After over a year of lockdowns, merchandise shortages and supply chain disruptions, the convenience store industry has never stopped running. We’ve adapted to whatever the world threw at us and continued to meet the evolving needs of our customers and communities.

Now, it’s time to look ahead. The 2021 NACS Show is where we can come together to share innovative ideas, solve problems and seize new opportunities, side by side. Now more than ever, it’s important for our industry to build a stronger, more connected community. Don’t miss the opportunity to expand your skills, learn from industry leaders, explore cutting-edge technologies and bring back crucial information, innovations and opportunities for your business.

Explore the Expo

Walking through the expo at McCormick Place gives attendees the chance to meet with hundreds of companies and thousands of colleagues—sharing the newest, most exciting innovations of the industry. The expo floor boasts 420,000 square feet of exhibit space, featuring more than 1,200 exhibitors across several categories of interest:

• Merchandise
• Candy and Snacks
• Technology
• Facility Development and Store Operations
• Fuel Equipment and Services
• Food Equipment and Foodservice Programs

Identify Cool New Products

Be the first to see what’s new, what’s inspiring and what will take the convenience and fuel retailing industry to the next level. The Cool New Products Preview Room is loaded with new innovations, products, services and other growth opportunities. The Preview Room is segmented into seven areas to help you easily locate new products: Green (eco-friendly), Health & Wellness, New Design, New Flavors, New to the Industry, New Services and New Technology. Here, you can capture product details and access exhibitor contact information, as well as print your custom “shopping list” for a visit to the main expo.

Get an early and up-close look at industry novelties, trends and must-haves since this room is open earlier than the expo floor for retailers.

Discover the New Exhibitor Area

Be the first to engage with the latest technology, products and companies entering the convenience store market, including emerging categories. Located on the expo floor, the New Exhibitor Area features only supplier companies that have never exhibited at the NACS Show before. Get ahead of the game and your competition with these new products that are ready to hit the shelves and make your cash registers and attendants busier than ever. This area opens earlier than the expo so retailers can get a first look.

 

Interactive Education

When it comes to learning, the power of peers is unequaled. Who better to learn from than the real-world industry insiders and retailer superstars who are shaping our industry’s future?  NACS Show education sessions are designed—by industry peers—to make you and your entire team better. With learning opportunities ranging from category best practices to fully reimagining business operations to implementing technology innovations, there are education sessions specific to every convenience role and pain point.

With more than 40 education sessions, attendees can connect directly with industry experts and analysts and dive into key insights and industry trends to keep your business one step ahead. Choose topics that best fit your needs. Sessions will help you solve the problems you are facing today, including:

• Top strategies for transforming a fragile supply chain
• Creating an integrated mobile experience
• Why cross-channel competitors are winning trips
• Roundtable discussions on recruiting and retaining employees
• Determining the perfect product mix
• And more!

There’s no other gathering, workshop or school on earth that can match the industry-specific educational opportunities found at the NACS Show.

To guide your session selection, NACS has developed three segments based on where you are in the business lifecycle in a certain topic: Launcher, Experimenter or Transformer. To use the segments when planning your education experience at the NACS Show, read each session description and look for the segment identifier to understand if the session is designed for your current needs. You might fit into all three segments during the Show depending on where you are in your business.

Small Operator Training

If you want a deep dive into issues unique to small operators, NACS offers four sessions specifically designed for retailers who operate five or fewer stores. Some of the courses allow attendees to obtain nationally recognized certifications. The sessions are free; however, advanced registration for the classes is strongly recommended. (Walk-ins may be accommodated if space is available.)

Pregame Your Learnings

NACS offers two advanced courses that can be completed while in Chicago on the first day of the NACS Show.

Earn the NACS Certified Convenience Advanced Category Management Certification (CCACM) by completing a hands-on education session. Comprised of key strategic planning and analytical skill-building programs, the six-hour interactive workshop is tailored for experienced category management and merchandising professionals from retailers and suppliers in the convenience and fuel retailing channel. Completion of the online NACS Certified Convenience Category Manager (CCCM) course prior to this event is strongly encouraged since this advanced program is designed for people who already understand basic category management principles.

Drawing on the fundamentals included in the online NACS Advanced Category Management curriculum, this in-person workshop will incorporate industry data and offer collaborative work sessions designed for maximum learning and retention. Upon completion, each participant will earn a CCACM certificate from NACS and Impact 21.

Author Jim Sullivan brings the principles from his bestselling book, Multi-Unit Leadership: The 7 Stages of Building Profitable Stores, to the NACS Show for a one-day workshop to help retail c-store managers build the needed skills to transition to multi-unit leaders.

In this six-hour interactive workshop, Sullivan addresses one of the most challenging transitions in a store leader’s career: the move from single-store manager to multi-store manager. Before arriving, attendees should read Sullivan’s book, which will be provided to all registrants prior to the workshop.

Register for either of these workshops today at www.nacsshow.com/register.

Schedule of Events

Over four action-packed days, the NACS Show has a full schedule of activities for every kind of convenience and fuel retailer and everyone on your team. Convenience store distributors, retailers, wholesalers and exhibitors/vendors will all uncover the most innovative products and technologies, tap into impactful education sessions and access engaging networking opportunities.

Tuesday, October 5

7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.	Registration
9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.	Preconference Workshop: Advanced Category Management Certification (pre-registration required)
9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.	Preconference Workshop: Multi Unit Leadership Training (pre-registration required)
10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.	Cool New Products Preview Room (Retailers Only)
12:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.	Education Sessions
3:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.	Opening General Session with Jennifer Powers
5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.	NACS Show Kick-Off Party (ticketed event)

General Session with Jennifer Powers

As a coach, speaker and best-selling author, Powers has spent the last 15 years helping people remove the mask, crack open their outer shell and reveal the power that lies beneath. She’s coached hundreds of professionals and mentored and trained more than 2,000 coaches. Based on the teachings and strategies found in her best-selling book Oh, shift! and her recent book, Good shift!, Powers uses wit, humor and audience interaction to help participants access tools to better handle change and discover ways to can help themselves (and others) be better. Powers will share easy-to- remember, simple, yet life-changing tools to react to change better and to view it in a much more positive light.

Wednesday, October 6

8:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.	Cool New Products Preview Room (Retailers Only)
8:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.	Education Sessions
10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.	General Session with Kendal Netmaker
10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.	New Exhibitor Area (Early Access 10:30 a.m.)
11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.	Expo (All Exhibits)
11:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.	Cool New Products Preview Room

General Session with Kendal Netmaker

Kendal Netmaker is an award-winning entrepreneur, author and keynote speaker who is on a mission to empower and motivate people worldwide by sharing his message: Regardless of where you come from and what challenges you face, you have the power to enact change. From Sweetgrass First Nation, Netmaker and his siblings were raised by their single mother. Life wasn’t easy growing up on the reserve surrounded by poverty and few chances for opportunities. Netmaker is a master storyteller and a leading entrepreneur whose passion to succeed is contagious. One of Netmaker’s companies is Neechie Gear—a lifestyle apparel brand that gives back a percentage of its profits to fund underprivileged youth to empower them to take part in sports. He is the author of the book Driven to Succeed.