Austin, TX
United States
Global technology ethnographer, Dr. Tricia Wang, helps companies innovate and grow by integrating big data — all that you know about your customers and your market — with thick data, the human element that is invisible to quantitative data analysis. Ms. Wang is the Co-Founder of Sudden Compass, a firm that helps companies leverage data to move at the speed of their customers. Past clients they have worked with include Fortune 500 companies to tech start-ups such as Proctor and Gamble to Spotify.
Today's top brands would not be where they are if it weren't for innovation. The power that marketing and technology have when they come together is what launches companies past average and to the top. During this masterclass, you'll get to learn from C-suite executives who have taken their brands to the next level by leveraging innovations.
Moderator: Marina O’Rourke, VP, IT, Tropical Smoothie Café
Speakers: Shane Evans, CFE, President & Co-Founder, Massage Heights; Renee Israel, Chief Franchise Officer, Modern Market Eatery; Edward Logan, President & COO, Sport Clips, Inc
Join fellow MITcon attendees at local bar for a happy hour to get this year’s conference started on a high note!
Customer-centric Digital Transformation — Business Growth is Customer Growth
Every corporation wants to avoid missing something that could put them out of business. But why are some companies able to spot that “something” and some not? The most successful companies of the 21st Century are obsessed with their customers. Customer obsession is easier said than done. Tricia provides real world examples of how companies can become customer-centric and how they must understand the most important shift in marketing: the emergence of the Networked Customer — those who learn, grow, and make purchasing decisions along networks, the people, platforms, and communities that influence their day-to-day behaviors and decisions. It is impossible to reach the Networked Consumer using only mass-market advertising and traditional marketing communication tactics. Global technology ethnographer, Tricia Wang, outlines how companies must re-envision their digital marketing practices to meet the needs of the fast-moving Networked Customer.
Keynote Speaker: Tricia Wang, Global technology ethnographer; Co-Founder, Sudden Compass
In order to prime your mind and set objectives for this conference, we start off with a group activity meant to add value to each of you by connecting you with seasoned franchisor and technology experts (“mentors”) in a problem-solving setting specific to one of two focus areas: marketing and technology. All participants should come prepared with a specific problem in their field they would like to find an innovative solution for. Each table has one mentor assigned. After a brief introduction, the mentor asks participants what their specific problem is and then other attendees at the table can offer relevant feedback and options based on experience.
The Franchise Marketing & Technology Awards recognize and feature best-in-class marketing campaigns that leverage technology platforms to create innovative programs that have helped franchise companies increase sales and enhance their brands. Winners are announced during this luncheon.
1. Data-Driven Marketing Mayhem: How to Avoid Unexpected Cyber Crimes that Compromise Your Brand
You’ve busted your hump for months and used precious resources to develop a new and powerful loyalty program for your brand. A breach of data due to cybercrime is the last thing you need. Your reputation as a business can be irreversibly harmed if you get hacked. Fail to protect your customers’ personal details, and you say goodbye to them. Learn how to protect your marketing from cybercrimes and lock in your customers for a lifetime.
Speaker: Roger Lewis, CEO, CMIT Solutions, Inc.
2. Increasing Franchisee Satisfaction with Marketing and Communications
When your franchisees succeed, your brand reaps the benefits. However, the more your brand grows, the more difficult it can be to balance national responsibilities and local engagement. Learn how to increase franchisee satisfaction through assessing problems and getting focused during this session, and you’ll bring back valuable takeaways. You’ll even hear a case study from a franchisor who increased their franchisee satisfaction from 77% to 95% through marketing!
Moderator: Jack Monson, Chief Revenue Officer, Social Joey
Speakers: Jennifer Anderson, VP, Marketing and Communications, Express Services, Inc.; Matthew Montoya, Channel Marketing and Enablement Manager, Constant Contact; Kristen Pechacek, CFE, Director, Digital Marketing, Self Esteem Brands
1. How Store Visits Tracking & Audience Targeting Technology Are Evolving the Franchise Marketing Landscape
A great deal of digital marketing campaigns and media buys over the past 5-10 years have relied on geo targeting as a means for driving customers to franchise locations. In December 2018, Google first launched the “Store Visits” metric in AdWords, signifying a major step toward better connecting online marketing and advertising with offline customer transactions. Since then, other industry giants and new emerging technologies have made significant strides in making online-to-offline (O2O) marketing more accessible for franchisors with instore tracking and enhanced audience targeting. In this session, we’ll discuss how sophisticated audience segmentation, combined with Store Visits tracking technology across numerous platforms, will require franchisors to rethink how and where they spend their media dollars in an effort to drive more customers through the doors of their franchise locations.
Speaker: Josh Allen, Senior Director, Marketing, Location3 Media
2. Fighting Your Battles in Business
Learn how to break through the barriers you continue to face every day. Brooke will walk you through an exercise of identifying your battles and interrupting patterns. You'll leave with a clear picture of who you are, what superpowers you possess in business and how to be the champion you desire.
Speaker: Brooke Budke, VP, Marketing, TITLE Boxing Club
3. Cutting Through the Noise - What Works and What Doesn’t in Localized Social Marketing
Between search engines, social media networks and review sites, there are so many places where consumers are interacting with your brand and looking for local information. Not only are these platforms ever-changing, there are unique considerations for franchisors driven by the complexities that come with effectively managing and scaling efforts across 100s or 1000s of locations. Solving these challenges starts with a local focus, but where do you begin? Learn from SOCi on what works and what doesn’t in localized social marketing for multi-location franchises.
Speaker: Jacob Chappell, CFE, SVP, Sales, SOCi, Inc.
Sit at a table with 8-10 of your fellow attendees and share ideas, challenges and solutions focused on a specific topic assigned to that table. This is an opportunity to have an open forum discussion with a small group of your peers and discuss mistakes, lessons learned and success stories. Everyone participates at the table to get the most out of the discussions which are led by franchise experts.
View the list of roundtables and facilitators here.
The Future of Payments
Think BitCoin is the future? Come learn what technology is really driving the future of payments and how consumers and business will pay for everything.
Speaker: Tom Epstein, CFE, CEO, Franchise Payments Network
1. How Gamification is Changing Training
Using games and technology for employee training can make a significant difference in how your employees learn and retain information. The benefits of training teams in a way that is fun, creates competition and uses the concept of struggle can create learning that lasts. In this session you gain a better understanding of the impact of using technology to train, how you can use AI to drive the right content to the right user and how the right solution can drive real business results. You’ll see how Dog Haus and many other major brands are leveraging gaming apps to deliver training to the front line.
Speakers: Sam Caucci, Founder & CEO, 1Huddle; Hagop Giragossian, Franchise Development Partner, Dog Haus
2. Marketing in the Age of Assistance
As we move into the Age of Assistance, the world is becoming increasingly curious, demanding, and impatient. This sessions discusses what this mean for your business and how to use digital advertising to reach your local customers.
Speaker: Maresa Friedman, Google Certified Speaker
Repositioning Your Brand To Leverage the Hottest Trends
Kathy Collins, Chief Marketing Officer of Massage Envy Franchising, brings a wealth of experience in consumer marketing. For this presentation, she will focus on her work to reposition the Massage Envy brand in a market growing in popularity. The discussion will include topics such as consumer research, data analytics, the dynamics of a 100 percent franchised brand, and other aspects of building a multi-phased marketing campaign that drives consumer trial.
Speaker: Kathy Collins, Chief Marketing Officer, Massage Envy Franchising LLC
Today's top brands would not be where they are if it weren't for innovation. The power that marketing and technology have when they come together is what launches companies past average and to the top. During this masterclass, you'll get to learn from C-suite executives who have taken their brands to the next level by leveraging innovations.
Moderator: Marina O’Rourke, VP, IT, Tropical Smoothie Café
Speakers: Shane Evans, CFE, President & Co-Founder, Massage Heights; Renee Israel, Chief Franchise Officer, Modern Market Eatery; Edward Logan, President & COO, Sport Clips, Inc
Join fellow MITcon attendees at local bar for a happy hour to get this year’s conference started on a high note!
Customer-centric Digital Transformation — Business Growth is Customer Growth
Every corporation wants to avoid missing something that could put them out of business. But why are some companies able to spot that “something” and some not? The most successful companies of the 21st Century are obsessed with their customers. Customer obsession is easier said than done. Tricia provides real world examples of how companies can become customer-centric and how they must understand the most important shift in marketing: the emergence of the Networked Customer — those who learn, grow, and make purchasing decisions along networks, the people, platforms, and communities that influence their day-to-day behaviors and decisions. It is impossible to reach the Networked Consumer using only mass-market advertising and traditional marketing communication tactics. Global technology ethnographer, Tricia Wang, outlines how companies must re-envision their digital marketing practices to meet the needs of the fast-moving Networked Customer.
Keynote Speaker: Tricia Wang, Global technology ethnographer; Co-Founder, Sudden Compass
In order to prime your mind and set objectives for this conference, we start off with a group activity meant to add value to each of you by connecting you with seasoned franchisor and technology experts (“mentors”) in a problem-solving setting specific to one of two focus areas: marketing and technology. All participants should come prepared with a specific problem in their field they would like to find an innovative solution for. Each table has one mentor assigned. After a brief introduction, the mentor asks participants what their specific problem is and then other attendees at the table can offer relevant feedback and options based on experience.
The Franchise Marketing & Technology Awards recognize and feature best-in-class marketing campaigns that leverage technology platforms to create innovative programs that have helped franchise companies increase sales and enhance their brands. Winners are announced during this luncheon.
1. Data-Driven Marketing Mayhem: How to Avoid Unexpected Cyber Crimes that Compromise Your Brand
You’ve busted your hump for months and used precious resources to develop a new and powerful loyalty program for your brand. A breach of data due to cybercrime is the last thing you need. Your reputation as a business can be irreversibly harmed if you get hacked. Fail to protect your customers’ personal details, and you say goodbye to them. Learn how to protect your marketing from cybercrimes and lock in your customers for a lifetime.
Speaker: Roger Lewis, CEO, CMIT Solutions, Inc.
2. Increasing Franchisee Satisfaction with Marketing and Communications
When your franchisees succeed, your brand reaps the benefits. However, the more your brand grows, the more difficult it can be to balance national responsibilities and local engagement. Learn how to increase franchisee satisfaction through assessing problems and getting focused during this session, and you’ll bring back valuable takeaways. You’ll even hear a case study from a franchisor who increased their franchisee satisfaction from 77% to 95% through marketing!
Moderator: Jack Monson, Chief Revenue Officer, Social Joey
Speakers: Jennifer Anderson, VP, Marketing and Communications, Express Services, Inc.; Matthew Montoya, Channel Marketing and Enablement Manager, Constant Contact; Kristen Pechacek, CFE, Director, Digital Marketing, Self Esteem Brands
1. How Store Visits Tracking & Audience Targeting Technology Are Evolving the Franchise Marketing Landscape
A great deal of digital marketing campaigns and media buys over the past 5-10 years have relied on geo targeting as a means for driving customers to franchise locations. In December 2018, Google first launched the “Store Visits” metric in AdWords, signifying a major step toward better connecting online marketing and advertising with offline customer transactions. Since then, other industry giants and new emerging technologies have made significant strides in making online-to-offline (O2O) marketing more accessible for franchisors with instore tracking and enhanced audience targeting. In this session, we’ll discuss how sophisticated audience segmentation, combined with Store Visits tracking technology across numerous platforms, will require franchisors to rethink how and where they spend their media dollars in an effort to drive more customers through the doors of their franchise locations.
Speaker: Josh Allen, Senior Director, Marketing, Location3 Media
2. Fighting Your Battles in Business
Learn how to break through the barriers you continue to face every day. Brooke will walk you through an exercise of identifying your battles and interrupting patterns. You'll leave with a clear picture of who you are, what superpowers you possess in business and how to be the champion you desire.
Speaker: Brooke Budke, VP, Marketing, TITLE Boxing Club
3. Cutting Through the Noise - What Works and What Doesn’t in Localized Social Marketing
Between search engines, social media networks and review sites, there are so many places where consumers are interacting with your brand and looking for local information. Not only are these platforms ever-changing, there are unique considerations for franchisors driven by the complexities that come with effectively managing and scaling efforts across 100s or 1000s of locations. Solving these challenges starts with a local focus, but where do you begin? Learn from SOCi on what works and what doesn’t in localized social marketing for multi-location franchises.
Speaker: Jacob Chappell, CFE, SVP, Sales, SOCi, Inc.
Sit at a table with 8-10 of your fellow attendees and share ideas, challenges and solutions focused on a specific topic assigned to that table. This is an opportunity to have an open forum discussion with a small group of your peers and discuss mistakes, lessons learned and success stories. Everyone participates at the table to get the most out of the discussions which are led by franchise experts.
View the list of roundtables and facilitators here.
The Future of Payments
Think BitCoin is the future? Come learn what technology is really driving the future of payments and how consumers and business will pay for everything.
Speaker: Tom Epstein, CFE, CEO, Franchise Payments Network
1. How Gamification is Changing Training
Using games and technology for employee training can make a significant difference in how your employees learn and retain information. The benefits of training teams in a way that is fun, creates competition and uses the concept of struggle can create learning that lasts. In this session you gain a better understanding of the impact of using technology to train, how you can use AI to drive the right content to the right user and how the right solution can drive real business results. You’ll see how Dog Haus and many other major brands are leveraging gaming apps to deliver training to the front line.
Speakers: Sam Caucci, Founder & CEO, 1Huddle; Hagop Giragossian, Franchise Development Partner, Dog Haus
2. Marketing in the Age of Assistance
As we move into the Age of Assistance, the world is becoming increasingly curious, demanding, and impatient. This sessions discusses what this mean for your business and how to use digital advertising to reach your local customers.
Speaker: Maresa Friedman, Google Certified Speaker
Repositioning Your Brand To Leverage the Hottest Trends
Kathy Collins, Chief Marketing Officer of Massage Envy Franchising, brings a wealth of experience in consumer marketing. For this presentation, she will focus on her work to reposition the Massage Envy brand in a market growing in popularity. The discussion will include topics such as consumer research, data analytics, the dynamics of a 100 percent franchised brand, and other aspects of building a multi-phased marketing campaign that drives consumer trial.
Speaker: Kathy Collins, Chief Marketing Officer, Massage Envy Franchising LLC
500 East 4th Street
Austin, TX 78701
United States
To contact the IFA Conferences Department, please email
[email protected] or call 202-662-0763.