What probably does not come up when you’re sending your boss the budget request to attend that conference in Copenhagen is that what you most hope to get out of the conference is a job somewhere else. But lanyards can make excellent lassos, and in a surprisingly candid panel at the recent Lead Summit conference in New York, retail executives discussed how connections made at industry gatherings have helped lift them out of some grim professional circumstances.

“This is obviously a slightly different panel than normal,” moderator Dominick Miserandino, CEO of Retail Tech Media Nexus, said at the beginning of the packed session. “We’re not discussing sales numbers…We’re coming to the reality that people, believe it or not, sometimes go to conferences to find a new role.”

And so began a panel free of buzzwords—not a single “AI” or “omnichannel” was uttered once over the next 30 minutes—where panelists sounded not like their LinkedIn profiles but rather very much like themselves.

“What’s important with networking is just recognizing that we’re all humans, and it’s about building relationships and getting to know people,” said Elizabeth Drori, CMO of shoe brand Kizik. Instead of just scanning one another’s badges, she extolled the virtues of schmoozing and asking ice-breaking questions: “Who are you? What did you take away from that event? What are you choosing for lunch?” (Andy. This article. The kale caesar salad.)

Keep reading here.—AAN

At a campaign event where tables were festooned with groceries last August, then-candidate President Trump said if elected, he would “immediately bring prices down, starting on Day 1.” But almost 150 days into his second term, menu prices are up over last year, according to new data from Toast.

It will come as no surprise that avian flu-related increases in egg prices have driven up the price of omelets, with the median price on restaurant menus for April is $14.71, up 5.4% YoY. But the price of coffee you wash down those eggs with is up too, with the median price of a nothing-fancy regular cup up 5.1% YoY in May, to $3.50.

Moving beyond breakfast (one hopes), the median price for a beer was up 2.7% YoY in May, to $6.44.

Other menu item YoY median price increases in May, per Toast:

• Cold brew coffee up 4%, to $5.40.
• Burgers up 3.2%, to $14.38.
• Burritos also rose 3.2%, to $13.38.
• Chicken wings up 3.3%, to $13.77.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Poppi wants to be “culture’s favorite soda.” To do that, the 7-year-old prebiotic soda brand has pushed itself hard on college campuses and social media, further aided by hefty DTC partnerships with platforms like Amazon, and of course, Super Bowl commercials. And while it may take some time to accomplish, PepsiCo clearly also sees its potential.

In March, the OG soda brand for the new generation just bought Poppi for an eye-popping $1.95 billion off the backs of the gut-healthy drink’s marketing-led sales strategy, as outlined by its chief growth and marketing officers, Jeff Rubenstein and Andy Judd, who have identified and executed on these opportunities. Quickly.

“The ability to have a sales and marketing team that can move with that speed has opened up so many opportunities at every customer,” Judd said when explaining how the company can work with large companies like Walmart, while still breaking through with new customers.

With annual sales north of $500 million, up 38x from 2020, Poppi’s 34% market share in the booming functional sodas category is a sign its tactics are working.

Keep reading here on Revenue Brew.—BS