Gathering for Growth at the 2021 FLDC To Rekindle Franchise Development

The 2021 Franchise Leadership & Development Conference (FLDC) begins in just 2 weeks in Atlanta – live and in person!

With keynote speakers, leadership tracks, and specialty sessions designed for the best and brightest leaders in franchise development, this is the must-attend event for franchise development executives and teams looking to close out 2021 with a bang – and prepare for a successful 2022.

The FLDC has brought franchise CEOs and development professionals together for more than 20 years. The focus of this year’s annual event – Learn | Lead | Grow – will deliver both inspiration and strategies for adapting to change and seizing opportunities in a post-Covid world.

Inspiring keynote speakers!

FLDC offers two keynoters this year: Jesse Itzler, entrepreneur, author of Living with a SEAL, co-founder of Marquis Jet, and an owner of the Atlanta Hawks; and Jim Knight, business culture catalyst, former Hard Rock International executive, and author of Culture That Rocks!, who also will lead business solution roundtables during his keynote.

Network with the best!

FLDC is set up to provide multiple opportunities to network – both formally and informally – with franchise development experts and leaders. It’s a once-a-year chance to meet old friends and make new connections with your peers, as well as meet the pros on the session panels and learn from their experience.

CEO Summit!

This one-of-a-kind, all-day event brings franchising CEOs and presidents from different brands together to discuss today’s top issues and learn new and effective ideas to support brand growth. This day-long session offers an unparalleled opportunity for top franchise leaders to learn from one another in a specially designed peer-to-peer setting where they can develop new, valuable professional friendships – and gain useful strategic insights into today’s latest trends and take home new ways to build a thriving culture of growth.

Annual Franchise Development Report (AFDR)!

The AFDR provides franchisors with the ideal tool for studying their development practices, benchmarking their sales and recruitment budgets against their own industry categories, and setting goals and budgets for the year ahead. The AFDR also includes research into online recruitment practices, the growing use of mobile and social tools by prospects, and best practices by franchisors. A high-level overview of the report will be shared with the audience.

Mystery Shopping results!

Each year, attendees from franchise brands can choose to have their brands mystery shopped by a group of experts and receive the results. All brands that registered for the conference by August 16th will receive a complimentary Mystery Shopping assessment of their franchise development program.

STAR Awards presentation!

The FLDC also features the annual STAR Awards, recognizing brands for excelling in such areas as telephone lead follow-up, franchisee satisfaction, website response , franchisee recruitment websites, and more. STAR Award winners are celebrated at a Closing Dinner the last night of the conference (included in registration).

Covid’s impact on franchise development!

This general session panel of development executives will discuss the most important lessons they’ve learned from Covid: how they’ve adapted, how the pandemic accelerated changes already in progress or on the drawing board, and how they’ve improved their recruitment programs to meet the changing expectations of today’s and tomorrow’s franchisee prospects and candidates. Which changes to recruitment programs will fade as Covid does, and which will be permanent that you can (and should) incorporate into your development practices?

Content curated for the moment!

After this unexpected, unparalleled time of change and challenge, one thing is certain: what’s always been done will not produce the results that today’s franchisee prospects demand. The concurrent breakout sessions will be divided into two tracks on each day. Tuesday’s tracks are Franchisee Recruitment Marketing – Build Your 2022 Recruitment Program and Budget; and Maximize Sales Performance – Refining Sales Basics. Wednesday’s are Franchise Sales Fundamentals – Refine Sales Fundamentals; and Prepare Tomorrow's Leaders Track – Develop a Strategic Growth Mindset.

There also will be an all-day session on Fran-Guard, the IFA’s sales management and compliance program. And, of course, the annual “State of the Economy” presentation from FRANdata CEO Darrell Johnson.

The conference will wrap up on Thursday morning with a closing session: Build Your 2022 Action Plan for Success.

Supplier & sponsor solutions!

Just as Covid has changed so much about how franchise brands approach recruitment, many of these changes extend to the resources available to franchising by vendor partners sharing new products, tools, and services to help your brand thrive in a post-Covid world. Check out the Sponsors online to learn more about their products and services. Set up your meetings ahead of time – and be sure to check out the Exhibit Hall for new ideas, technologies, services, and opportunities.

Come one, come all!

Join franchising development leaders in sessions, panels, and breakout sessions and help rewrite the playbook for growth together. Grab a new notebook and pen – you’ll need it!

Join us for powerful educational sessions, networking with franchise leaders, and discovering new solutions from inspirational speakers and innovative suppliers.

Join us as we LEARN | LEAD | GROW together at the 2021 Franchise Leadership and Development Conference!