2024 Agenda


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Agenda subject to change

Broadcast Live
Select sessions will be Broadcast Live during the event.

Tuesday April 16th

4/16/2024
7:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Registration Open
Westminster III & IV Foyer
4/16/2024
7:00 AM - 8:00 AM
Continental Breakfast
Westminster I & II
Sponsored By
California Walnut Commission
4/16/2024
8:00 AM - 8:10 AM
Opening Remarks
Micheal Leonard, Prepared Foods
Bob Garrison, Prepared Foods
Westminster III & IV
4/16/2024
8:10 AM - 9:00 AM
Opening Keynote: The Art of the Possible: How Generative AI is Transforming Customer, Associate and Vendor Experience
Billy Gillispie, Microsoft
Andy Daly, Microsoft
Westminster III & IV
4/16/2024
9:00 AM - 9:45 AM
How to Improve Your Innovation’s Chance of Success: Four Mistakes to Avoid and Seven Ways Forward
Jonathan Tofel, Mission Field
Carolina Sasson, Mission Field
Westminster III & IV
Sponsored By
TraceGains
4/16/2024
9:45 AM - 10:15 AM
Morning Refreshments and Networking Break
Westminster Foyer
Sponsored By
Applied Food Science
4/16/2024
10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Panel Food & Beverage Sustainability From all Angles
Moderator Jacqueline Hochreiter, High Rider Consulting
Panelists Kristy Lewis, QUINN
Paloma Lopez, Future Fit Foods
Amanda Oenbring, Upcycled Food Association
Doug Yolen, Circana
Westminster III & IV
4/16/2024
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
Inspired Innovation: Think Outside the Box, Look Beyond Borders & Boundaries
Lynn Dornblaser, Mintel
Westminster III & IV
4/16/2024
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Luncheon
Westminster I & II
4/16/2024
1:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Expo Hall - New This Year!
Network and Sample New Products at the Refreshment Break and Cocktail Reception
Legacy Ballroom
4/16/2024
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Refreshment Break In Expo Hall
Legacy Ballroom
Sponsored by
Cargill
4/16/2024
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Networking Cocktail Reception in Expo Hall
Legacy Ballroom
Sponsored By
Flavor Dynamics
4/16/2024
5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
SRG StreetDive
Learn More
Secret Offiste Location To Be Announced!

Wednesday April 17th

4/17/2023
7:30 AM - 8:30 AM
Continental Breakfast
4/17/2024
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Keynote PepsiCo: Transforming Consumer Engagement with SMART Packaging
John S. Phillips, PepsiCo
Westminster III & IV
4/17/2024
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM
Innovation in the Baking: Revitalizing Rudi's Organic Bakery!
Jane Miller, Rudi's Organic Bakery
Justin Gold, Rudi's Organic Bakery
Westminster III & IV
Sponsored By
Batory Foods
4/17/2024
10:15 AM - 10:45 AM
Morning Refreshments and Networking Break
Sponsored by
Edlong
4/17/2024
10:45 AM - 11:30 AM
Apply Insight to Acquisition, Innovation: Hormel Revitalizes Planters Brand, Embraces “The Originate Initiative”
Nathan Smit, Hormel Foods
Nick Miller, Planters®, Snacking & Entertainment
Westminster III & IV
4/17/2024
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Will Wegovy Eat the Food Industry’s Lunch?
Nicholas Fereday, Rabobank
Westminster III & IV
Sponsored By
Icon Foods
4/17/2024
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Luncheon
Westminster I & II
4/17/2024
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Closing Keynote Innovation Panel: Prepared Foods “Spirit of Innovation” Award Winners Tell Their Stories
Cassandra Buckley, Veggies Made Great
Baljit Ghotra, EQUII
David Jones, Thrilling Foods Bakon
Annie Ryu, jack & annie's
Simon Sacal, Soley
Gilles Stassart, General Mills Foodservice
Westminster III & IV
4/17/2024
2:30 PM
Conference Concludes

Food & Beverage Sustainability From all Angles

Just as more consumers value foods and beverages with “better-for-you” health benefits, an increasing number value products with sustainable, better-for-the-earth attributes. This panel examines not only how consumers view and value sustainability but also how innovators make key decisions—involving everything from ingredients through packaging—to actively reduce food waste, Greenhouse gas emissions and to conserve earth’s resources (including water and soil). Moderated by Jacqueline Hochreiter of High Rider Consulting, listen in as the panelists discussion explores:
Upcycling: Amanda Oenbring, CEO, Upcycled Foods Association
Farm-to-Bag Ingredient Transparency: Kristy Lewis, Founder / Chief Visionary Officer, QUINN
Regenerative Agriculture: Paloma Lopez, Founder, CEO, Future Fit Foods
Consumer Insights*: Doug Yolen, VP, Food & Beverage, Media Center of Excellence, Circana

*Circana partners with NYU’s Stern Center for Sustainable Business to produce the annual CSB Sustainable Market Share Index™, which examines consumer purchases of sustainability-marketed consumer packaged goods (CPG).

Moderator

Panelists




How to Improve Your Innovation’s Chance of Success: Four Mistakes to Avoid and Seven Ways Forward

With over a decade of experience working with Fortune 500 CPG Companies, Mission Field’s Founder/CEO Jonathan Tofel and Chief Operating Officer Carolina Sasson have received dozens of RFP’s with strikingly similar issues identified as root causes for the challenges of creating disruptive innovation within big CPG. In this keynote, Tofel and Sasson begin with the premise that big CPG has the right to lead on innovations of all types. Actually, big CPG needs to lead on innovation, or else! Tofel and Sasson cover four mistakes to avoid and end with seven ways forward to activate disruptive innovation development within an organization.

Speakers


Inspired Innovation: Think Outside the Box, Look Beyond Borders & Boundaries

Want to cut through the me-too clutter on the supermarket shelf? Sometimes the best approach to a fresh perspective is to think outside your category, outside your target market—and outside the United States. Listen in as Lynn Dornblaser, Mintel Director of Innovation Insights, shares an in-depth look at “innovation beyond borders.” Tapping Mintel’s global database, Dornblaser lays out how US food and beverage R&D teams can learn and leverage insights from other products, consumer data, and more.

Presenter

PepsiCo: Transforming Consumer Engagement with SMART Packaging

The consumer packaged goods industry marked the UPC barcode’s 50th anniversary in 2023. Now industry leaders are beginning the journey to replace it with an exciting, next-generation technology. John Phillips, PepsiCo Senior Vice President Supply Chain and Go-To-Market, believes this transition creates an unprecedented opportunity to transform how consumers digitally engage with their favorite products. Today’s consumers seeking much more information about the products they buy, and new 2D data carriers help processors usher in an exciting new era of SMART packaging. The new GS1 Digital Link 2D barcode brings new capabilities to expand consumer engagement and provide a curated experience—all tailored to the individual product. This framework will allow expanded sharing of nutritional, brand, allergen, sustainability, recycling, loyalty programs, and other consumer-centric information. Phillips shares PepsiCo’s vision and strategy to fuel this global CPG industry transformation to SMART packaging.

Speaker

Innovation in the Baking: Revitalizing Rudi's Organic Bakery!

The founder of Justin's and the former CEO of Rudi's and Lily's joined forces last year to reinvent Rudi's Organic Bakery—and give this nearly 50-year-old company the mentality of a start-up! Jane Miller was CEO at Rudi’s from 2008 to 2014. In fall 2022, she returned as CEO and has since formed a five-member “Innovation and Impact” board, which includes Rudi’s Co-Founder Sheldon Romer and Justin Gold, founder of Justin’s nut butters (sold to Hormel in 2016). Today, Gold also serves as Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer. Listen in as Miller and Gold discuss breakthrough innovation, how to quickly get products to market and develop a new creative culture at Rudi’s.

Speakers


Will Wegovy Eat the Food Industry’s Lunch?

How will Wegovy and other weight-loss drugs impact food choices? How are consumers responding to ultra-processed foods and novel proteins? Rabobank’s Nicholas Fereday, Executive Director, Food & Consumer Trends, has been a food and agriculture industry observer and thought leader for more than two decades. Engaging a C-suite audience, he’s penned noteworthy columns, such as “Dude, Where’s My Consumer? Remaining Relevant to Today’s Consumer” and “The Cereal Killers: Five Trends Revolutionizing the American Breakfast.” Fresh off NatExpo 2024, Fereday shares insights on consumer behavior and on how processors—large and small—can address product, ingredient and technology trends.

Speakers

CLOSING KEYNOTE - Innovation Panel: Prepared Foods “Spirit of Innovation” Award Winners Tell Their Stories

Prepared Foods welcomes Spirit of Innovation Award winners past and present! These entrepreneur innovators share stories of insight, opportunity, strategy, technology, trends and taste!

Panelists (to date) include:
Cassandra Buckley, Marketing Director, Veggies Made Great (2022-23 honoree)
Baljit Ghotra, Co-Founder, EQUII (2022-23 honoree)
David Jones, Co-Founder, Thrilling Foods Bakon (2022-2023 honoree)
Annie Ryu, Founder, jack & annie's (2020-2021 honoree)
Simon Sacal, CEO, Soley (2022-23 honoree)
Gilles Stassart, Culinary Manager, General Mills Foodservice (2022-23 honoree)

Panelists






Apply Insight to Acquisition, Innovation: Hormel Revitalizes Planters Brand, Embraces “The Originate Initiative”

One of the food industry’s best behind-the-scenes stories involves the Planters snack brand, which Hormel Foods Corp. purchased in mid-2021. Listen in as Planters’ Innovation Manager Nick Miller shares how the Planters team builds a “high-trust” environment to better explore the human side of innovation and introduce Mr. Peanut to younger consumers. Last April, Hormel Foods also launched “The Originate Initiative,” a companywide effort emphasizing enterprise-wide innovation. As the Originate Initiative reaches its one-year anniversary, Breakthrough Innovation Lead Nate Smit shares how Hormel adopts its new approach from ideation through new product development.

Speakers


Opening Keynote: The Art of the Possible: How Generative AI is Transforming Customer, Associate and Vendor Experience

Artificial intelligence continues to transform every aspect of new product development—from consumer insights, product and ingredient trends, speed to market to automation and cost take outs. Where did AI and other technologies make inroads in 2023—and what’s ahead in 2024? Microsoft Client Delivery Partners Billy Gillispie and Andrew Daly give food executives a dynamic, inside look at where new products meet the world of new technologies, artificial intelligence and the digital metaverse

Speakers