CSP’s Convenience Retailing University kicks off on Tuesday in Austin, Texas. | Jonathan Mouer
CSP’s 2026 Convenience Retailing University kicked off Tuesday in Austin, Texas. The annual event focuses on education for convenience-store category managers.
Retailers, industry experts and suppliers gathered for three days of education, networking and one-on-one meetings. Day one featured talks from speakers including Art Sebastian (pictured above), chairman of the C-StoreTEC Advisory Board and founder and CEO of NexChapter; Donna Hood Crecca, senior principal of CSP’s sister research firm Technomic; and Kevin Paul Scott, author, leadership expert and co-founder of ADDO.
The three shared the challenges, and opportunities, those in the c-store industry face, from embracing agentic artificial intelligence (AI) to improving the quality of food to motivating teams whose jobs and workloads are always changing.
Wednesday night, CSP’s 2026 Category Managers of the Year winners will be named. See the full list of finalists here.
Other event highlights include:
During Wednesday’s general session, attendees will hear from Kevin Smartt, CEO of Spicewood, Texas-based TXB, on how it built its brand by treating the convenience store as more than a transaction, placing community, hospitality and execution at the center of the experience. Al Harrington, former NBA player and CEO of cannabis brand Viola, will also take the stage Wednesday for the keynote address. On Thursday, John Pszeniczny, director of operations at Worcester, Massachusetts-based Nouria, will wrap up the event. He’ll share how the chain has grown over the past couple of years with the acquisition of Savannah-based Enmarket.
Click here to learn more about attending CRU.
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