John A. Lederer
President, Loblaw Companies Ltd
"An Informal Conversation on Innovation with John Lederer and Joe Jackman"

Joe Jackman
Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, Perennial Inc.
"An Informal Conversation on Innovation with John Lederer and Joe Jackman"

Grant McCracken
Cultural Anthropologist & Author of Culture & Consumption
"Consumers and the Future of Food"

Grant McCracken holds a Ph.D. from The University of Chicago in cultural anthropology. He is the author of several books including Culture and Consumption, Big Hair, and Transformation. McCracken regularly provides insights into consumer behaviour for Canadian and American organizations including: The Coca-Cola Company, IKEA, Chrysler, Frito-Lay, Kellogg's, McDonald's, Molson Breweries, Procter and Gamble, Kraft and Kimberly Clark. He has done a great deal of ethnographic work with American consumers and is the author of a best selling book on the topic: The Long Interview (Sage).

McCracken was the founding director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School and is now a visiting scholar at McGill University. McCracken is often interviewed by the media appearing on Oprah and CBC Morningside. He's also been quoted in the New York Times, LA Times, Newsweek, Business Week, Advertising Age, Globe and Mail,and Fortune Magazine.

Rick Kemp
Executive Vice President, Executive Creative Director, J.Walter Thompson Chicago
"Why Should Beer Marketers Have All the Fun? The New Creativity in F & B Advertising"

Executive Vice President, Executive Creative Director, J.Walter Thompson Rick Kemp joined JWT Chicago in 2002 as Executive Vice President, Executive Creative Director. Previously, Kemp spent 4 years as EVP of JWT Toronto, during his tenure he oversaw some of JWT's freshest and most compelling advertising for Kraft, Pfizer, Unilever, Nestlé, and Shell, elevating the agency's creative reputation to the forefront of Canadian advertising. Kemp has a number of awards to his credit including a Cannes Lion for Halls "Golfer" commercial and a Gold at the London International Awards Show for Kraft Dinner. Creative awards include Clios, One Show, New York Art Directors Club and the Bessies of Canada.

During his 20 year career, Kemp has worked at some of the most prestigious agencies in the country including Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy and Mather, Cossette, Bryant, Fulton & Shee and Leo Burnett before joining the J.Walter Thompson group.

Don Watt
Chairman & CEO, DW + Partners
"Retail Futurescapes"

Don Watt is the master of retail design solutions. He founded Watt International, one of the largest strategic planning design firms best known for providing innovative retail solutions for clients such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Safeway, Loblaws, Ahold, Do-it-Best Corp, Nestlé, Kraft and Cott Corporation.

Early design credits include having his design chosen as the basis for the Canadian flag and contributing to the design of the Canadian Pavilion at Expo '67. Watt was recognized by the Harvard Business School for developing a firm that created unconventional solutions to classic profit-improvement problems, using strategic design to effect change in consumer response

Don's latest venture is DW + Partners; a fund committed to acquiring and managing specialist assets in the area of branding, product development and packaging, retail design, communications and technology innovation in support of the consumer experience at retail.

Andy Macaulay
Founding Partner, Zig
Day 1 Chairperson

John F.T. Scott
President, CFIG The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers
Day 2 Chairperson