National Franchise Convention 21-22 recap

The 2021/2022 National Franchise Convention went off without a hitch on the 4th of April. With approximately 500 people in attendance and it being one of the first post-covid events for many of us, there certainly was a buzz in the air. We were very excited to have been heavily involved in this year’s NFC and are proud to have been not only exhibitors, but major sponsors as well. 

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A couple of dominant themes kept appearing in plenary sessions and in discussions we had with both attendees and exhibitors. Those themes being: growth, optimism and systemisation. 

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The two days of the Convention were absolutely jam packed with content. Day 1 kicked off with Bernard Salt from The Demographic Group who gave us not only some funny and insightful acronyms, but also a positive outlook on the post-Covid consumer that’s looking to shop locally and make more lifestyle purchases.

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The concurrent panel sessions were a huge success, with our completely unbiased favourite session being the one hosted by Ideagen Op Central CEO Josh Cairns. The session featured some friends of Ideagen Op Central, Ken Rosebery of The Cheesecake Shop, Selina Bridge from KX Pilates, Heidi Miller from Hertz and Amber Manning of Just Cuts. The session was wrapped up with each panellist giving us some takeaways into franchisee high performance. Here are their final points:

• Franchisees who are conscientious and have high attention to detail are likely to be better performers.
• The customer comes first - not the customer is always right!
• Break down those communication barriers between corporate and franchisees.
• Follow the system. You should have an established outline for success, so franchisees that follow the system will be successful.
• A high performing franchisee is willing to help other franchisees and will be confident in their abilities. 

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Day 2 was brought to a close with the inspiring Simon Griffiths, the co-founder and CEO of Who Gives a Crap. Griffiths took us through the lessons he has learned from building his profit-for-purpose business and left us with this; ‘Be bold and make it happen’ - we will Simon!

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After two days of invaluable insights, inspiring talks, laughs with old and new friends and some spectacular food and drinks, we are now more excited than ever to be back to in-person events. I for one, cannot wait for the next one! See you there.