Tech Support: Second Summit Targets Retail, Talent, Innovation

Bill Akins has a unique and generational link to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. His father, Bill Akins Sr., was a career representative for Gallo wines, and in the 1970s, placed his product on Walmart’s shelves.

But before he did, he had to go to Bentonville and eat breakfast in the home of a fairly important person — Walmart founder Sam Walton. Though Bill Akins Sr. did not buy $10,000 in Walmart stock, as Walton hoped he would, the wine deal was sealed right there at the kitchen table.

While Akins said he and his father joke about the missed stock opportunity, Akins, like his father, didn’t miss out on Walmart. As a senior vice president of business innovation at Rockfish in Rogers, a leading digital innovation company, Akins works with some of Walmart’s biggest brands. And with 20 years in the consumer packaged goods industry, Akins is an expert in Digital Shelf Optimization, and SoLoMo, an acronym for Social, Local and Mobile.

A 1996 graduate of California State University, Akins was aware of a young Jeff Bezos making his move out West with Amazon.com, and worked in field sales for Apple Computers in the northern San Francisco territory. By then, Walmart, a touchstone in his dad’s career, was a household name as it had already made its unprecedented expansion through the 1980s.

So by an early age, Akins bore the imprint of the two things that now stoke his passion — digital technology and retail. Though he can talk at length about data mining and its role in the evolving world of consumer packaged goods, he can also boil the conversation down to its most basic soundbite: “All roads lead to Bentonville.”

With a mantra like that, it should come as no surprise that Akins is chairman of the Northwest Arkansas Tech Council, an association of over 300 individuals, small and large companies that meet monthly for discussion, education and networking over technology and its application to web design, systems engineering, staffing, programming and coding, marketing, and many others besides. 

Founded in 2014 through the Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, the tech council is hosting its second NWA Technology Summit on Nov. 10 at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center in Rogers. The summit, Akins said, and the council in general, come at a transformative time not only for Walmart, but for all of retail.

Having recently been eclipsed in total market value by online colossus Amazon, Walmart has made it a priority to reassert itself by trying to become the world leader in e-commerce.

As the struggle for e-commerce primacy continues, there will be widespread ramifications not only for Walmart, but for the 1,200 vendors who serve the retailer, and for the companies that in turn serve the vendors.

“Consumer packaged goods are at a turning point,” Akins said.

But for Akins, Walmart and Northwest Arkansas are poised to not only survive the latest market challenge, but to thrive. The brain trust in this region is substantial, and the mix of corporate can-do, vendors, startups and entrepreneurs, many with a retail or supply chain focus, has created a dynamic nucleus of talent that could one day morph into a true national tech hub.

“We have the most unique model in the world,” Akins said.

Keynote Speaker

A big part of the equation, of course, is the tech council and its annual event, the summit. This year, at least 500 people are expected to attend. The breakout sessions, when speakers interact directly with attendees, are in five categories: developer/technologist; retail/supplier; corporate/enterprise; business solutions; and personnel.

The keynote speaker is Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobile & Business Solutions. He is joined by more than 30 speakers that include Jacqui Canney, executive vice president of Walmart’s Global People Division; and The New York Times best-selling author and business consultant Louis Patler.

Scott Canon, a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Scott Richert, vice president for Enterprise Infrastructure Services for Mercy health systems, which serves Northwest Arkansas, are also on the slate.

With Arkansas Children’s Hospital coming to Springdale, and the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine at Chaffee Crossing coming to Fort Smith, Akins said it was important to include health care representatives in this year’s panel.

Tip of the Iceberg

Also speaking at the summit are teenagers Nauman Malik and Kyle Jiang, winners of last year’s Biz+Ed Competition, a local “hackathon” hosted by the tech council. The Fayetteville team won with their idea for an app for Meals on Wheels.

In addition to Malik and Jiang, 70 local students are on scholarship to attend the summit all day, and another 200 local students will attend sessions after lunch.

For Jon Cadieux, the founder of the tech council, seeing Malik and Jiang as featured speakers, and knowing that nearly 300 students will attend the event, drives to the heart of what the tech council is trying to do — educate professionals and nurture emerging talent.

“This ties into the whole technology movement here in Northwest Arkansas,” Cadieux said, referencing the Ignite program in Bentonville schools, which places students in real-life work environments across a range of disciplines, including technology.

The local movement Cadieux speaks of is in the process of expansion, too. The School of Innovation in Springdale is under construction, the Walton Family Foundation has announced plans for a science and math academy in Bentonville, and the Leverett School of Innovation in Fayetteville, and the New Technology High School in Rogers, are already up and running.

Cadieux, managing director for 455 Media Group, which executes digital marketing for small companies, arrived in Northwest Arkansas from California six years ago. Knowing next to no one, he made networking a top priority.

Over time, he created a long list of premium contacts, so when it came time to form the tech council’s steering committee — and to lobby the Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce for acceptance — Cadieux was well positioned.

He conceived of the tech council, among other things, as a meeting ground for people looking to reinvent their careers after Walmart, for businesses looking for a competitive edge, or for startups seeking collegiality and expertise.

Participants gather at the chamber on the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30 a.m. Meetings can attract as many as 50 people. The October meeting, titled Small Panel About Big Data, featured three local “data junkies,” — Casey Kinsey of Lofty Labs LLC, Sloan Ahrens of Ahrens Software and Brian Sage of Qbox.io.

“My intention was to get it going, get legs beneath it and let it manage itself,” Cadieux said. “I did my part. I got it started.”

Having also lived in Florida and Colorado, Cadieux is familiar with the national scene, and in his opinion, Northwest Arkansas — with its affordable housing, cluster of Fortune 500 companies, central location, and exposure through Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art — is poised for a strong future.

Even with all the tech talent that’s already here, it’s at some point in the future when the tech community in Northwest Arkansas will eventually come into its own. 

“I don’t think it’s hit critical mass,” Cadieux said. “I still think it’s just the tip of the iceberg.”