Highlights from the 2025 NACS Convenience Summit Asia were tours of convenience stores in Tokyo. Hear more for learnings and insights about what we saw, and experienced in this incredibly efficient c-store market.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard

About our Guest:

Jeff McQuilkin, Director, Exhibit Sales & Services, NACS

Jeff has over 25 years of exposition sales, marketing, operations and project management experience, the last eight with NACS.

The early weeks of the Trump administration have been marked by a flurry of activity. Find out which actions could impact convenience retail and the potential opportunities for the industry on key issues.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard

About our Guest:

Doug Kantor, General Counsel, NACS

Doug has served as legal counsel for NACS for more than 20 years, originally as a partner with the law firms Collier Shannon Scott PLLC and Steptoe & Johnson LLP. He has been NACS in-house counsel since 2021. Doug also served as special counsel and deputy chief of staff in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

How do you get people to listen to your message long enough for it to be effective? Storytelling can help cut through the clutter in a crowded marketplace, and tools like AI can make your messages even more impactful.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard

About our Guest:

Steve Lerch, President, Story Arc Consulting

Steve is a keynote speaker at the 2025 NACS State of the Industry Summit. He is an award-winning international public speaker and consultant and a highly respected voice in the world of digital strategy, marketing, consumer behavior, innovation and leadership. Prior to founding Story Arc Consulting, Steve spent nine years at Google crafting his unique perspective on the topics of innovation, strategy and digital marketing.

President Trump and Elon Musk have both advocated for the elimination of the penny. We share insights from customers on whether they agree and how it would affect transactions in convenience stores.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard, NACS Media & Strategic Communications

The gas price sign used to be the most important means of communications to attract drivers to c-stores. Today, digital communications have unleashed many other more effective opportunities to tell customers about your offer by appealing to their known behaviors.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard

About our Guest:

Fred Dimesa, Head of Product for Marketing Solutions, Arity

Fred is head of product for marketing solutions at Arity. He has more than 20 years of experience in developing strategies and launching new businesses in the technology space.

We look at some of the preliminary numbers related to industry performance—and what it means to you.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard

About our Guest:

Chris Rapanick, Managing Director, NACS Research

Chris oversees the day-to-day operations of NACS Research, manages and directs departmental financial and operational performance, and drives strategic development of NACS long-term research capabilities and offerings for the convenience industry.

Beer accounts for about 7% of all dollars spent inside convenience stores. What are some of the trends that could affect sales in 2025?

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard and Chrissy Blasinsky

About our Guest:

Benj Steinman, President, Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS

Benj is the president of Beer Marketer’s INSIGHTS Inc., the leading trade publisher for the United States brewing industry since 1970. He is publisher and editor of the flagship newsletter as well as several other online and print media publications.

New policies from the Trump Administration could affect the broader fuels market in 2025 and beyond. Find out what could impact retailers.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard

About our Guest:

Denton Cinquegrana, Chief Oil Analyst, OPIS

Denton has been with OPIS since 2001 and serves as the chief oil analyst, responsible for the day-to-day operations of OPIS’ news and analysis division. In his role, he also provides big picture views to OPIS subscribers on a variety of topics from supply and demand trends to anticipating price moves in the futures, spot and retail markets in North America.

Here are some of the top retail-focused trends seem at the January 2025 NRF Show.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard

About our Guest:

Tim Tang, Director, Business Technologies, Hughes

With 30 years of professional experience in developing enterprise solutions, Tim studies various enterprise markets (e.g. restaurant, retail, and banking/finance) to anticipate trends that will enable enterprise customers to fully unlock the business value of technology.

In just over a half century since the first c-store opened in Tokyo, the definition of convenience has been reshaped over and over throughout Asia. Hear what the big ideas are in Tokyo and which ones could be coming to your market.

Hosted by:

Jeff Lenard

About our Guest:

Mark Wohltmann, Director, NACS Global

Mark is responsible for the strategic development of NACS Global, a worldwide network that supports convenience retailers and their businesses. He has more than 20 years of experience in research and consulting, with a focus on FMCG/CPG and retail. Mark began his career in the advertising industry, focusing on trade marketing and sales advertising in impulse retail channels at Dorland in Berlin and at Grey and BBDO in Duesseldorf.