Conexxus’ 2019 annual conference, held in Nashville from April 28 to May 2, broke the previous attendance record by almost 30%.

More than 230 retailer and vendor professionals participated in education sessions and committee meetings, showing that Conexxus is serving the industry’s data exchange and technology needs.

A lot of ground was covered during the conference’s four days, from the aggressive initiative to move from XML to API standards, to the role of blockchain in revolutionizing supply chain, to insights of leading industry CIOs and, of course, the important committee meetings that set the standards and education agenda of the association programs.

Keynote speaker Tim Lowe, president of Lowes Foods, reminded attendees that, with all data gathering, it is the “little data” of consumer insights that gives data pools actionable context.

Another message from the conference was that retailers, through listening to their customers, need to take the leadership role in transforming the c-store and fuel retail industry for the digital future, and there needs to be close participation by supplier-partners to get everyone there together.

“It is critical that we keep our momentum going throughout the year to achieve our aggressive goals in API standards and Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies,” said Gray Taylor, executive director of Conexxus. “We are closely working with member CIOs and the technology professionals in the trenches to create solutions.  Our newest working groups will be focusing on remote access, intelligent cash drawers, IoT, and Cloud POS functionality. This is just the surface of what our members work on through the year for the industry.”

Additional sessions at the 2019 Annual Conference included digital disruption, utilizing customer data, payment modernization, data security, track trace & verify and incorporating APIs.

Next year’s conference will be held in Tuscon, Ariz., April 26-30.