Three Days of Education: The California Restaurant Show Conference Program

Most trade show education programs are a courtesy. A few panels tucked behind a curtain, half-attended, scheduled against the busiest hours on the floor. The California Restaurant Show has gone the other direction. When the show opens at the Anaheim Convention Center on Sunday, August 23, 2026, it will carry a conference program of roughly fifty sessions across three days - profitability mechanics, leadership, marketing, artificial intelligence, food safety, menu systems and legal guidance - and nearly all of it is included with a show badge.

Produced by Restaurant Events LLC in partnership with the California Restaurant Association, the show runs August 23–25 at 800 W. Katella Avenue. Sunday and Monday run 10am to 5pm; Tuesday closes at 4pm. Badge pickup opens at 8:30am each morning, which matters more than it sounds - several of the strongest sessions land in the first hour the halls are open.

The trade press has put the program at more than 40 hours of complimentary educational content spanning operations, marketing, technology, workforce development and food and beverage trends. The California Restaurant Association describes its aim as “gold-standard, industry-leading educational content that is practical and relevant for today’s foodservice professional.” The agenda backs that up.

How the program is laid out

The sessions run in four rooms, and understanding the geography is the first step to using the program well.

Educational Theater 1001 and Educational Theater 1055 sit on the show floor and run parallel tracks in 45-minute blocks from 11am through the late afternoon. These are the core sessions, free with any badge, and they run two at a time - meaning the real planning problem is choosing between them.

Culinary Innovation Theater is the demonstration stage. Chefs cook, and the sessions are built around technique and product rather than slides.

Workshop Room 201A hosts the long-form intensives - half-day and full-day formats that go deeper than a 45-minute theater slot allows. These are the show’s ticketed content; the $179 Full Experience Pass bundles all three workshops together with exhibits, education, demonstrations and tastings.

The profitability track

If there is a spine to the 2026 program, it is unit economics.

David Scott Peters anchors it twice. On Sunday he runs the full-day workshop Restaurant Transformation Formula: The Systems That Turn Chaos into Profit in Room 201A, 9am to 5pm - a complete day before the theater sessions even begin. On Monday at noon he takes Theater 1001 with Your Restaurant is NOT Average, So Stop Using a National Average Food Cost to Run Your Restaurant, which is a thesis as much as a title.

Douglas Marschke opens Tuesday at 11am in Theater 1001 with Five Simple Ways to Increase Restaurant Profitability Without Increasing Sales. Adam Smith and Rodney Wead take Sunday at 1pm with Stop Overpaying on Your Non-Food & Non-Labor Expenses. Al Kanbar presents Restaurant Rescue Strategy Tuesday at noon.

Two sessions address the deal side of the business. Dale Willerton of The Lease Coach presents Leasing Restaurant Space: Negotiate to Win on Monday at 2pm. Michael Wedaa closes Monday at 4pm with Corporations & LLCs: Secret Strategies for Restauranteurs.

Larien Clark and Langston Tolbert connect the two halves on Sunday at 4pm with Menu Development as a System: Driving ROI Beyond Food Cost - menu engineering treated as an operating discipline rather than a creative exercise.

Leadership and workforce development

The workforce track is unusually well developed for a regional show, and it is organized as a genuine progression.

Alison Anne opens Monday at 11am with How Do I Get Everyone to Care As Much As I Do?: The Keys to Effective (and Fun!) Leadership. She and Darren Denington - founder of Service with Style - then co-lead the two management intensives: Restaurant Management 201: Foundation Track Monday 12:30 to 4pm, and Restaurant Management 301: Growth Track Tuesday 12:30 to 4pm, both in Room 201A. Operators building a multi-year development path for a rising manager can send someone to both.

Around that core: Homan Taghdiri presents This Is a Job, Not a Gig - Building Your Culture Sunday at 2pm. Tyrell Reed closes Sunday with Lead the Shift: Developing New Managers Into Confident Leaders. Danny O’Malley offers The Grey Zone Advantage in Restaurants: Stress Less, Lead More Sunday at noon. Tuni Chatterji closes the education program Tuesday at 2pm with Hospitality is an Art: How to define, develop and preserve it at work.

Technology, AI and marketing

The technology track has moved past general enthusiasm into specifics.

Sunday at 3pm, a four-person panel - Brad Hofman, Brian Pearson, Kasper Hsu and Jon Clemens - presents The New Agentic Hospitality OS: How Restaurant Leaders Are Using AI to Drive Revenue & Efficiency. Tuesday at noon, Mike Bausch offers the counterweight in Restaurant Efficiency with AI Office Muscle and Analog Kitchen Grit, which distinguishes between what belongs on a screen and what belongs on a line.

On marketing, Shawn Walchef presents Be the Show: How Restaurants Win With Content & Influence Monday at 2pm. Alexis Quintal opens Sunday at 11am with Lead With Identity: Turn Your Personal Brand Into Restaurant Growth. Darren Denington covers the demand-generation fundamentals Sunday at 1pm in Marketing, Promotions, Specials, Events & Catering - Let’s Drive Sales!

Mary McVoy has one of the most forward-looking sessions on the schedule, Sunday at 11am: When Guests Eat Less: The GLP-1 Trend Reshaping Menus, Margins & Behavior - portion strategy and menu design for a changing appetite profile.

Compliance, expertise and the CRA’s contribution

The California Restaurant Association brings its legal bench directly to the floor. CRA Legal Center Live runs Monday at 11am in Theater 1055 with attorneys from Fisher Phillips, Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard, and Berliner Cohen LLP - a rare chance to put questions to specialist counsel at no cost.

Tuesday at 11am, John Slattery, Seth Cohen and Dylan McDonnell present California’s New Food Allergy Rules: Compliance, Risk & Readiness. Todd Frantz covers The Future of Food Safety and Its Impact on Restaurants Monday at 4pm. Larry Oxenham presents Cook Up Financial Security Sunday at 3pm.

The Culinary Innovation Theater

The Culinary Innovation Theater runs its own program. Tyler Florence headlines Monday at 1pm with a fireside chat and a steak frites demonstration. Chef Nelson German cooks Sunday at noon; Chef Stephanie Yee at 2pm the same day; Chef Shawn Osbey presents a Southern nigiri demonstration Tuesday at 11am. Sunday at 3pm brings a yellowfin tuna carving demonstration.

The most ambitious slot belongs to UNOX. Sherry Yard and Chef Sherief Shawky present Elevating Culinary Performance Monday at noon, then return at 3pm with Carl Fiadini and Sean “Pooch” Rivera for The Competition of Future Kitchen Performance powered by UNOX, a two-hour live event running to close of floor. Brian Connors of Connors Davis Hospitality closes the theater Tuesday at 1pm with A Year in a Glass: How the Seasons Shape Food, Wine & Flavor.

Building a three-day schedule

The program rewards planning, because the two theaters compete directly.

Sunday is the deepest day for owners. Either commit the full day to the Peters workshop in 201A, or run the theaters: Quintal or McVoy at 11am, Denington’s legacy-restaurant owner panel at noon with Troy Hooper, Raul Gonzalez and Ian McCall, then Leith Steel and Andrew Freeman on Hospitality 2026: Trends, Insights, and Strategies to Drive Business at 2pm, the agentic AI panel at 3pm, and menu systems at 4pm.

Monday is the marquee day. CRA Legal Center Live at 11am, then a choice at noon between Peters on food cost and Flavor, Culture & Capital: Business Lessons from Latino Food Industry with Lupillo Ramirez and Jacob Monty, which runs long at 90 minutes. Tyler Florence at 1pm. Willerton or Walchef at 2pm. At 3pm, the catering panel moderated by Sara Perez Webber of CFE News with Joann Roth-Oseary, John Crisafulli and Charlie Schaffer is the strongest option for anyone with off-premise ambitions.

Tuesday is the shortest day and the best one for a manager sent to learn. Marschke at 11am, then Restaurant Management 301 from 12:30, with Chatterji at 2pm as an alternative closer.

Bringing two people doubles the coverage. Bringing three covers nearly everything worth covering.

Sources

• California Restaurant Show - 2026 Education Program
• California Restaurant Show - Show Information
• California Restaurant Show - Registration Information
• California Restaurant Show - Official Site
• PMQ Pizza - California Restaurant Show Hosts California Pizza Challenge While Expanding Education Program
• California Restaurant Association - California Restaurant Show

Research verified August 8, 2026. Schedules, exhibitors, speakers, prices and access details may change; confirm current information with the organizer before attending.