On the weekend of July 12-14, 2024, our team at GK Software had the pleasure of co-sponsoring the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend in Des Moines, IA for the third year in a row.
A leading retail chain with almost 300 supermarket locations and another 200 convenience stores in many Midwestern states, Hy-Vee has been a valued customer and partner of ours for over six years. The grocer employs GK’s OmnichannelPOS, Transaction+ Payments and GK Drive solutions in the store and at the pump, and it has expertly created a seamless and cohesive customer journey for shoppers at every touchpoint. Needless to say, we have enjoyed our partnership immensely!
Taking part in the race weekend festivities is certainly a highlight of our Hy-Vee partnership, as we also spent the weekend with an innovative set of our treasured customers and partners. This year, similar to years past, we were glad to educate one another on retail technology and expand not only our GK community, but also our customers’ communities.
All that being said, let’s recap the weekend.
We enjoyed the races and concerts, including Post Malone
The INDYCAR Race Weekend is characterized by its two races at Iowa Speedway and surrounded by first-class entertainment. We were proud to offer special accommodations to our visitors for the entire event.
The first race, the Hy-Vee Homefront 250, took place on Saturday, and we loved watching Scott McLaughlin claim the victory. We also enjoyed the second race on Sunday, the Hy-Vee One Step 250, in which Will Power took home the title of victor. They were both competitive races and incredibly entertaining.
We not only enjoyed attending the races with our visitors, but we also enjoyed concerts from popular artists including Luke Combs, Eric Church, Kelsea Ballerini and Post Malone. It was a joy to watch and listen to some of our team’s – and our visitors’ – favorite songs live!
We both learned from and educated our partners on the shopper experience
While the races and concerts were fun, the weekend was first about education.
A major highlight of the event was hosting workshops and presentations with customers and partners to talk about GK solutions and best practices in retail engagement. Attendees discussed the different ways and solutions they’ve leveraged to best enhance the shopper experience – especially within fuel and convenience. We were thrilled to hear folks remark about how it’s unusual for IT leaders to have an opportunity to interact with one another and widen their interpersonal networks. The intimate conversations we facilitated are expected to inspire new ideas for delivering customer engagement.
Along with the workshops and presentations, we took tours of four nearby stores – three of those being Hy-Vee stores – that allowed participants to see firsthand the workings of GK’s solutions.
Looking forward to next year’s INDYCAR Race!
While we were proud to attend the race weekend, we are even prouder to create space where our community can engage in discussion, learn and grow from one another. We are excited to continue to uplift and support our partners that are working with us to innovate with our retail customers. We’re already counting down the days until next year’s INDYCAR Race Weekend, will you be joining us?
Contact us today to learn more about GK’s solutions and ways to get involved.
