ATLANTA — SN will highlight the winners of its Category Excellence Awards during the annual Category Management Association conference, scheduled here for Oct. 26-28.
The winners of the award, selected by SN's editors, will be the suppliers who have best served food retailers' needs during the past year, based on feedback from retailers and other industry members. The winners will be profiled in the Oct. 11 issue of SN.
This year's CMA conference will also include preliminary results from the association's study measuring the return-on-investment of category management — results CMA said will help professionals place a tangible value on category management. The survey's findings will be presented by Eric Togneri and Eric Hansen of CMA and Manny Zayas, director of category management for Pepsico North America.
Other sessions include:
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Global implementation of category management certifications, conducted by Dan Strunk, DePaul University, who is chairman of CMA's certifications board; Bob Samples, director of category planning and sales support for Hormel; and Luis Herrera, commercial director of foodservice for H.E. Butt Grocery Co., Mexico.
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History of category management, featuring Dr. Robert Blattberg, professor emeritus of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management; Gordon Wade, co-founder of The Partnering Group; Ray Goodman, consultant; and Paul Digweed, IBM Global Business Services, Australia, along with Dr. Brian Harris, chairman and founder of The Partnering Group, and Win Weber, chairman and chief executive officer of Winston Weber & Associates.
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Best practices among industry leaders, a summary of key takeaways from the pre-conference Leaders Session, whose speakers will include Craig Hodnett, director of category management for Georgia Pacific; Brad Anderson, director of best practices, distribution and space planning for Nestle Purina Petcare; and Manny Zayas, Pepsico North America.
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Understanding the Competitive Impact of Category Captain Arrangements, with Dr. Upender Subramanian, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Dallas.
