Technology
6 cool things on the NRA show floor
The National Restaurant Association Show featured a wide variety of food, education and technology. Here are a few of the coolest tech products we found on the show floor.
May 23, 2025 by Mandy Wolf Detwiler — Editor, Networld Media Group
The National Restaurant Association Show brought together more than 53,000 food service professionals in Chicago. The show, which included more than 715,000 square feet of exhibit space, featured food, technology, foodservice products and educational opportunities.
"The energy and engagement we saw throughout the show reflected the industry's remarkable adaptability and forward-looking spirit," Tom Cindric, president of exhibitions for Informa Connect Foodservice Group, said in a press release about the show. "This year's Show delivered exactly what operators need in today's uncertain market — tangible solutions to current challenges and a clear vision of opportunities ahead."
The show floor spanned more than 12 football fields of exhibit space. I took the opportunity to stop by several booths to learn more about the products being offered at this year's show.
Going mobile
Jay Shavitz, SVP and head of Skytab, was showing off the brand's new handheld POS system. While competing pieces require wifi, Skytab's handheld has built-in cellular, so even working a festival in a field allows a server to take an order remotely.
Skytab is in tens of thousands of restaurants in the U.S. and it has expanded recently into Canada and the U.K.
"It's taken all the best of what we have with our net core POS and packaged it in our handheld," Shavitz said. "And there are other handheld POSes on the market, but where most of them require a wifi network, we have built-in cellular. … If there's any type of phone coverage, I can use this device to process payments."
For those running a restaurant, it takes care of employees clocking in and out and order taking as well.
"Basically, it is just everything that we do in the palm of our hand," Shavitz added. "We're really positioning ourselves as a mobile-first point-of-sale system."
Advertising tools
Toast, a POS brand chose by many operators, was showing off its ToastIQ, an advertising platform that is built natively into Toast's end-to-end platform. According to a press release about the launch, ToastIQ draws on insights from millions of transactions and interactions across its more than 130,000 locations nationwide fuses Toast's deep hospitality expertise and integrated platform with AI, historical patterns and proprietary insights.
The results are menu upsells, shifts at a glance, digital and AI-powered marketing assistants and advertising.
"Advertising can be really overwhelming for operators," said Sarah Palfrey, product marketing manager for Toast. "Restaurant operators are using real money, so you want to make sure that the money you're putting in is generating real returns and that's what Toast Advertising does."
It allows customers to post campaigns in Google and Meta directly from Toast without leaving the platform, Palfrey said. It uses Toast's massive data draw capabilities to create advertising campaigns. Toast uses its data that it already has available from the restaurant and calculates it altogether that it has gathered without needing to leave the program.
That program is customizable, for instance, to run on days when sales are slow or on weekends when you want to increase catering sales. The operator can also generate keywords.
"We're helping our customers show up where guests are actively searching for them in their day to day," Palfrey added. "This is on Google Search and Google Maps. Then I'm able to add my daily budget."
The goal of Toast is to make sure operators can quantify their advertising spending so they can see how much they're spending and if it is working. "We're offering them insights that they can't easily get anywhere else based on the fact that Toast is a massive eco system of different products," Palfrey said.
Moving faster
Elo, a global solutions provider, showed off the launch of its I-Series 5 platform for kiosks and POS systems. According to a press release, the new platform features Android 14 OS, the Qualcomm QCS6490 processor and Wi-Fi 6E, delivering up to 2.5 times faster CPU performance, 4 times greater graphics throughput, 10 times enhanced AI processing and improved power efficiency for long-term reliability.
It's a space-saving solution, said Jimmy Ty, a solutions architect for Elo.
"This would be a good option because you have the computer built into the screen," Ty explained, "and the screen itself if touchscreen. That satisfies the hardware component."
Eloview provides a remote solution to deploy content to your hardware. If you have a food menu or ads, or POS software, it helps you set up your software annually and pushes out that software to multiple locations, i.e. franchising.
Screens go from seven to 65 inches, with 15-inch to 27-inch monitors being the most popular.
"There's a lot of software partners out there, and sometimes they have expertise in building a software that works well with Windows, or they are experts on building software on Android," Ty said. "We have an iSeries in all those kinds of options. We've got an Intel-based motherboard that supports Windows, or you can get a motherboard that runs Android."
Marketing done right
At the NCR Voyix booth, the brand was showcasing its Aloha Consumer Marketing, an all-in-one loyalty and programming platform that uses AI and machine learning.
Lindsay Petrovic, corporate VP of product management for restaurants, said if you have a loyalty program in your restaurant, you want to reward your customers, especially for repeat business.
"You want to understand of those active loyalty members, which ones might be at risk of lose them because you're reporting that they were coming in three times a week, but they haven't come in in two weeks," Petrovic said. "Think of it as 'set it and forget it' campaigns that automatically do personalization."
The program sends texts or emails to encourage customers who haven't been in in a while to return.
"You don't want your guest to turn into a churned guest," Petrovic said, adding that churned guests stop coming in. Enticing those customers to come back is paramount because you already know what they've been ordering and what they enjoy eating.
The program also predicts who's going to be at risk so that you can reach those customers before you lose them.
"Getting the marketing message in front of them – by setting it and forgetting it – the AI-powered capabilities solutions just do it automatically," Petrovic said.
What's in a name?
Labeling is big business in the restaurant world. Star Micronics showed off their all-in-one media printer that will launch at the end of July. Christophe Naasz, global business development director for Star Micronics, said the printer uses all media – die cut linered labels, linerless labels and receipt tickets.
"The same printer can do it all," Naasz said. "It can print prep labels, it can print order labels, identification labels … it can print every single need in the restaurant."
It will revolutionize the kitchen because depending on which application you want to use the printer for, it can do it, Naasz said, adding that it's the only printer on the market with multiple functionalities.
The printer is also splash proof, an important feature in the kitchen, and small, so it doesn't take up much space. The printer can also be cloud-connected.
Getting verified
Kraft Heinz was showing off Heinz Verified, a loyalty program which also has marketing investment, reports on trends, menu assistance and more.
Peter Hall, president of North American Taste Elevation and Home Away from Home for Heinz, said restaurant operators are going out of business at an accelerated rate and their job is "to make sure we're giving operators all the tools they need to survive and thrive in a competitive field," Hall added.
Rachel Gorby, associate brand manager, said the loyalty program is for restaurant owners, including both chains and independents.
"Essentially, the more products you purchase from us, the deeper the discounts (and) the better benefits we can give you," Gorby said, such a sending a local influencer to your restaurant to drive traffic.
Heinz Verified is currently running a special with Uber Eats that is $5 off $30 or more strictly for Heinz Verified operators.
Through the insights team at Kraft Heinz, data will be uploaded to be used by Kraft Heinz members, and Kraft Heinz also offers monthly sampling of a product it is featuring.
About Mandy Wolf Detwiler
Mandy Wolf Detwiler is the managing editor at Networld Media Group and the site editor for PizzaMarketplace.com and QSRweb.com. She has more than 20 years’ experience covering food, people and places.
An award-winning print journalist, Mandy brings more than 20 years’ experience to Networld Media Group. She has spent nearly two decades covering the pizza industry, from independent pizzerias to multi-unit chains and every size business in between. Mandy has been featured on the Food Network and has won numerous awards for her coverage of the restaurant industry. She has an insatiable appetite for learning, and can tell you where to find the best slices in the country after spending 15 years traveling and eating pizza for a living.
Included In This Story
Kraft Heinz
Heinz Verified is a Kraft Heinz initiative designed to help independent operators grow their business. More than a quality seal, it’s a marketing platform and partnership that drives traffic, builds loyalty, and elevates the dining experience—proving that proudly serving Heinz isn’t just a choice, it’s a competitive advantage.
Star Micronics
Always Leading, Always Innovating
Star Micronics, a world-leading POS and labeling solutions provider, has designated a portfolio of printing, secure cash management, and customer engagement tools for any retail and hospitality establishment with a POS or mPOS environment.
SkyTab
Revel Systems is an open cloud order management platform at the heart of our clients’ business. Through flexible architecture and open API, Revel ensures brands have the freedom they need to design a full tech stack that meets their needs, enabling them to provide an unmatched customer experience, diversify revenue streams, and scale with ease.
