Connect Education Day
Sunday, November 8, 2026 - 8:30am-2:00pm
Loews Hotel, City Beautiful Ballrooms
Kansas City, MO

Sunday, November 8, 2026

MORNING EDUCATION SESSIONS
(Grassroots Members Only)

Education Sessions & Lunch
(oPen to all retailers)

11:00am-11:50am Session A:
From Hoping to Knowing: How Causal Managers Get Consistent Results

Presented by Dan Mann, The Mann Group
Loews Hotel, City Beautiful Ballroom E

Most retail managers run on hope. They lead by example, send the group email, hang the sign in the back room — and hope the floor figures out the rest. When results are inconsistent, it's not the staff. It's that the system was never designed to produce them. In this session, Dan Mann of The Mann Group lays out the two operating philosophies every store runs on, whether it knows it or not: Hope Management and Causal Management. You'll learn the nine warning signs of a hope-driven store, the nine disciplines that replace them, and a simple, repeatable rhythm — set expectations in writing, get agreement, train, measure, follow up one-on-one — so your results stop depending on luck.

11:00am-11:50am Session B:
AI and Personal Wellness: The Human Cost

Presented by Marty Bhatia, Digital Ninja Consulting LLC
Loews Hotel, City Beautiful Ballroom C

Last June at Grassroots Connect, Marty showed retailers and brands how AI changes the velocity and magnitude of their work. This keynote finishes the sentence. That velocity sends a bill, and it comes out of the people, not the software budget. Marty names the three hidden costs of working alongside AI: the overload that builds by mid-afternoon, the skills that fade when the tool does the reps, and the creeping dependence on output we stopped checking. Then he turns to what helps: simple, practical ways to notice these costs in yourself and your team, and to build a healthier relationship with the tools. The session is just as useful for someone hesitant about AI as for someone already deep in it, and it treats caution as useful information rather than a problem to fix. Calm and free of hype, it reframes the question of the AI era, asking whether the person doing the work is still whole at the end of the day.

12:00pm-1:00pm:
Connect & Recharge: Networking Lunch
Loews Hotel, City Beautiful Ballroom E

Take a well-deserved break from the morning sessions and fuel up for the afternoon while connecting with your fellow retailers. This dedicated lunch hour is designed for meaningful networking and relationship building, the heart of what makes our Grassroots community so strong.

1:00pm-1:50pm Session C:
Human-Centric AI Policy Workshop

Presented by Marty Bhatia, Digital Ninja Consulting LLC
Loews Hotel, City Beautiful Ballroom C

Most organizations mandated AI tools and never wrote down how to protect the people using them. That gap is a leadership question, not an IT one. In this hands-on, in-person session, Marty walks retail teams through drafting their own AI policy from the ground up. You start with your values, name them out loud, and turn them into working norms: where human eyes are always required, how to pace a rollout so wellbeing comes before velocity, and what low-quality AI "workslop" looks like and how to refuse it. You leave with a real first draft, written in your own words and built around your own people. This is not legal advice, and Marty is not an attorney. It is the honest first step most organizations skip: deciding, on purpose, what relationship your organization and its people want to have with AI.

1:00pm-1:50pm Session D:
Shopper Behavior is Changing Fast:
Learn How to Use What's on Your Shelves to Win the Last Mile.

Presented by Brian Nero co-hosted by Mike Massey
Loews Hotel, City Beautiful Ballroom E

This session will explore the tools and tactics specialty stores can use to win with today’s online shoppers and AI agents. Learn how AI is driving on-demand shopping like never before, how co-op marketing can help you win e-commerce shoppers and drive them into your store, and why same-day delivery is the emerging shopping trend that tilts local shoppers back your way. We’ll also dedicate time to an open Q&A, addressing the challenges and opportunities most relevant to the Grassroots community.

Monday, November 9, 2026 12:00pm-1:00pm

Live episode of The Rock Fight. Community: The Antidote to the Apocalypse.
Presented by Colin True from The Rock Fight
KCCC 3501 Ballroom B/D

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 7:00am-7:50am

Grassroots Vendor Partner Breakfast [invitation only]
Presented by Grassroots President, Gabe Maier
KCCC 3501 Ballroom B/D

Exclusively for Grassroots Vendor Partners, this session offers a unique chance to explore our organizational direction and strategic plans. Dive into a comprehensive overview of specialty business insights, key Grassroots initiatives, and forecasts for the upcoming year. We kindly request that each Vendor Partner sends at least ONE leadership representative to ensure a thorough understanding of your Grassroots membership value and our collective direction.

Tuesday, November 10, 2026 12:00pm-1:00pm

Women’s Luncheon
PLOT TWIST! The Life-Changing Power of Pivots, Plan B’s, and Course Corrections
Presented by Tara Kuipers
KCCC 3501 Ballroom B/D

Everyone in this room has pivoted: sometimes by choice, and sometimes because life left no other option. A plan falls apart, an unforeseen opportunity emerges, a door slams shut, or a path that once made sense no longer does. In those times, the ability to change your mind, your direction, your habits, and even your brain is one of the most powerful skills we have. We’ll unearth the strengths and skills we’ve gained from previous plot twists, and grow the resilience, agility, and grit to do it again … and again … and again…