The show floor at RetailNOW 2016 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, TX featured 150+ exhibitors. Business Solutions filmed product demo videos with 26 channel vendors to bring the show floor to solutions providers who were unable to attend the event.

Doug Rauch took the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) RetailNOW 2016 stage Aug. 2 to detail how, while president of Trader Joe’s, grew the company from a nine-store chain to a nationally-acclaimed retail success story with more than 340 stores in 30 states.

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.

Among the new features at RetailNOW this year was a fast-paced education session named “Lightning Round Leadership.” Five industry executives shared personal stories and lessons that impacted both their lives and their organizations. The group included Stephen Bergeron of APG Cash Drawer, Tom Bronson of ISV Granbury Solutions, Chelsey Paulson of reseller North Country Business Products, Terry Ziegler of Datacap Systems, and myself. Our less-than-eight-minute talks were held during the morning General Session on Aug. 3, the last day of RetailNOW 2016 in Dallas. In the near future, the RSPA will be sharing with its members audio recordings of the presentations, but you don’t have to wait to learn what I said. The following is a transcript of my talk which was titled Two Words: Two Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Words.

Tom Reichart became 2016-17 RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association) Board Chairperson on Aug. 2 when 2015-16 Chair Mike Seymour, COO of Postec, passed the gavel to him during the awards ceremony at RetailNOW 2016 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, TX.