Chick-fil-A chief Cathy fires up restaurant group

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Chicago --- Many of Atlanta's top restaurant companies, along with product suppliers like Coca-Cola and Georgia-Pacific, are in the Windy City to wheel and deal and figure out how you'll dine tomorrow.

The National Restaurant Association's annual show brings in thousands to talk shop, demonstrate new products, sell franchises and conduct business that might take months outside such a forum.

The convention, which drew about 75,000 people, concludes today when the final panel discussions are held and booths that covered the north and south halls of McCormick Place, the nation's largest convention center, are taken down.

A highlight was a Monday keynote by Truett Cathy, founder of Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A. He told NRA members that the key to creating a successful brand starts with treating employees with respect. If the staff feels valued, they'll work harder to help the company drive profitability, he added.

"You know how you tell if people need encouragement? They're breathing," Cathy told an audience at the second annual Spirit Awards, which recognize the best employment practices in the food business.

The convention is so big that even President Bush dropped in to deliver a speech Monday.

Georgia companies came for a variety of reasons, from driving new business to supporting ties with suppliers to looking for new trends.

"I came here knowing this would be a tsunami of business," said Stan Friedman, an executive vice president of Wing Zone, which was trying to sign up new franchisees. "We are at a stage now where we are comfortable with our business model and are ready to build our business exponentially, and this is the best place to start."

Coke used the opportunity to demonstrate how well its products could be used with everything from coffee, with its new Coke Blak, to mixed drinks. The Coke booth, one of the biggest, was constantly crowded with people sampling noncarbonated products like Odwalla juice and "after 3 p.m." specialty beverages --- i.e., Coke and alcohol.

"Most of these folks already have a Coke representative at home, so it's not about signing new people up," said Ben Middleton, trade communications manager for the company. "It's about the ideas that they get here and can carry home and see how they fit in their business."

Still others worked the floor to see what trends they need to keep an eye on.

"It's to check out what industry trends are going on as well as business reasons, meeting with suppliers and looking at new products, as well as networking," said Kathy Siefert, a spokeswoman for fast-food chain Arby's.

Cathy, who celebrates 60 years in the business this month, was characteristically witty and folksy during his morning address. Recalling his beginnings during the Depression as a newspaper carrier and selling six bottles of Coke for a quarter, Cathy said tough times made him the entrepreneur he became.

"When I was a kid, about the only thing I remember I had to play with was a loose tooth. And it wasn't mine. It was my brother's," he said as the room erupted in laughter.

"I lived in times of poverty and I've lived in a time of plenty," he said. "I prefer the time of plenty."