the Association to several major legislative victories and has launched the first-of-its-kind children's menu initiative – Kids LiveWell. Under Sweeney's leadership, the largest restaurant and hospitality industry trade show in the United States has seen solid growth, while many other trade shows have struggled. She’s been instrumental in highlighting key areas of opportunity for the industry.
 
 

To follow the conversation in real-time, track and engage #Signature16 on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. NRA Show 2016 will be held May 21-24 and BAR at NRA Show will be held May 22-23 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. To register, please visit Restaurant.org/Attend/Registration.

The National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show® is the largest annual gathering of restaurant, foodservice, and lodging professionals in the world. NRA Show® 2016 will be held May 21-24 at McCormick Place in Chicago, and the 2016 BAR at NRA Show Event, held in conjunction with NRA Show, will take place May 22-23. The events attract 66,000+ attendees and visitors from all 50 states and 100+ countries, and showcase the latest products, services, innovative ideas, up-to-the-minute information about trends and issues, and growth opportunities. For more information, visit the NRA Show and BAR websites at Restaurant.org/Show and Restaurant.org/BAR and find the NRA Show on Twitter @NRAShow, Facebook, Instagram @NRAShow, YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest and our year-round content hub Brainfeed.

About the National Restaurant Association

Founded in 1919, the National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry, which comprises more than 1 million restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of 15.5 million employees. Together with 52 State Associations, we are a network of professional organizations dedicated to serving every restaurant through advocacy, education, and food safety. We sponsor the industry's largest trade show (National Restaurant Association Show); leading food safety training and certification program (ServSafe); unique career-building high school program (the NRAEF's ProStart). For more information, visit Restaurant.org and find @WeRRestaurants on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Vanessa Sink

vsink@restaurant.org (202) 331-5900