The Future of Brick and Mortar

Simplifi and Raydiant sponsored a fireside chat with retail experts in brick and mortar food service, retail and fitness discussing the effects that COVID-19 has had on their businesses today, what tomorrow will look like, how they plan to adapt and how technology will play a role ensuring future success.

Since COVID-19 broke out and shelter-in-place has been ordered around the country, life, as we know it, has been replaced with uncertainty. Daily routines for many of us are now centered around staying at home and limiting in-person social interactions. Brick and mortar businesses have been forced to find new ways to adapt or suspend business until further notice. All of which has left our country on the edge of our seats wondering what’s next. As the shelter-in-place begins to lift we see some light, but what will things look like once this is “over”?

Sometimes the best way to come up with a solution is to talk it out, which is why we’ve pulled together a panel of industry experts to discuss how they are coping with COVID-19 in this interactive virtual fireside chat. Our goal is to provide business owners with some relatable insight into what is going on in the market today, what might change as different places in our country begin lifting shelter-in-place orders, and how technology will play a role in future success.

Host:

Melissa Gonzalez, Founder and CEO of The Lionesque Group – The Lionesque Group is an award winning firm of experiential retail strategists and pop-up architects™ as well as a Principal and Shareholder in global architecture firm MG2, and author of The Pop-Up Paradigm: Building Human Connections in a Digital Age. Some of her clients to date include Amazon, Arianna Huffington/Thrive Global, Brandless, Carbon38, Marc Jacobs, M.Gemi, Nordstrom, Penguin Random House and The RealReal.

Panelists:

Peter Beaugard, Head of Brand Strategy of Dooney and Bourke – Dooney & Bourke designs fashionable accessories for women and men including handbags, men’s bags, women’s and men’s small leather goods, watches, weekend and travel accessories, scarves, jewelry and more. With over 25 retail and outlet stores throughout the United States, and over 150 boutiques internationally, their iconic designs are always within arm’s reach.

Tom Kousgaard, Owner of Rally Point Endeavors – Rally Point Endeavors is a fitness organization based out of Illinois that offers CrossFit, Endurance, Yoga, Personal Training, Nutrition, Massage, and Youth training programs.

Brewer Stouffer, Owner of Roman Candle Pizza – Roman Candle Pizza is a pizza restaurant chain in Wisconsin dedicated to delivering their customers with the best handcrafted, fresh and local pizza in town.

Bobby Marhamet, CEO of Raydiant – Creating amazing experiences in brick and mortar, Raydiant uses technology to help businesses bring their physical locations to life.

Nick Shevillo CEO of Simplifi – Connectivity provider, helping to bring digital transformation to businesses and organizations around the world.

About Raydiant (raydiant.com)

Raydiant, formerly known as Mira Technologies, was founded in 2017 after realizing there was an industry need for an innovative commercial platform to run screen-based applications on dynamic digital displays. Raydiant found that many enterprises needed ways to run applications on screens serving customers, clients and employees, but the current industry solutions were often bespoke, improvised, unreliable, inefficient and incredibly expensive.

About Simplifi (simplifi.io)

Simplifi is an industry-leading company with products and services that focus on advanced connectivity and their scalability, extendibility and compatibility. Simplifi combines cellular connectivity with enterprise-grade cloud software to deliver easy to use tools and interfaces that meet any business’s needs. Headquartered in Naples, Florida, Simplifi has offices in San Diego, Detroit, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires. Simplifi is committed to unwiring the future, using LTE and Wi-Fi technologies to connect the world at full speed.