Case Study: Consumer Electronics Show

Picnic’s Pizza Robot Helps Centerplate Steal the Show

Known as the ‘global stage for innovation’ Picnic had a lot to prove going into the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. With CES attracting over 175,000 attendees, Picnic’s client Centerplate had a lot of mouths to feed.

However, Picnic’s challenge was twofold. First, satisfy Centerplate’s need to quickly make high volumes of quality pizza. Second, wow this audience of consumer technologists and the media covering the show.

THE need for speed
Catering employee at CES

Centerplate has received a plethora of national and international awards validating its achievements in providing people with extraordinary experiences and thoughtful hospitality. They are known for being on top of the latest trends in the culinary world.

In the case of CES, Centerplate wanted to ‘up their game’ to create well-made pizzas as quickly as possible. They wanted to combine their recipe, dough and ingredients with Picnic’s unmatched speed and assembly quality to help keep convention goers happily fed, and on the convention floor, rather than standing in line for food.

One Person, One Robot, Pizza for All

Like many convention space kitchens, Centerplate was catering in a large venue with a high-demand. If they were going to add any equipment to their space – in the kitchen or on the show floor – it needed to be flexible, mobile, and have a small footprint. Picnic’s robot hits all those points.

REPORTS FROM THE SHOW FLOOR

From Geekwire to CNET, Food on Demand to Franchise Times, decidedly positive reports about the Pizza Robot began rolling in.

Press at CES

CNET reporter Katie Collins “made a beeline to Picnic’s booth” to see the robot in action. She watched the different attached modules perform pizza assembly line work and reported the robot recognizing the dough immediately, tomato sauce flowed, and real mozzarella was “flying out of a chute.” Also, she described the fresh pepperoni as “little frisbees [flopping] onto the cheese in a satisfyingly neat pattern.”

Even better, she did a pizza taste test across Las Vegas which included Centerplate’s pizza and said, “Picnic's CES pizza slice isn't just great for a convention center, it would be considered delicious anywhere.”

REPORTS FROM THE SHOW FLOOR
1000s
Fed
400%
Demand
<1%
Food Waste

About Picnic

Read our fact sheet here

Founded in 2016 and based in Seattle, Picnic has collected an experienced team of food and technology industry veterans to develop and provide specialized intelligent technology and exclusive solutions for the food service and hospitality industries. Restaurants, convenience and grocery stores, university and corporate campuses, casinos, hotels, cruise lines, sports venues, catering groups, healthcare cafeterias, small kiosks, ghost kitchen operators, mobile food operations, food trucks, delivery and military sites are among the many segments poised to benefit from the company’s automated food assembly platform integrating RaaS, software, cloud and deep learning technology.