Better Retailers, Better PIES

The Pet Industry Executive Summit will take place the day before SuperZoo, which moves to July this year, begins.

Roz Applebaum, co-founder of Pet Industry Advisory and organizer of the Pet Industry Executive Summit (PIES), held annually as part of the Superzoo trade show, wants to find sharp pet retailers--and soon--for the third PIES, slated for July 22, 2013, in Las Vegas.

PIES, which developed as an offshoot of Applebaum’s Pet Industry Advisory conference series (currently inactive) and the World Pet Association’s efforts to add more programming to its SuperZoo trade show and educational conference, is one of the top educational events geared for pet industry executives. The other events include this week’s Pet Industry Distributors Association’s annual Management Conference, which kicks off Monday in Carlsbad, Calif., and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council’s Top2Top Conference, slated for April in Napa, Calif.

The PIES program tries to focus on business topics for executives in all areas of the pet industry, including retailers and service providers. By comparison, the PIDA event targets strictly upstream participants such as distributors and manufacturers and the Top2Top Conference focuses more on political threats to the overall industry.

The potential beauty of the PIES program is that it brings together manufacturers, distributors and retailers in an environment of idea sharing and information exchange on very pet business-oriented topics. More traditional educational offerings, such as SuperZoo’s SuperZoo University, are generally more instructional and geared for a single audience such as retailers or groomers.

Applebaum is looking for “accomplished” retailers who would like to share aspects of their success. If interested in participating as a speaker (individual or as a member of a panel discussion) at PIES, email her by February 1, 2013. She is also interested in ideas for presentations and topics for discussions.

For the event to be truly valuable, Roz will need to assemble a broad range of retailer speakers, representing small to large companies and emerging and traditional formats. The one unifying characteristic will be excellence, whether exhibited through innovation, execution or both.

As an alternative, you can also contact me and I’ll pass along your ideas. I helped Roz on the first two events as my former employer Pet Product News International was a sponsor of the event, and I’m happy to continue to help as possible.