It’s my honor and privilege to welcome you to the 20th Annual Franchise Leadership and Development Conference. Therese, Gary and all of the team at Franchise Update Media - from all of us, from all of our franchisees and from all our teams… Happy Anniversary and thank you for making franchising a better business model by providing our franchise community with the tools and inspiration to be better leaders, better franchisors and better brands!
Franchising has experienced many changes over the past two decades. Technological advances, legislative pressures and communication preference changes from both candidates and existing franchisees have made successful franchise brands alter the way that they go to market. But there are some basic foundations that have not changed. Franchising is still the best path available for most individuals to realize their dream of owning their own business. The Franchise Leadership and Development Conference is still the very best conference to learn the latest, greatest ways to grow and develop your individual brand’s success.
I was fortunate enough to attend the very first Leadership and Development conference in San Jose back in 1998. I was challenged, motivated, a bit overwhelmed and left with a notebook full of implementable ideas that I used to improve my personal leadership development and professional performance. And now, 20 years later, I am honored and humbled to be welcoming you to do the same. I have personally attended over 100 conferences and workshops over the years and I can tell you this is the Best of the Best!
You have the opportunity to hear from and connect personally with some of the brightest, smartest thought leaders in the franchise community. Folks who have been where you are, whether you are an emerging franchisor trying to get traction for your brand, a mature brand trying to find new innovative ways to grow or a high growth brand trying to figure out how to scale your operations so that you can grow and lead your system to the next level… and do it in a way that is right for you, right for your brand and right for your individual franchisees.
The key to success is for you to be present, engage with your fellow attendees, listen, learn, ask questions and make it a point to engage with each other. You will not find a more approachable group of people who want to help you, share their own war stories and give you great advice to help you grow, both personally and professionally, than the attendees of this conference. The team at Franchise Update Media have created, fostered and maintained this culture for now 20 years!
This year, as always, we have an incredible lineup of focused, relevant and on-point speakers, panels and workshops. We are opening this year’s conference with Joe Theismann and closing with Ryan Dohrn, providing inspiration, motivation and implementation nuggets that will work for you now and for the future.
I look forward to seeing you and hundreds of other franchise professionals at this year’s 20th Annual Franchise Leadership and Development Conference in Atlanta. Please join me in congratulating the Franchise Update team, celebrating this amazing anniversary and learning new ways to grow!
Paul Pickett, CDO
Wild Birds Unlimited
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