October 23, 2017 TORONTO – The first day of Grocery Innovations Canada (GIC), the premier and must-attend B2B grocery and speciality food show of the year has concluded with an action-packed day of keynote speakers, educational workshops, exciting competitions and more. This year’s show focuses on combining the digital age and face-to-face communication in order to stress the importance of “Staying Connected” to build and maintain both consumer and business relationships.
Keynote Address Michael Hyatt, CBC Dragon Next Gen Den, Entrepreneur and Business Expert, delivered Monday’s enthusiastic keynote address on “Leading with Grit, Passion & People: Evolve or Die.” Hyatt’s presentation discussed opportunity, innovation and change. Hyatt went into detail about how innovation takes counter intuitive thinking and how companies can take surprisingly simple steps to move to a winning plan, while embracing change.
Workshops Monday’s collection of workshops included exciting topics, such as, the latest in payment innovations, budgeting and a wine and beer panel discussion by top industry leading professionals. Kashmera Self, Director of Mobile Product Platform at Interac, spoke on “Financial Payment Systems” with insights into the latest innovations by Interac and how to simplify your businesses mobile payment process. Jon Cline at FMS Solutions informed the audience on how they can effectively budget the minimum wage raise within their business in his speech on “Budgeting for the Bottom Line!” Richard Tazi, Manager of Retail Insights, and Eugene Chang, Manager of Retail Sales Systems and CRM helped conference goers gain knowledge on how data could help boost their sales in-store. Peter Cantley provided a workshop session with an informative session on “How to Green your Garden Sales.” Meanwhile, Erik Thoresen of Technomic shared best practices of selling beer and wine in grocery.
Trade Floor Open The trade floor featured over 110,000-sq.-ft. of dedicated space focused on key grocery and speciality categories with the addition of a new 3,700-sq.-ft., garden/floral/seasonal pavilion. This year’s new key pavilions showcased global, gourmet and speciality markets, such as Korea, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. To celebrate Canada’s 150th, there is a larger-than-ever Choose Ontario pavilion having grown five times in size since 2012, along with Pavilions from Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Top 10 Most Innovative Product Competition Winners The below are this year’s most innovative winners in no particular order:
Download Top 10 Product Photos HERE.
Insights and Innovations Stage Demo The Interac Insights & Innovations stage had interactive sessions covering exciting topics from trendsight speciality & fresh foods to a live virtual reality demonstration. Mike Cunningham, Team Lead of Marketing Insights at Tree of Life Canada, began the sessions by teaching participants about enjoying fine cuisine on a budget and experiencing the world of cuisine from the comfort of your home. Aaron Cho, Key Account Manager of Sales at Korea Food Trading educated the crowd about the key trends and flavours in ethnic foods. George Brehovsky, Director of Store Fulfillment for CHEP Canada closed the insights and innovations stage sessions with a hands-on virtual reality demonstration on reducing product touches to sell more for less.
Best Booth Winners
ABOUT GROCERY INNOVATIONS CANADA (GIC) Grocery Innovations Canada (GIC) is Canada’s premier grocery event developed by industry professionals, for industry professionals. It is the only event in Canada dedicated to the entire grocery industry and is the largest one of its kind. GIC is at the forefront of innovation, showcasing cutting edge products and services. The conference provides exceptional opportunities for networking and foresight into current and upcoming industry trends.
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For more information on Grocery Innovations Canada (GIC), interview opportunities, or exhibiting inquiries, please contact:
Nancy Kwon | nkwon@cfig.ca
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