Meet the speakers from day two of the 2023 C&I Industry Symposium

With the C&I Expo and Symposium taking place on 19-20 October, we take a look at the lineup of expert speakers delivering presentations.

Day two kicks off at 10am at the ICC Sydney, with Matt Dodson, General Manager of OOH at Patties Foods and Safa de Valois, Group Publisher at C&I Media, welcoming guests to a morning of insights and knowledge.

Fred Harrison, CEO of Ritchies, will take the stage next and believes it is critical to for the industry to work together and is looking forward to hearing from a diverse group of speakers, all with helpful tips to try and implement into your own business.

“I will be discussing how a Ritchies loyalty program established a clear point of difference for the business back in 1995, taking Ritchies from a $50 million group to the $1.48 billion group it is today.”

We are then joined by Bonnie McCoy, General Manager of Customology, who will be talking about customer loyalty and how customers actually feel about how brands market to them.

“The reality is customers are savvy and they want to hear from the brands they shop with, but they expect there to be a value exchange. Particularly if you’re a brand with a loyalty program, the value proposition needs to be easy to understand and compelling.”

Harrison will then return to the stage to join McCoy to discuss the investment that brands put into attracting new customers, the effectiveness of this strategy, and at what cost it comes.

Finally, the keynote speaker of the day is Jack Beaumont, a French spy turned author and CEO, who will share his experiences from his extraordinarily dangerous life with France’s secret service. Beaumont will touch on themes such as courage, resilience, and leadership.

“I’ll be talking about my background in these roles and how certain qualities are transferrable to the business world. What is it like to be a fighter pilot, in the special forces, a spy? Especially in the family aspect. How can you be a spy in the day and do borderline activities and come home and be a father and a husband?

“I’ll talk about what the psychological toll is and how you must make your brain strong enough on both sides of this life. You realise that you can’t do one without the other. If you want to be strong at work, you must have stability at home in your personal life, and same the other way round.”

This concludes day two of the symposium, where guests will then make their way to Exhibition Hall for the start of the Expo, in which one lucky retailer will have the chance to win $50,000 worth of stock.

The giveaway is open to independent convenience, petrol, and grocery retailers, who simply need to attend the expo and be there for the draw for the chance to win big.

Register for the C&I Expo here.

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