Preparations In Full Swing For Las Vegas Encore Performance
The 2019 NAMA Show is taking place April 24 to 26 in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center and will focus on creating meaningful experiences through the convergence of “People, Products and Possibilities” embodied by the realm of convenience services.
With this year representing the final installment of the three-year residency in Las Vegas, the 2019 NAMA Show has set its sights on showcasing technology and its power to fuel innovation and growth. Driving this message home is futurist and author of “The Dictionary of Dangerous Ideas” Mike Walsh. A top-ranked speaker from the 2017 NAMA executive forum, Walsh will take the stage at Wednesday’s opening general session to deliver an inspiring keynote message about embracing the future. His presentation entitled “Reinventing Leadership for the Age of Machine Intelligence” will present a vivid portrait of a brave new world orchestrated by machines that think and how tomorrow’s leaders can upgrade their capabilities to survive and thrive in an age of accelerating technology.
Diving deeper into education
To provide attendees with more highly-specialized, topical content, NAMA is expanding its pre-conference education to include the third and fourth modules of the reimagined “Essence of Coffee” certificate program, a newly developed offering in the fast-growing area of pantry services and workplace optimization, and a half-day program on the practical application of artificial intelligence in convenience services. All of these pre-con programs will take place on Tuesday.
Also new in 2019 is the addition of the NAMA Learning Lab, a highly visible and unique presentation arena situated prominently on the exhibit hall show floor. In contrast to the concurrent educational sessions taking place on Wednesday and Thursday, the Learning Lab will feature interactive, hands-on presentations across a range of subjects delivered by industry thought leaders.
Show-floor education will be further enhanced with the return of the highly-popular Captivation Station, which made its debut at the 2018 NAMA Show. This geodesic dome theater provides an interesting and easily accessible area where suppliers deliver 20-minute thought-leadership presentations on product and service innovations during show hours.
Experiential trade show
Further advancing NAMA’s multi-year strategy toward experiential, and therefore more memorable engagement on the show floor, several new features have been added in 2019 including a new and improved better-for-you pavilion, “The Incubator” and the new product zone 2.0.
The Better For You pavilion returns in 2019 as a focal point of the exhibit hall where companies can highlight their healthier snack and beverage products. Even after increasing the footprint of this designated area (3,300 square-feet), the pavilion is entirely sold out with more companies participating than last year. Operators who are actively searching for FitPick® snacks and beverages (under 250/200 calories) for micro markets, vending machines and foodservice outlets will find this curated collection of healthy product options very useful.
Back by popular demand again in 2019 is a new and improved new product zone (2.0). With an enhanced location, better branding and the addition of a People’s Choice Award, similar to what was piloted at the recent Coffee, Tea and Water show in New Orleans, it is sure to be even more popular and successful.
