Policy, Relief and Rules Related to COVID-19: This Year’s IFA is a Must Attend Event

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By: Charles Watson, CFE, CEO, Tropical Smoothie Cafe

This is the first time the industry has gotten together since the pandemic hit, and we’ve all got stories to tell. IFA 2021 is where the franchise industry will speak up about different experiences related to labor change-ups, emergency loan applications and maintaining stability in a lot of chaos. 

IFA 2021 is the only place you hear from key stakeholders in franchising and the administration — the people developing policy and making headlines related to COVID-19. 

The COVID-19 Track at IFA 2021 offers you insight you can’t get anywhere else: 

  • Testing, Vaccine, Now What?
  • COVID Relief Tax Impacts
  • Labor Implications in the New Political Landscape
  • All Things PPP

Get the Answers You Need Related to COVID-19 

General Session: GR & Policy Response to COVID-19

At the outset of a new Administration and new Congress, IFA is bringing you information straight from a bipartisan group of Senators, Governors, and the new White House to help your business take advantage of COVID relief opportunities and know what’s coming next. In this session, you’ll hear straight from the source about potential relief bills, a vaccine timeline, and other major developments that could affect how you operate.

General Session: The Power of Adaptability: Stories from Brands Who Successfully Navigated Change During COVID-19

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished. Ben Franklin’s quote resonates now more than ever. Franchise brands that adapt and are creative in their approach are the ones that are most often successful. If 2020 taught those of us anything, it is that change is constant and will always be rapid. Many franchise brands were able to adapt successfully to the circumstances brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their response was born out of the need to succeed and grow in the most challenging economic environment of our lifetime and could only be achieved by the franchisor and franchisee coming together. Join CEOs and franchisees from leading brands to learn how they recognized the immediate needs and changes that had to be made, what tactics they employed, how quickly they were able to hit the ground running, what lessons they learned along the way, and what were the results. Are accelerated trends like ghost kitchens here to stay? What’s on the horizon?

General Session: Stories of Survival: War Stories from Franchisors Deep in the Trenches of the Pandemic’s Impact

Many sectors of the franchising community were extremely hard hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic challenges while others found their sales on the rise. Join us for this candid Q&A session with three franchisor brand CEOs who have faced daunting times with unforeseen shutdowns, shifts in consumer confidence and new safety protocols limiting business operations throughout the system. How have they led through these adverse times? What has been the impact on their brand? How have they supported their franchisees? What was the hardest point of the pandemic for their brand? What tactics are they employing to continue to survive and grind it out? As we begin 2021, what do they see as the outlook for their business? Amidst challenges, there is opportunity, hope and the ability to ignite a fire to continue forward. Join our panel as they share their inspiring war stories and leadership tactics.

This year’s Collaborative Roundtable Discussion Rooms and Problem-Solving Small Sessions will also feature many COVID-19 hot topics.

Special COVID-19 Session for Franchisees 

Franchisees, sit in on this special Labor and Workplace Compliance Track, Developed by Littler Mendelson, featuring critically important content added to deliver value only from IFA: 

  • Wage and Hour & Paid Leave Changes in 2021
  • New EEOC Regulations (including vaccine implications)
  • OSHA regulations and Workplace Safety
  • How to Develop an Employee Handbook in a COVID Environment

Register now for live and on-demand access to all the industry information you need for 2021. Don’t wait — prices go up Jan 22.

 

 

 

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