Innovation Program at FoodCity

As FoodCity’s trusted technology partner, CART filters all solutions interested in working with FoodCity. Interested solution providers must apply for FoodCity’s next program and go through a due diligence process with CART. We then select the best most relevant solutions to bring on-site at FoodCity’s headquarters to present directly to the executive decision making team. Innovation Programs are held semi-annually.

The next event will be in Summer 2020.

About the Program

The CART Innovation Program presented by Retail Tomorrow is a semi-annual Innovation Program at the FoodCity headquarters; an event specifically curated on-site for their executive team & staff. The event will filter through technology solutions to bring the best of the best and most relevant solutions to present to their executive team.

Inside the Innovation Program you, as a presenting company, will learn first hand about FoodCity and then be given the opportunity to present for 15 minutes LIVE to their executive team to network & engage 1 on 1 and build relationships with key decision makers.

Day 1: Welcome & FoodCity Tour
Day 2: Innovation Program

The Innovation Program at FoodCity is where you'll be able to bring the future of warehouse technology into focus all in one room.

ABOUT OUR PARTNERS

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Retail Tomorrow is a GMDC initiative with a community of retailers, wholesalers, brands, service providers, and innovators who uncover opportunities in a dynamic retail environment and co-create actionable solutions to meet the changing consumer's needs. They provide thought leadership to help grow brands and technologies in the marketplace by focusing on improving the overall customer experience.

 By Application Only

Innovation programs are by application only. We review your application and if it meets certain criteria, we further vet it with the host leadership team. If they’re interested, great! You’re invited. If the host isn’t specifically interested in your solution, we’ll let you know to move on to the next one. FoodCity hosts Innovation Programs semi-annually. Their next program will be held in Summer 2020.

Ahead of Time

You will be notified of your acceptance within about two weeks of submitting your application. Once we have the green light, we share all the logistics information, more detailed program information, and a list of the attendees to the program.

We’ll set you up with everything you need for success.

Presentation Performance: Positioning & Delivery Conversation

We appreciate that you put a great deal of time and effort into crafting your company’s message. We get it. We know that. But crafting, memorizing, and delivering at an Innovation Program is drastically different from giving any other company pitch you’ve ever given, so get ready & let’s have some fun!

As you start working on your presentation, we’ll give you the feedback from the host about your application and why you were accepted. We also will develop you as a speaker to make sure you’re able to deliver the mosts powerful presentation possible.

How do we do it?

As part of your acceptance into the program we develop you in Presentation Mastery. A program we designed specifically to deliver an effective presentation on-site and get the desired results. Not only do we give you the ins & outs of what the presentation looks like, we’ll give you insight from FoodCity into exactly what they’re looking for and exactly what they want to hear from you. This is about a win-win-win partnership!

Presentation Format

An Innovation Program is a showcase for you to present your company in about 15 minutes. There are 10 minutes to present and 5 minutes for Q&A. It sounds short, but don’t worry. Every solution that has joined us does it with plenty of time. This is like the trailer to a movie — if we can’t support the executives understanding what you do and how you do it in 10 minutes, a deeper dive won’t help. Of course, program materials support the executives to have your contact information and application details during the presentation as well.

Why under 15 minutes?

This short talk model works, since it only demands the audience's attention for a short period of time, decreasing the chance of minds wandering or daydreaming about lunch. In fact, some of our greatest Innovation Program talks have been as short as 5 minutes long!

After the Program

There’s Q&A after every presentation so you have a chance to hear live some of the feedback. There are also feedback forms that executives will fill out for every presentation there including: was your presentation clear, what other questions they have, if they’re interested in follow up or even moving right to a pilot. And we get you a summary of all that information within days of the event. You also will receive all the contact information of the attendees to follow up as appropriate.

Hear What’s Being Said

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“Well run program, you guys know what you are doing”

-Eric Nelson | CIO | The Kraft Heinz Company

Bringing together relevant players in one room; a concentrated day on innovative solutions. Knowing the pain points and interests of the organization (what they’re focused on solving).

- Charlie Moore | Co-Founder | DinnerTime

“Often times when retailers or organizations have people going and sourcing information and looking for ideas it’s isolated… in this case, we were able to put all of our senior leadership in one room to start hearing the same message at the same time to eliminate the noise and clutter and make decisions as a group holistically.”

-Jessica Ringena | Vice President, Innovation & Business Development | Hy-Vee

“When we first heard of the CART Innovation Program it was a great idea and we thought how are we going to get everyone together to make that happen. It's a huge investment of time and you need all the key players in the business together to make it meaningful, and we decided to take the leap for the first time, and I'm telling you, you can't afford not to do it.”

- Matt Ludwig | EVP, Business Innovation | Chief Digital Officer | Hy-Vee

“I can tell you it is very educational. The technology that’s been presented […] is exciting, it’s compact, it keeps moving and for our team to be able to have all these really bright vendors here is just exceptional. We’ve got a cross-functional team here from marketing, operations, finance, executive group and it’s really, really beneficial.”

- Steve Smith | President and CEO | K-VA-T Food City

“The Innovation sessions we’ve gone to today with CART is really proving to be a great opportunity for us to very quickly go through and evaluate quite a few different things that we need to thoughtfully consider as we move forward and plan our change to become a retailer that’s going to exist now and into the future. It’s helpful to have these short presentations that we can make some determinations where we want to go a bit deeper […] We think it’s a great program that should be considered by all.”

- Dan Glei | EVP Merchandising & Marketing | K-VA-T Food City

“To get the leaders all in one room, evaluate, listen, then have a chance to discuss…To get everyone together all at once, It's a brilliant idea.”

- Randy Edeker | CEO | Hy-Vee

“CART has helped us immensely the partnership has been very great for us. Through this whole process, they gave us coaching, helped us prepare the slide decks, gave us background and really made us successful for this project.”

-John Kangas | CEO | FwdMbl

“I’m so excited to be part of the Innovation Program because I’m able to talk to so many people that typically would take me weeks to get to.”

-Rosanna Rice | Business Development Manager | The Data Council, a division of Advantage Solutions

“Just the ability to have so much time with the decision makers is absolutely awesome. I also love the limited number of vendors.”

- Jack Wilson | SVP | Movista

THE HISTORY

About FoodCity

 

Food City actually dates back to 1918 when a store was opened in Greeneville, Tennessee, but K-VA-T Food Stores’ official beginning took place in 1955 when founder Jack C. Smith--with his father, Curtis and uncle, Earl--opened the first store in Grundy, Virginia. Since that time, Food City has grown in leaps through the acquisition of several Piggly Wiggly operations in Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, along with Quality Foods/Food City, White Stores, Winn Dixie and BI-LO units in east Tennessee. The company has also grown steadily by expansion into new market areas while remodeling and replacing existing locations as needed to best serve their customers.

By Application Only

Apply to attend the semi-annual on-site Innovation Program at Food City. This forum helps key decision makers and decision influencers to move pilots, implementations and decisions forward faster. After being accepted you'll go through an extensive coaching process — we'll work with you on everything from your presentation deck to specific requests to make sure you're set up for the greatest success at the event.

Next event: Summer 2020. Apply to learn more about the Innovation Program and see if you’re a fit.