The Best of MURTEC 2018

It came and went. MURTEC 2018 is over. The exhibit hall floor was loaded with all the best of the best in technology for the restaurant industry, the speaking sessions boasted hot topics – everything from delivery and off-premise dining solutions and strategies to data, integrations, customer experience, artificial intelligence and more! So, if you’re wondering what was the best parts of MURTEC – here’s a run-down from my perspective.

MURTalks

This year’s MUR Talks boasted a wide variety of topics that are hot on every restauranteurs mind. A couple of my favorites included:

AI as Reality for Restaurants

This talk was hosted by John Miller, CEO of Caliburger and he did a great job of really painting the picture of the restaurant of the future as it relates to artificial intelligence. He shared his experiences with and successes of AI, including when Caliburger rolled out Flippy, the burger flipping robot and began using facial recognition with customers. The facial recognition provided them the ability to engage with their loyalty members, as well as drive new ones.

Delivering on the Delivery Experience

Alex Birnhbaum of Results thru Strategy provided a nice overview of all things as it relates to delivery. It’s true – the opportunities that delivery present to operators is growing every day. During his talk, Alex cited that delivery growth is projected to reach $76B by 2022. He proposed some thought provoking questions during his talk – like, are self-driving cars the way of the future for delivery? Many in the audience said no, too much liability. And what does the future hold for third-party delivery services? Will they at some point come together to eliminate the need for the multitude of tablets in the FOH? Another audience member cited using Omnivore and agreed – one API could help operators facilitate the connection needed for seamless integrations among their POS system, payments, delivery, loyalty and more.

Tech Tours

This year MURTEC added on these great, 30-minute guided Tech Tours of the show floor to provide attendees with brief, yet informative overviews of technology solutions. Tour options included:

• Analytics & Enterprise Management Solutions
• Accounting, Back Office & Labor Solutions
• Payment & Cash Management Solutions
• Point of Sale Hardware & Software (POS)
• Networking & Security Solutions
• Kitchen, Inventory & Supply Chain Solutions
• eCommerce, Mobility, Loyalty/CRM

QSR Automations was proud to be included in the Analytics & Enterprise Management, Kitchen & Supply Chain category! Our very own Director of Technical Sales, Dan Linker, provided brief yet detailed overviews of both our kitchen display system, ConnectSmart® Kitchen and our restaurant reservation system, ConnectSmart®Host (Formerly DineTime). So, what was the absolute best part about MURTEC? The best part was being able to connect with and network with strategic partners, resellers and customers. It seems to only happen once a year – that we are all under one roof, so we cherish the time we have at MURTEC. We are proud to be among the best in the industry during the event – like those of Squirrel Systems, StickyPOS, CBS NorthStar, Omnivore, Toast, Fourth and Silverware POS. Subscribe to the blog for more interesting restaurant content!

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About the Author

Amber Mullaney led all things marketing for QSR. A proud Texan native, she graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Public Relations and spent her career in the healthcare industry before making the switch to QSR and beyond, saying she loves a good challenge. Amber has a long list of things she loves, including tacos (especially tacos), sweet tea, Texas, the outdoors, and traveling with her husband and two daughters.