All Together Now: Franchise Conferences Mix Business with Pleasure

Phone calls, emails, text messages, newsletters, podcasts, and social media posts (both text and video) provide necessary links between franchisors and franchisees, but there’s something to be said for old-fashioned face-to-face time. Michelle Bondietti, senior vice president of operations for Sport Clips Haircuts, says franchise conferences are vital to the brand’s mission.

“The effort that goes into the planning and execution is well worth it when we think about taking a company strategy and being able to disseminate it in a way that we can effectively execute across more than 1,800 locations across the country,” she says about the Sport Clips Haircuts National Huddle. “Everyone collaborates in a way that allows everyone to walk away with synergy around what needs to happen when they go back to their stores.”

Franchise conferences bring the team together for fun and fellowship. The meetings offer a chance to renew friendships and build new ones. Keynote speakers motivate while panelists in breakout sessions get into the details of running a profitable operation. If new deals get struck, that’s even better.

Ricky Richardson, CEO of Eggs Up Grill, started his brand’s annual conference in 2018. Each event has a detailed agenda geared to affect franchisees’ bottom lines. He says content focuses on four main areas: training, sales, technology, and profitability. Franchise partners also suggest what they’d like to see at the event.

“It is not easy, but it’s pretty simple,” Richardson says. “It’s about giving the franchisees the capabilities that they need to execute at a high level.”

Teams work throughout the year to plan each conference so that franchisees, who usually pay their way to attend, get maximum value for their time. 

“Not that the work stops that much, but we effectively close the office for about three or four days so that we’re able to get this set up,” Richardson says. “It’s really important that we set that example. The experience we provide needs to meet the level of expectation in terms of professionalism, quality, fun, and energy that we would expect them to deliver to our guests in their restaurants.”

Strategy

Months before franchisees start thinking about plane tickets, car rental, and hotel rooms, the franchisor’s C-suite executives think about what messages the brand wants to impart. According to Lori Abou Habib, chief marketing officer at The Joint Chiropractic, proper planning for the Align Conference involves breaking down the silos to see what each department has to offer.

“We start with collecting ideas for a period of time and then we sharpen them,” Habib says. “I play a key role in kind of producing a straw man of what I think we should talk about, and then everyone has an opinion on their section.”

Some departments might have ideas they’re not ready to share, so planning can involve negotiating with subject matter experts about what can be released and when. It’s about having a sufficient amount of exciting news for franchisees.

“There is a little bit of how can we accelerate projects?” Habib says. “You want to deliver confidence builders, so there’s some negotiating going on about what we can use and when.”

C-level executives also get involved early at Sport Clips Haircuts. Bondietti says leadership works with the events team to shape the vision for the conference and pull content together. 

“We have our overarching strategy, and beneath that strategy, all of the departments have initiatives that support that overarching strategy,” Bondietti says. “You will typically see all of those key department heads on our main stage of the huddle.” 

As the agenda evolves, it includes topics that appeal to owners, team leaders, area developers, and stylists. Ideally, everyone who attends the event comes away with clear ideas about their part in achieving the brand’s goals. “It’s all about supporting the franchisees so that they’re able to operationally deliver,” Bondietti says.

The 2025 Papa Johns Franchisee Conference (PJFC) recently wrapped, and planning for the 2027 event started a few months ago, according to Joe Sieve, chief restaurant and global development officer for Papa Johns.

“The planning for PJFC is led by our communications and corporate affairs team,” Sieve says, “and they work closely with other departments, like operations, development, and technology, as well as our Franchisee Advisory Council to learn about the topics franchisees are most interested in learning about, the best types of sessions to explore those topics, the ways we can inspire our franchisees, and how we can celebrate their success.”

A variety of perspectives helps ensure that the agenda and programming are both fun and meaningful for franchisees of different backgrounds and experience levels.

“Our executive leadership team also leverages PJFC as a time to share with our franchisees where we are as a company and rally them around a vision of where we are headed,” Sieve says. “This year, we put a big focus on returning to the roots of what drove Papa Johns’ growth over the last 40 years: an unwavering commitment to quality.”

Richardson says the Eggs Up Grill conference is a chance to steep franchisees in the company’s culture, so they can share with their guests. Richardson says the brand “promises everything that will make you smile.”

“We call it the DNA of our brand,” he says. “What’s that emotional experience we want to provide to our team members and our guests so that they remember us well and choose to come back again and again and tell their friends? No. 1 is understanding who you are and why guests care about you, right?”

In that respect, conferences are a continuation of discovery days and everything else that happens from the time a franchisee raises a hand to become part of the brand.

“We’re always reminding ourselves, as well as our longest-tenured franchise partners, about who we are and what we are,” Richardson says. “It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been here. It’s always worth talking about and refreshing it. It’s always about our culture. It’s about activity. It’s about progress and moving forward.”

Planning

When Richardson joined Eggs Up Grill in 2018, there were 24 restaurants in the system. The company is currently at 91. That growth has created a logistics issue. The January conference used to be in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where the brand is based.

“We relocated to Greenville, which is just about 30 miles from here, because there was a space constraint issue,” Richardson says. “Our system has grown, and participation has grown, so we had to make the change.”

It takes nearly a year to plan an Eggs Up Grill conference. Planning, including picking a location, usually begins at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second.

“And then we will kick off kind of formal planning in the July and August time period,” he says.

The team that puts together the Jiffy Lube Convention and Trade Show generally works 18 months out, says Suzanne Clerkin, chief marketing officer. An event manager with nearly 20 years of experience helps ensure that the details are handled. 

“I would say the leadership team might work on what’s the key theme and flow of the agenda, and then the event planning team really helps to coordinate all the logistics of the event itself,” Clerkin says. 

The event team lines up convention space and makes sure plenty of hotel rooms and entertainment options are available. The team also coordinates with speakers and panelists, works with vendors, and sets up registration.

Jiffy Lube’s conference rotates locations. It’s been in Miami, San Diego, and Las Vegas. Some 600 people attended the event in Denver last year, and the 2026 convention and trade show is slated for the Bahamas. 

“A lot of the physical elements of the location matter, and the location itself is important because we want to make sure it’s a desirable location that’s easy to get to,” Clerkin says. “It needs to be easy for a large group of folks to get in and out. We want to make sure it’s affordable and fun.”

Attendees often plan vacation time before and after the conference. That’s an attractive option for the meeting in the Bahamas. If franchisees can’t make that gathering, Jiffy Lube conducts a variety of regional meetings that bring franchisees and their teams together with the leadership team. 

“We have meetings scheduled in different locations this year, including a San Antonio meeting coming up,” Clerkin says. “So, it’s a wide variety of different locations that mix it up and make it fun when we get together as a business and talk about our priorities.”

According to Bondietti, the first Sport Clips Haircuts National Huddle was an intimate affair on a lake in Central Texas. A small number of franchisees got plenty of time with the brand’s leadership team. Now, there are more than 1,800 Sport Clips in operation, and more than 3,000 people attend the conference each year. About 20 team members work on the event.

“In addition to them, we employ about 25 other event team members who support us externally,” Bondietti says. “Yes, it is a lot of work, but there are so many benefits that come out of it. It’s an opportunity for us to bring the stylists and the owners together to support each other, learn from each other, and celebrate accomplishments.”

Sport Clips conferences rotate locations with Louisville and Las Vegas to serve as upcoming destinations. “We’re usually locking in a location two to three years out in order for us to be able to effectively plan and get the best dates,” Bondietti says. 

It’s a team effort at The Joint Chiropractic, according to Habib. An internal creative team that usually works with franchisees shifts its focus to the Align Conference. They create signs and make recommendations about how the event should look and feel. 

“About six months out, we focus on it as a major project in earnest, and then when we get to about six weeks out, it is a full-time job,” she says. “The whole process takes about 18 months, but once you’re about six months out, you’re really focused on the content and tying everything together in a way that your audience is going to benefit. The hardest part is bringing that storyline together in the moment and making it as relevant as possible.”

The big event

After all the preparation, it’s time to get down to the matter at hand, and for a franchising conference, that means mixing business and pleasure.

“At this year’s PJFC, we wanted to bring the energy, passion, and fun,” Sieve says. “For example, in our general sessions, each leader who spoke brought his or her personality to the stage in fun ways. One speaker created a mock late-night talk show that featured several franchisees as the program’s ‘guests,’ and others brought to life their personal stories and leadership styles through costumes, videos, and music.”

Along with the entertainment, conferences provide the opportunity for like-minded people to gather together and celebrate their accomplishments. Franchise conferences highlight the best and brightest. 

“At PJFC, you’re among hundreds of owners, operators, general managers, and corporate team members who are deeply passionate about pizza,” Sieve says. “They understand that they aren’t just delivering food, but they are helping to create and share moments of joy. So, we tap into that passion with our programming. Our global pizza games, which is a competition among restaurant teams that starts at the local market level, culminate at PJFC. At PJFC, the top teams from around the world compete for cash prizes and recognition for the way they craft pizzas that meet our high brand standards with speed and accuracy.”

Papa Johns’ leadership team and third-party experts host sessions about strategic market planning, local marketing, and other enhancements. Sieve says there are also “live demonstrations on how we can ensure that every pizza that comes out of our ovens delivers on our brand’s promise.”

The conference creates opportunities for franchisors to engage with franchisees and for franchisees to share their energy and excitement with each other.

“As a former franchisee who, at the beginning of my career, felt like at times I was figuring things out on my own, I love seeing our younger, less tenured franchisees get the chance to connect live with more seasoned operators,” Sieve says. “And there are opportunities for attendees to learn in ways big and small: from being able to plan smartly for future growth down to helpful tips for managing a restaurant’s environment during very busy times, like Friday dinner rushes and game days.”

The Joint Chiropractic’s brand is well-being, so the conference includes workshops designed to educate chiropractors in new techniques. Meetings are also focused on helping staff members improve their performance. Habib says the brand’s leadership understands that franchisees are leaving behind their practices and their lives to attend the conference, so the event must be useful for them.

“There’s all of the networking and celebrating your top performers. That’s a huge part of that cultural connection,” Habib says, “and you want to keep going back to making it worth their while for being out of the clinic. That makes a big difference for sure.”

At Jiffy Lube’s conference, franchisees meet with vendors and learn about new technology. There are general sessions, where everyone gathers together, and then breakout sessions cover solutions to common problems operators face at their locations. Time is also built into the conference for franchisees to network, swap stories, and make deals.

“There might be special breakout sessions that dive into particular topics, like operations or marketing best practices,” Clerkin says. “We often bring in key speakers who might help to complement the topic at hand. The speakers can vary from celebrities, business professionals, and athletes.”

It’s a time for franchisors to communicate business priorities, but the best conferences also include plenty of listening.

“We’re able to meet closely with franchisees and get their feedback,” Clerkin says. “The executive team is involved in setting the agenda and setting the theme, and then they have priorities and things that they want to communicate there, but they also want to have time for the information to flow back to them.”

Bondietti says that this year’s Sport Clips Haircuts National Huddle will feature Jesse Cole from the Savannah Bananas. The baseball team has packed stadiums by providing fans with fun moments, including having players reenact the final dance scene from Dirty Dancing when Jennifer Grey jumps into Patrick Swayze’s arms. There’s a method to the team’s madness, and leaders at Sport Clips wouldn’t mind if some of it spread to owners, operators, and their team members. 

“He’ll be speaking around customer-service excellence and delivering that experience that creates raving fans,” Bondietti says.

In addition, the huddle will include haircut demonstrations, and vendors will demonstrate new products. There’s also a haircutting competition among stylists. Again, it’s about blending business with fun in ways that inspire franchisees and their teams to go back home prepared to take their businesses to the next level. 

“So much of it is about providing what’s in it for the franchisee and why they should go back and take these strategies and put them into action,” Bondietti says. “This provides us that opportunity to share the ‘why’ with them and get their buy-in.”

Human connection

Not too long ago, getting together with fellow franchisees was a luxury few wanted to risk. The Covid-19 pandemic sent people inside, and meetings took place over internet connections. Habib with The Joint Chiropractic says she can tell that franchisees were relieved when they could step out of the virtual world and into a real-world conference.

“They just missed it and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to be back together,” she says. “It’s that human connection.”

The brand’s first in-person Align Conference since the pandemic was in May 2024. Habib was new to the company at the time, but she picked up on the atmosphere immediately.

“It was great fun, and it was really an immersive event for me,” she said. “It’s definitely one of those things that refills everyone’s bucket and kind of gets you excited to tackle the next phase. You feel it.” 

Quintessential Conference 

Franchise conferences offer a powerful tool for building a strong, unified, and successful franchise system by combining essential business communication with the invaluable benefits of in-person connection and collaboration.

These coordinated events can bring together franchise brands and their franchisees for in-person educational opportunities, motivational speakers, and networking opportunities.

Here are the essential components when planning and executing a successful franchise conference:

• Strategic communication. Franchise conferences offer a platform for franchisors to disseminate company strategy, key initiatives, and future vision across the entire network, ensuring everyone is aligned on goals.
• Training and education. Breakout sessions and presentations focus on practical aspects of running a profitable franchise, including training, sales techniques, technology updates, and profitability strategies.
• Networking and relationship building. Opportunities are provided for franchisees, corporate staff, and vendors to connect, build new relationships, and renew existing friendships. It fosters a sense of community and shared experience.
• Motivation and inspiration. Keynote speakers and engaging presentations motivate franchisees and their teams, providing new perspectives and energy.
• Recognition and celebration. It’s a forum to highlight the achievements of top-performing franchisees, celebrating successes and building a culture of excellence.
• Feedback and two-way communication. Dedicated time is set aside for franchisors to listen to franchisee feedback, address concerns, and gather insights from those operating on the front lines.
• Vendor engagement and product demonstrations. Franchisees have opportunities to learn about new products, technologies, and services from vendors that can benefit their businesses.
• Cultural immersion. Gatherings reinforce the brand’s core values and culture, ensuring franchisees are deeply connected to the DNA of the brand.
• Logistical planning. It requires careful, often year-long planning involving location selection, securing venues and accommodations, coordinating speakers, and managing registration to ensure a professional, valuable, and enjoyable experience for attendees.
• Blending business and fun. Incorporate engaging and entertaining elements to create a memorable experience that encourages participation and strengthens the sense of community.
• Reenergizing and reconnecting. Provide a valuable in-person experience that counters the isolation of remote communication and reignites enthusiasm for the brand and the business.