Podcast: The 2025 NAMA Show is shaping up to be a blockbuster event

Based on the industry’s growth, a big comeback is underway in just about every segment of the convenience services industry. With the huge success of the most recent conventions — Chicago in 2022, Atlanta in 2023, and record attendance at Dallas in 2024 — there is a lot of excitement brewing about the 2025 NAMA show and the return of the show to Las Vegas.

This episode of Automatic Merchandiser's Vending & OCS Nation, the podcast for the convenience services industry, is a preview of the upcoming NAMA Show in Las Vegas. Get the latest about the NAMA Show, to be held May 7-9 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This podcast is presented in cooperation with the National Automatic Merchandising Association —the industry organization for convenience services.

During this episode, Bob Tullio talked to some of the architects of the event: David Marler from 365 Retail Markets, and Ryan Harrington, founder and CEO of Royal ReFresh, both on the trade show advisory committee. They're joined by Kristen Griffith, CMP, who is vice president, programs and services, at NAMA.

The podcast guests talk about why the NAMA Show is a must-attend for any serious operator, plus how the show has impacted their businesses. There is also a great deal of buzz around the keynote speaker, Oz Pearlman, world-renowned mentalist.

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During this podcast, hear about:

• Imagination Way and New Product Zone explained (04:06)
• Educational program overview (07:00)
• Why the show is for operators of all experience level (08:11)
• Networking at the NAMA Show (09:00)
• Top reasons to attend the NAMA Show (11:45)
• ips for show success: plan ahead (13:35)
• General session overview (15:55)
• Advice for operators to get the most out of the show (16:15)

No time to listen? Prefer to read? Here is an edited podcast transcript:

Bob Tullio: Hi everybody, it’s Bob Tullio. Welcome to Automatic Merchandiser’s Vending &  OCS Nation, the podcast for the convenience services industry. Today’s episode is presented in cooperation with NAMA, the industry organization for convenience services. It’s a preview of the upcoming NAMA Show in Las Vegas, May 7th to 9th at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

For this podcast, I talked to some of the architects of the event: Dave Marler from 365 Retail Markets and Ryan Harrington, founder and CEO of Royal Refresh, both on the Trade Show Advisory Committee, and Kristen Griffith, vice president, programs and services at NAMA.

Based on the industry’s growth, the big comeback underway of just about every segment of the industry, and with the huge success of the most recent conventions — Chicago in 2022, Atlanta in 2023 and record attendance at Dallas in 2024 — there is a lot of excitement brewing about the 2025 NAMA Show, and the return of the show to Las Vegas. I asked Kristen Griffith, do you have a message that you want to deliver to people in the industry?

Kristen Griffith: So the NAMA Show is not just another trade event. It’s your one-stop shop for live demos, networking and education that actually moves the needle. If you miss it, you miss out on what’s next in our industry.

Bob Tullio: Okay, let’s talk about why this show is an event that every operator and supplier should attend. Let’s look at the key features of the show. And I’m gonna ask you to expand on each one. Shall we start with David on this? How about the expo hall?

David Marler: Well, the expo hall is the heart and soul of the show for us. I know a lot of the operators come for the educational piece. There’s some really strong content that is usually presented and shared with the operators who are there. But for us — for an exhibitor —  it’s the one-on-one communication that we get at the booth to be able to do an introduction for a new product, to be able to see existing customers and find out where their problems are, what their pain points are, find out what their plans are. As someone who has to cover the entire country, you can only see so many people in person throughout the year. But when you come to the NAMA Show, it’s an opportunity to see a lot of people in a very short period of time. So for us, the exhibit hall is the heart and soul of the operation.

Bob Tullio: Kristen, tell me about that NAMA creation, Imagination Way.

Kristen Griffith: Imagination Way is our creative space, and this is really where we showcase how ideas come to life. This year, we are featuring four environments.

Bob Tullio: What do you mean by environment?

Kristen Griffith: The environments are the real-life showcase of where you would see equipment and technology outside of the trade show floor.

Bob Tullio: So like a hospitality setting or a or a multi-family housing setting, that sort of thing.

Kristen Griffith: Yeah, exactly. So, we’re trying to bring people into what it would look like if they were just at an airport or a travel center or in their workplace, whether it be a manufacturing workplace or an office space, whether you’re a student at a college, at a campus, large residential is another feature. And this year in Imagination Way, I think you will find that we are showcasing more robotics than you’ve probably seen at previous shows.

Bob Tullio: How about the new product zone? Can you address that for me, Ryan?

Ryan Harrington: I personally feel like the new product zone is definitely always worth a visit. It’s just a really great way to spot emerging trends and kind of see where the industry is headed. You know, sometimes even like a small innovation can spark ideas that prove your operations back home.

David Marler: And I’ll piggyback on that, Bob. It’s very easy for an operator to come into your booth and not see everything that you have. So, when we do have a new product that we want to spotlight by putting it in the new product zone, as the operators cruise there, they can see the new stuff and then that hopefully will prompt them to ask about it when they actually get to the booth. Because again, it’s the big players there from Hershey’s and M&M Mars and Cantaloupe and 365. It’s easy to go to their booth and not see everything. So, the product zone is a great opportunity to highlight the stuff you want them to see.

Bob Tullio: Another key feature of the show, the pre-convention education opportunities as outlined by Griffith.

Kristen Griffith: There are five opportunities on Tuesday prior to the NAMA Show. The category management boot camp will take place in the convention center. And we have four different tours. So the UNLV University of Las Vegas Innovation Lab, the Pepsi Equipment Certification Center, Caesar’s Palace Food and Retail Operations, and a tour of Allegiant Stadium.

Bob Tullio: That is some great stuff for Tuesday. But I’m also really impressed by what NAMA has planned in the way of education sessions each morning. If you look at the website, theNAMAshow.org, there is plenty of education planned.

Kristen Griffith: So, the NAMA Show will be featuring 42 education sessions, 74 total sessions that includes Main Stage and Imagination Way Stage. We have learning tracks this year, which are technology, essentials, leadership, OCS and pantry, knowledge-based networking, and sales and marketing.

Bob Tullio: Ryan, would you like to add to that?

Ryan Harrington: Personally, from an operator’s perspective, I’ve never left the NAMA Show without a page full of notes and ideas. The education sessions over the years have definitely helped shape our strategy, and especially, you know, even if you’re a seasoned vet or, you know, a new person to the industry, especially bringing our team members to the show and making sure they really get involved in those education sessions is important.

Bob Tullio: What an opportunity to learn, especially for new operators. Kristen, do we expect to see plenty of new operators as we did in Dallas?

Kristen Griffith: A lot of new companies are coming in, so it’s not just individual operators, it’s actual new operating companies that are coming to the show.

Bob Tullio: I think one of the big misconceptions that I’ve heard over the years is the thought that, hey, I’ve been in the business for 30 years. The sessions are for people that are new, that don’t understand the business. What’s your take on that? I’ll start with Kristen.

Kristen Griffith: With the industry evolving, especially with the introduction of AI and really how it’s going to revolutionize our industry, there are a lot of good leadership topics based for those that have been in the industry a bit longer. We have an entire leadership track. And those include some of these AI sessions. They also include sessions of looking at other industries and what we can steal from them. These are our stealing genius sessions.

Whether you’re just starting out and you want to check out the essentials track, that’s for those newcomer operators, or if you’ve been in the industry for 30 years, you’re still going to walk away with something new just by attending the education sessions at the show.

Bob Tullio: And of course, networking opportunities are critically important. And I’ll let you each address that. How about you, David?

David Marler: That is solid gold — the networking opportunities.

When you get an opportunity to sit down over a cocktail with a guy like Ryan Harrington and actually talk off the record, right? You’re just relaxing and having a drink. You get so much insight into the struggles and the pains and the issues that they have as an operator that it really gives you kind of a window into how you can actually help them. Besides the fact they’re good people. Forget the fact that if we lived in the same city, we may be drinking every Friday night anyway. But the networking opportunity for me has always been the number one takeaway from the show. From all the way back in 2014, which was my first NAMA Show, it is solid gold.

Bob Tullio: Ryan, how about you?

Ryan Harrington: Yeah, this one’s definitely personal for me, and I feel like it’s one of the most beneficial reasons to attend NAMA/ A lot of the growth Royal Refresh has come from conversations at the show and after the show, just meeting fellow operators, forming the partnerships of everyone that’s there, all the professionals and amazing people that are there, learning from people who’ve been in this industry before me. The relationships can definitely change the course of your business. And it’s one of the most valuable aspects for me.

Bob Tullio: Kristen, you want to expand on that?

Kristen Griffith: Sure. The NAMA Show, we try to give the opportunity for networking for everyone there. And I understand it happens naturally on the exhibit floor or in an education session, especially the track, the knowledge-based networking, those are roundtables where you will be in conversation with other people. So whether it’s structured networking or David said whether you’re having a drink with somebody, we do offer many ways to network at the show, including we have two different events going on for some of our groups. We have the Emerging Leaders Network, the ELN event. We also have Women in the Industry. They have an event as well.

David Marler: I just wanted to go back to the education piece to your comment about they’re all for newbies. When NAMA was in Atlanta two years ago, I moderated a panel on how to manage and forecast fresh food, which is by far the number one problem in the micromarket industry, hands down. It was standing room only.

And when you look in the audience and you see guys like John Corto from Buffalo Strive or Mike Cordaro from CRH, those weren’t newbies. They were there to learn from the guys on the panel how they handle fresh food. Som there is a misconception that it’s for new people, but depending on the topic, you’ll see some industry vets in every single one of those classrooms.

Bob Tullio: Let’s talk about the top reasons to attend. Can you expand on each also addressing why these reasons are so important? Keeping up to date with market trends. Ryan?

Ryan Harrington: In this industry, you know, things are moving quickly. The NAMA Show is where I go to keep my finger on the pulse from changing consumer habits to regulatory updates and to new tech.

Bob Tullio: How about David, seeing new products and innovations?

David Marler: 365 obviously is one of the market leaders on innovation. And one of the nice things about the NAMA Show is when you have a new piece of technology like a smart cooler that uses computer vision combined with AI, that’s a fairly complicated product that you just don’t be, you can’t communicate what it does in a sales sheet. So for us, seeing new products and the new innovations, it’s an opportunity to take additional time to explain how the technology works because the best technology in the world doesn’t work if it gets to the operator and never leaves their warehouse because they don’t know how to implement it. So for us, that’s huge.

Bob Tullio: How about this — identifying new opportunities? Ryan?

Ryan Harrington: We’ve expanded from vending machines to start to micro markets, pantry, coffee and beyond. Any ideas we can pick up at the NAMA Show are just a huge part of our journey and where we’re headed.

Bob Tullio: How about meeting with current suppliers, and how do you recommend that that’s done?

Ryan Harrington: It’s one of the few chances where you really get to sit down face-to-face with all the people you really rely on. It’s not really a transactional meeting. It’s really more about building trust, and it gives you a place to really help solve your problems faster and learn more.

Bob Tullio: From your standpoint, David, what recommendation do you give to operators about meeting with suppliers? Is that something that should be well planned?

David Marler: 1000%.

This show is so busy, every single account manager for 365 is required to have one-on-one appointments booked with customers. When you get to the point where you’ve got 10 different people you want to see, it’s not just walk up to the booth and they’ll be available to talk to you. So, any planning you do ahead of time should include actually getting on the calendar and blocking off that 15, 30 minute window to talk to the companies that you want to talk to while you’re there. You’ll get a lot more out of it that way.

Bob Tullio: Kristen, is there anything especially different about this year’s show?

Kristen Griffith: With Carla’s retirement coming up the last 14 years, NAMA has seen incredible growth under her leadership. I think we’re going to really set the table for what is the next step for our industry and how is this going to take shape. And I expect a lot of really good conversations to come out of the show, in that line of thinking, AI has been a buzzword for a couple of years now. But this industry, we have to start harnessing it. We have to start looking at our data collectively, and what we’re doing with it, and how AI is going to shape it. And I’m expecting that to be an even bigger conversation happening at more levels than I think it has in the past.

Bob Tullio: Can you give me a rundown on the general session, Kristen?

Kristen Griffith: Yes.

David Marler: Holy smokes.

Kristen Griffith: So the general session is where we feature NAMA’s award winners. We’ll be presenting the Operator of the Year, Allied Member of the Year, and Industry Person of the Year. And David is a previous Industry Person winner. Also, that’s where we have our keynote. So Oz Perlman will be joining us.

He is a mentalist and I think it’s going to be extremely entertaining and engaging and interactive. He does a lot of interacting with the audience. He’ll be in the audience. He’ll be talking to people.

Kristen Griffith: And I think that’s a little bit different than what NAMA has done in the past. So the general session is definitely going to be a not-miss event this year. He’ll be sitting down with our emcee and really talking about how reading people ties into leadership and how that can transform your business as you learn to read people.

David Marler: This guy is one of the best entertainers you’ll ever see. I saw him on America’s Got Talent 10 years ago, and I’ve seen several of his shows, and the stuff he does, I will be in the front row because I’m going to want to see this up close and personal. It’s incredible.

Bob Tullio: So that sounds great. What advice do you give to operators to make the most out of the NAMMA show? We’ll start with strategy. Kristen?

Kristen Griffith: My advice to anyone attending the show is to make sure to download the app. As you get to the airport and you’re getting ready to come to Vegas, get the Wi-Fi on the plane and just spend a few hours mapping out what you want to do, what exhibitors you want to see, who you want to meet with, who you want to connect with.

On the app, you can also connect with individuals. So there’s another operator that you’ve been wanting to talk to. You can connect with them right over the app. I think it’s a great tool for everyone to use so they know their day-to-day, what they’ll be doing, and what they want to accomplish.

Bob Tullio: David Marler’s strategy?

David Marler: It’s Vegas. Bring cash because it costs a lot of money to get cash out of the ATM machines in Vegas.

Start at home and make a list, do a self-evaluation of your operation and identify what do I need to learn? Where do we want to improve? What am I looking for to be able to grow my business? And then once you figure the area that you want to grow, like Kirsten said, download the app, make a plan, look at the vendors, look at the products that you’re going to want to see. If you walk into that exhibit hall with no plan, you will be lost.

And it will take you until Thursday afternoon to figure out what’s going on, and by that time, the show’s almost over.

And the third thing I would suggest, do not leave until Friday. You need to stay through the entire show. Too many people leave Thursday night, and there’s so much stuff that goes on Thursday night, and Friday is a perfect day to have those in-depth conversations with the vendors because it’s not nearly as crowded as it is on Wednesday and Thursday.

Bob Tullio: Ryan, how about you, strategy?

Ryan Harrington: Preparation is key. Plan before you get there, especially if you’re a newbie to the show. It is going to be overwhelming, and you really need to have a plan and be prepared and really schedule those one-on-one sessions with the companies and vendors that you want to visit and get those lined up.

Bob Tullio: From a supplier standpoint, David, is the strategy any different?

David Marler: The biggest challenge for us is after the show. Making sure we capture the leads and we take really good notes and know exactly who needs what.

The biggest secret to success for us is follow-up and follow up quickly. Don’t wait six weeks to call somebody who said, "I’d like to talk to you about this." We get back on Saturday, you need to be on the phone talking to these people on Monday and Tuesday the following week.

Bob Tullio: Kristen, finish this sentence. The NAMA Show makes sense for operators and suppliers because what?

Kristen Griffith: It’s the one place where all of the operators and suppliers are going to be.

Bob Tullio: David Marler, same question.

David Marler: It’s kind of hard to argue with that. It is the opportunity for an operator to see everything that’s new in our industry without having to get on a plane and fly to 17 different shows to see it.

Bob Tullio: Ryan Harrington, your take.

Ryan Harrington: You know, for me personally, it’s been a place where I’ve learned and been inspired and found real connections that I’ve had all of these years to today, and it’s just really helped shape how we operate and how we’ve grown.