Emerging Franchisor Conference Caters to Young Brands

By BRIAN DIGGELMANN Franchise executives face a host of conferences to choose from every year covering all manner of topics, but seven years ago, Cheryl Babcock knew something was missing from the conference landscape. “I would attend a lot of different events and noticed there were a lot of things for bigger franchise systems but not for the systems with under a couple hundred units,” said the former Subway owner and longtime franchise educator. “Statistics say 70 percent of franchise systems are under a couple hundred units. We thought there needed to be a conference that would address the needs of those franchisors.” Babcock, a Certified Franchise Executive and the founding director of the International Institute for Franchise Education (IIFE) at the Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University, found that systems face unique challenges and hurdles at each stage of the growth process. “There’s a real different in growing from zero to 10 units, 10 to 50, 50 to 100 and beyond one hundred,” says Babcock. “They go through changes along the way about when to bring on the next person and who that person should be.” To fill the void, Babcock and the IIFE created the Emerging Franchisor Conference. This November, Nova Southeastern University will once again welcome over 100 franchisors from around the world to the campus to network, discuss and learn. “We have speakers on legal, franchise development, franchise operations and lately some things about social media and the impact that can play on the development of businesses,” said Babcock. David Harris, a marketing specialist at the IIFE, says the real value the conference presents to attendees is a much more personal and in-depth experience than what they may be used to at larger conferences. “I think it’s a great opportunity because attendees are not going to be in an audience that has zors with anywhere from 1 to 1000 units,” Harris says. “We’re primarily geared towards emerging franchisors and our audience is limited in scope.” Harris explains that the conference is particularly beneficial to new franchisors because they have the chance to interact with fellow franchisors who have been in their shoes. “They can meet people who are in the same boat or a little bit beyond that, find out what works, what doesn’t work and spare themselves some of the growing pains.” The speaker list features a wide variety of franchisors and suppliers, including the chair of this year's conference, Scott Sutton of Safeguard Business Systems, as well as Amy Cheng and Frederic Cohen of the Cheng Cohen law firm, Mindy Golde of Listen 360 and keynote speaker John Rocthe of BELFOR Franchise Group. All are asked to think back to when their own brands were started out and tailor their remarks that way. Presentations are also held in a discussion format with plenty of time for questions. “We want it to be interactive so we keep everyone together,” says Babcock. “You really get to know the people you’re with over the couple days of the conference.” And while the focus is often on growth and development, Babcock says the conference can also be a way for companies to rule out franchising when it isn’t the right fit. “We have people come to the conference with a concept with quite a few units thinking and they’re thinking about franchising,” she says. “We want them to find out all the things they can about franchising to see if this is the business model they want to follow or if maybe they should use some other model.” Babcock says her favorite part of the conference is the Panel of the Pros portion, when attendees get to hear success stories from past participants. “We bring people from previous confines, people that have taken our methods of building strong, ethical franchise systems and have grown their own systems, to come back and share their experiences.” If you’d like to register to the 2012 Emerging Franchisor Conference, early bird pricing expires at the end of August. Sponsorship opportunities are also available at http://www.huizenga.nova.edu/ExecEd/Franchise/emerging-franchisor-conference.cfm.