EVENT RECAP

2026 Food on Demand Executive Leadership Luncheon

858 headed to Dallas for our second event of 2026, the inaugural Off-Premise Executive Leadership Luncheon at Food on Demand. One hundred senior off-premise operators, ninety minutes, and a room built on one conviction: the most valuable conversations in this industry happen when the right operators are together in the same room. No panels, no presentations, just an intentional seating plan and the people who run off-premise for the country's leading brands. Here's our recap.

Event overview

On Tuesday, May 5, 858 hosted the inaugural Off-Premise Executive Leadership Luncheon at Le Gala Ballroom inside the Renaissance Dallas Addison Hotel. The room brought together 100 senior operators and digital leaders representing 41,500 locations, seated immediately after the ezCater Catering Growth Forum and before Food on Demand's opening general session.

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Lunch was served first. The workshop opened mid-meal with a guided workshop developed by JG and enabled peer-to-peer discussions on Food on Demand’s most engaging and shared topics of interest. Attendees discussed what’s working, what’s not, and what the next 12-18 months may bring.

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Every seat was assigned to put operators next to peers they would not otherwise meet. Each table was anchored by an operator leader who carried the conversation: Brian Pearson of Mendocino Farms, Angel Tsang of Tso Chinese Food, Erik Collins of BJ's Restaurants, Leslie Wilson-Lopez of The Melt, Jenn Saunders-Haynes of Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Allison Meyer of Five Guys, Jessi Moss of Pei Wei, Suzie Tsai of Bonchon, and Anand Gala of Gala Capital Partners.

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What Operators Wanted to Talk About

Every attendee was handed three stickers and asked to place them on the topics they most wanted to discuss. A room of executives running 41,500 locations, voting with their hands like the fourth-grade version of themselves would be proud of. It worked. The room was interested in first-party growth, covering ordering, loyalty, and guest data, led at 31%. Third-party marketplace economics and margin awareness followed at 25%. Together, those two captured 56% of all placements before a single conversation started.

What Brand Executives Said

The format did something most conference sessions don't: it put operators in a room with peers they hadn't met yet and gave them the time to actually talk. Here's what they said.

Seating assignments for the win.

"At first I was skeptical, but it was so refreshing to talk with people I didn't know going through the same thing."

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90 minutes was not enough.

"I didn't want our conversation to end. We could've gone another hour."

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It stood out against the conference backdrop.

"I've been to Food on Demand for the last three years and I wish more sessions were like this." Another put it simply: "That was a great way to bring together like-minded peers and sponsor partners in a collaborative format. I'll be back next year."

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Even competitors found room to win.

"There were two other competitors at my table, but by the end we traded notes and shared contact info. There's a world in which all of us can win."

Feedback & Learnings

We're proud of how the inaugural luncheon came together and grateful for the strong turnout. Here's what we heard and what we'll do differently next time:

The format and table placement worked.

The mix of brands and roles at each table, the quality of attendees, and the organic conversations the structure enabled all landed well. The pre-lunch networking window was specifically called out as one of the highest-value moments of the day, with connections made before the program even started carrying through the rest of the conference.

Next Time: The format is working. People loved the pre-event network window. Protect the pre-lunch networking window and keep building on it.

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The room wanted more time.

Ninety minutes went fast, and the most common piece of feedback was a request for more of it.

Next Time: Give the conversation more room to run or start earlier for more networking.

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Topic alignment could be faster.

The share group discussion format worked well overall, but topic voting took too long and pulled conversations away from spending time on the subject matter.

Next Time: Put a time window for voting and/or work with attendees earlier to align discussion topics with their objectives and give clearer guidance on how to actively shape the conversation.

With Gratitude

None of this works without the support of our clients and partners, who are committed towards solving the problems that operators are facing. They seeded the operator conversations and traded sales theater for real peer dialogue.

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Checkmate

Mike Bell

Strategy Chief

Checkmate

Vishal Agarwal

Founder & CEO

Loop

Devyn Schwartzberg

Senior Enterprise Account Executive

Loop

Nick Barbo

Account Executive

Momos

James Burdick

Director, Sales

Momos

Jed Rutstein

Account Executive

Olo

Jenna Land

AVP Enterprise Sales

Olo

Jennifer Tyler

AVP, Enterprise Sales

Matt Huey

VP of Consulting

Niko Papademetriou

Co-Founder & EVP

RevMo

Devon Macdonald

CRO

RevMo

Nate Evans

Enterprise Account Executive

unPLUG

Colton Frank

Co-Founder & CEO

unPLUG

Zach Kozub

Chief of Staff

Event pictures

Take a look at some moments from the event, from great conversations to key highlights. These photos capture the energy of the day and the people who made it memorable.

See Event Pictures ↗