A number of retailers, petroleum marketers and vendors gathered at the PDI UC to take advantage of networking opportunities and attend a number of events.
The 2016 PDI Users Conference (UC), which took place at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, drew in over 500 retailers, petroleum marketers and vendors from across the U.S.
The four-day event offered more than 60 interactive training courses centered around helping attendees get the maximum benefit from their software and services investment.
During his general session presentation, Justin Baxley, retail product manager for PDI, talked about the software company’s latest efforts to help customers aggregate and, in some cases, monetize point-of-sale (POS) data. “With PDI/Market Basket Service you can collect real-time data from your stores and use it in multiple ways that earn or save your company money,” he said. “That includes market basket reporting for better promotions, manufacturer incentive payments in exchange for transaction data, and more efficient labor scheduling based on scan data.”
The conference also incorporated several opportunities for attendees to network with their industry colleagues and PDI software experts. “Our customers come to UC as much for the networking as they do the training, so that’s always a big focus for us,” said Austin Skaggs, vice president of marketing for PDI. “This year our networking lunch and breakout roundtable discussions were a huge hit because they allowed people from different companies with similar interests to get together and learn from each other.”
Several of the industry’s leading and largest retailers were in attendance as well, including 7-Eleven, Circle K, Sunoco and GPM Investments. “I’ve been coming to UC for several years, and I still look forward to it every year,” said Scot Tomlinson, business systems manager for GPM Investments. “No matter how much I know about the software, I always manage to learn something new from PDI staff or the other incredible customers here.”
The week’s events also included a keynote luncheon featuring motivational speaker and best-selling author of nearly two dozen books, Don Yaeger.
