May 2018 took us to Chicago to participate in the National Restaurant Association Show (NRA). The biggest restaurant show in the world, gathers leading F&B companies and presents the latest industry breakthroughs and technologies. This was a great opportunity for us to meet with industry leads as well as new suppliers of innovative out-of-the-box technologies. “We met a lot of startups and SME’s that are excited to enter the Middle East market but they see the barrier of localization of culture of branding to those markets,” stated Boudy Nasrala. “We’ve previously partnered with big distributors in the Middle East and helped them access more than 12 countries. We can now bring them a lot of support on this front, from localized branding to distribution channels”. The show talks and conferences hosted by leading companies and innovative change makers, gave us new insights and know-how on engaging guests, increasing spending, sustainable packaging and utilizing intelligent data to understand customer behavior and refine the offering. Classic Burger Joint (CBJ), one of the F&B concepts we developed, also exhibited under the booth of its exclusive product supplier MiddleBy. The show introduced CBJ to franchisees interested in a brand that rapidly expanded in the Middle East with 35 branches in five countries.