I spent nearly six full days in Dallas attending RetailNOW 2016, but it went by like a blur. Let me try to share with you some highlights from what I saw and heard July 29-Aug. 3. But I'll make my comments lightning quick so you can feel like you were there, too.
- If your business hasn't experienced disruption, you're not paying attention. RSPA CEO Kelly Funk appropriately highlighted "disruption" during her opening talk, and the rest of the conference backed her up. Tablets, EMV, managed services, and security, oh my!
- E-commerce is another disruptor resellers can no longer ignore. Greg Buzek from the IHL Group implored solutions providers from the main stage to "enable your merchants to sell online and embrace e-commerce."
- I know Emmitt Smith (pictured above on the RetailNOW stage) is one of the greatest running backs of all-time, but his post-football business and philanthropic accomplishments are even more impressive. Humility has kept him grounded and productive. "Jim Brown was a great back," Smith said. "Walter Payton was a great back. I never saw them dance in the end zone."
- The security conversations at the show really freaked me out how vulnerable we all are to cyberattacks. And it emphasized that merchants need professional solution providers -- not some hack installer -- to keep their data safe.
- I think I just covered 15 RetailNOW sessions with that last statement. Payment and data security dominated the show.
- Some men in our channel need to behave better. Way better. The stories I heard during the RSPA Women To Women Community session about rude, unprofessional, chauvinistic behavior was eye-opening. It was also depressing because some rude pigs are making women uncomfortable to be in the channel.
- Managed services is no longer a far-off concept for POS providers. Many resellers I talked with have fully embraced the recurring revenue business model and are looking to expand it even further in their business. There are now model resellers you can pattern your business after if you want to move to the as-a-Service model.
- I loved this quote from former Trader Joe's CEO Doug Rauch: "When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up serving no one." Great statement about the importance of selling into a niche instead of just the general SMB space like so many stagnant resellers.
- One more from Rauch: "Companies that have a culture of organizational learning consistently outperform cultures that don't." Two questions from that: Do you have a learning culture? Do you know I just helped launch a Business Advisory Services program for Vantiv that can instantly turn your reseller business into a learning culture? (I couldn't let my recap go by without mentioning my new job, could I?)
- One of the best lines from the conference was this from RSPA Legal Counsel Bob Goldberg: "I have another definition for EMV: Encourage Merchant Violence."
- The RSPA staff deserves major kudos from the 2,000+ attendees for designing and executing an excellent event. I heard the phrase "best RetailNOW ever" many times at the closing party and in post-show emails.
Don't look now, but in exactly a year and a day, we'll be wrapping up RetailNOW 2017. I'm sure that will be a blur for us as well.