CHICAGO — At a time when even the best laid plans are being upended, CSP and Winsight announced this week that our 20-plus year tradition of hosting the Outlook Leadership Conference will transition to a virtual event this year. And while we'll greatly miss the opportunity to meet and greet our industry friends and readers in person, the virtual event, which we announced in May, will actually produce more content and opportunities to meet new likeminded industry folks.
Originally scheduled for Aug. 9-12 in Asheville, N.C., Outlook Leadership will become Outlook Leadership Community this summer. It will kick off the week of Aug. 4 and continue through December, providing access to intriguing keynote speakers, insights from the supplier community and revealing interviews with c-store executives. We’re talking about leaders from Sheetz, RaceTrac, Kum & Go, Rutter’s and more.
Outlook Leadership Community will also build an online community of discussion boards, as well as one-on-one networking opportunities that will double as a chance to donate to a number of nonprofit organizations across a variety of charities.
By the very nature of being a people-first industry, many c-store retailers have been slow to adapt to virtual forms of networking and education. CSP is excited to launch what we think will be an easy to use community to pose questions, highlight new marketing and merchandising programs, and really, just "hang out" with likeminded retail professionals.
As announced in May, Outlook Leadership Community will address the constant changes to the industry and provide timely, relevant content to the convenience community. These include:
- Three webinars to launch every other week and feature executive interviews and panel discussions, as well as high-level keynote speakers addressing leadership and innovation.
- CSP content linked with the webinars, allowing attendees to take a deep dive into topics.
- Discussion boards, overseen by the CSP editorial team to facilitate questions and allow viewers to take an active role in the presenters’ information and data.
- Retailer-supplier interactions will be held by a CSP host.
- The platform will also provide up-to-date information about new products and services with the ability to chat with sponsors, ask questions, take polls or receive samples.
- In an effort to increase funding for charities, this online community will work to raise money for them as well.
Outlook Leadership typically hosts more than 350 top executives from leading convenience-store companies. As a virtual community, CSP expects thousands of participants accessing content on their own timeframe while developing relationships with each other that will last long beyond the community.
Click here to learn more about Outlook Leadership.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.