Welcome to FMI Connect!
In a few short weeks, everybody who’s anybody in the food retail industry will be gathering in Chicago for the exhilarating experience of FMI Connect 2014.
Running June 10-13, FMI Connect is definitely not your daddy’s FMI show — it’s so much more that we had to give it a new name.
FMI Connect is the new annual FMI show, redesigned to connect the industry and inspire the future of food retail. Our vision for FMI Connect entailed creating a global food retail experience that brings our industry together in a sight, sound and taste celebration of the connecting power of food. It will provide attendees with solutions for the entire store and every aspect of the food retail business, including what lies ahead. Through our “Retail Experience of the Future” program on the show floor, our members will go on a time-travel adventure and get a direction-shaping preview of where the food retail industry is headed.
The benefits for retailers of attending FMI Connect are numerous, but I’d like to highlight just two: insights and solutions.
Retailers at FMI Connect will have the advantage of being the first to see new lines of products on the show floor and to hear the results of the most recent shopper trend research. And through our agreement to co-locate the event with United Fresh Produce Association, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, InterBev Beverage, and NASDA and USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, FMI Connect will provide attendees with solutions to grow basket size, increase customer trips, and improve margins and market share.
One of the most important initiatives in FMI’s strategic plan is Total Store Collaboration, which calls for FMI to lead in developing an expansive executive forum that unites the food manufacturer and retailing sectors in constructive dialogue and action focused on driving overall industry growth and improving operational efficiencies.
The partnerships in evidence at FMI Connect are tangible expressions of that commitment, demonstrating collaborations that reach across industries concerned with beverages, packaging, fresh produce, and overarching food marketing and trade issues. As such, FMI Connect 2014 launches more robust trading partner opportunities, and we look forward to strengthening ties with the manufacturing community year over year at successive iterations of the event.
I encourage you to join us in Chicago. Come connect with the food retail industry at FMI Connect. For more information, please visit fmiconnect.net.