Washington DC, August 30th, 2018 - Vagabond held its first annual User Conference in Washington, DC on the weekend of August 17-18 with Vagabond members from 8 states attending the two-day conference. Throughout the event, Vagabond members participated in 13 education sessions that included learning how to maximize their Vagabond VMS usage to maximize profitability, learning how to incorporate the vīv Commerce platform to increase revenue streams, and discussing strategies for broadening their business through effective relationship-building, marketing and process implementation. Attendees ranged from new-to-the-industry operators to operators with 35+ years of experience, from businesses with one route to more than ten. Both sighted and blind operators attended as the Vagabond VMS solution is the only fully accessible VMS. This year’s User Conference allowed attendees constant access to the Vagabond team’s combined 85+ years of convenience services experience including industry leaders Scott Meskin, John Powell, Stephen Shellenbean, Michael Lovett, and Juan Jorquera.
Each day of the User Conference focused on specific themes. The first day of the conference asked attendees to acknowledge and challenge “myths” that are pervasive in the convenience services industry that hold operators back and focused on zeroing in on specific ways to use the Vagabond VMS to boost profits. Vagabond staff taught attendees how to utilize scheduling and routing features to create efficient daily routes, to dynamically update par values and manage kitting either in the warehouse or at the curbside as well as how to use reports to ensure optimal merchandising. Generating more revenues while spending less time on their vending operation and more time with their family was the focus of the day. NAMA’s Eric Dell and Judy Gawczynski also spoke to attendees to highlight the value NAMA provides members through state and federal advocacy, education opportunities and relationship building with others in the industry.
The second day of the conference tackled ways for operators to grow their businesses. Some ways included how to take advantage of strong relationships with accounts to add more revenue, learning how the underlying vīv technology works, how to select and optimize appropriate equipment installed, and using vīv marketing collateral and Vagabond resources to advertise operators’ brands and services to their accounts. Lastly, Fixturelite™ co-Founder Steve Orlando led a session guiding attendees through the keys for success to implementing vīv markets at various types of locations. Vagabond COO Bonnie Trush said, “It was wonderful to get so many experts in the industry in one room with our members. Although the education sessions were great, a lot of the benefit attendees experienced came from the networking opportunities they had while sharing meals with each other. A lot of ideas were bounced off of each other. It was awesome!” Much of the discussion the second day explored the many ways vīv can increase revenue opportunities by creating partnerships with other third-party suppliers to add revenue streams at accounts -- providing more comprehensive services such as vīv Supplies, vīv Delivery, vīv Markets and other creative ways to take advantage of vīv’s extremely low-cost, no-hardware platform.
On top of the educational sessions, all attendees benefitted from firsthand experiences with many of vīv’s real world applications. On the first day of the conference, lunch was provided by a vīv Meals partner that delivered pre-cooked and pre-packaged meals to Vagabond’s unattended vīv Market. Dinner was held in a local DC brewery, Right Proper Brewing Company, utilizing the vīv Restaurants solution. vīv Restaurants enabled all attendees to place orders and pay through the vīv app in real time. Servers brought food and drink orders directly to wherever the attendee was in the open-format room through the “find me here” function of the app. Lunch on the second day of the conference was ordered and delivered through vīv Delivery by Alexandria, VA-based Kabob Palace. Throughout the conference, staff and conference attendees vīved snacks and drinks from Vagabond’s vīv Market located on-site.
Paul Cueman, Vagabond member for over two years and owner of 3D Vending of Riverside, CA stated that he “can’t express how grateful I am to be a member of Vagabond. This past weekend was great for my morale moving forward. I’m pumped for what’s to come for 3D Vending.” Paul has grown his business using Vagabond’s One Rate financing program, offering vīv Vending on retrofitted machines and deploying the AMS Touchless machine to provide a premium consumer experience at select accounts. Paul is offering vīv Supplies to his accounts, so he can make 15%-30% net margins on office/kitchen/janitorial/breakroom supplies he sells to them. Vagabond’s User Conference motivated Paul to organize his Vagabond account so by the time the conference was over he was left with streamlined warehouse inventory and location planogram information. In addition to having a lot of fun at the conference, Alabama BEP operator Matthew Suggs of Wolf Paw Vending stated, “I’m very excited about all the information that was given, loved learning about all the new services Vagabond has to offer and hope to use vīv at more BEP facilities in my home state as well as across the country to show the blind community that more can be done with the help of accessible technologies.” The Vagabond team is excited to build on the success of their first User Conference and information will soon be available for the 2019 edition.
About vīv: The vīv Commerce platform, powered by Vagabond (vgbnd.co), drives growth for food, beverage and facilities services companies by adding new revenue streams and encouraging commerce between them and their accounts. In addition, vīv helps businesses connect and support their local communities through targeted commerce. vīv can be used by consumers at vending machines and kiosk-less micro markets, by bakers selling bread to restaurants, by breweries delivering beer to homes, or by route operators catering to or selling office, breakroom, and janitorial supplies to other businesses in their area. vīv enables businesses to delight consumers with a beautiful targeted e-commerce experience while sourcing products that people want, where and when they want them. vīv establishes direct relationships between brands, retailers and individual consumers. Food, beverage and facility services providers bolster key personal relationships with accounts while adding substantial profits to the bottom line powered by vīv.
About Vagabond - (vgbnd.co) Vagabond makes technology solutions for the food & beverage services community. Its members are generally route-based businesses that provide vending, breakroom & facilities services to other businesses in their region. Vagabond’s software tools
help them operate efficiently and also enable commerce between them and their accounts. Its operations solutions provide assistance with inventory management, product merchandising, route scheduling, and financial accountability. Its commerce solutions enable mobile payments at machines or markets while also enabling the ordering and fulfillment of catering, office, breakroom, and facilities supplies. By implementing Vagabond, operators can increase profits and expand their businesses. Their revenues are higher because they’re offering more ways to pay and adding revenue streams by promoting all types of route-based commerce using the operations infrastructure they’ve already built. Theft is eliminated, and costs are contained because fewer drivers are driving fewer miles servicing more products to more accounts.
