2024 Agenda
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Agenda subject to change
Select sessions will be Broadcast Live during the event.
Tuesday April 16th
7:00 AM - 5:30 PM
7:00 AM - 8:00 AM
8:00 AM - 8:10 AM
Bob Garrison, Prepared Foods
8:10 AM - 9:00 AM
Andy Daly, Microsoft
9:00 AM - 9:45 AM
Carolina Sasson, Mission Field
9:45 AM - 10:15 AM
10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Panelists Kristy Lewis, QUINN
Paloma Lopez, Future Fit Foods
Amanda Oenbring, Upcycled Food Association
Doug Yolen, Circana
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
1:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Network and Sample New Products at the Refreshment Break and Cocktail Reception
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Wednesday April 17th
7:30 AM - 8:30 AM
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM
Justin Gold, Rudi's Organic Bakery
10:15 AM - 10:45 AM
10:45 AM - 11:30 AM
Nick Miller, Planters®, Snacking & Entertainment
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Baljit Ghotra, EQUII
David Jones, Thrilling Foods Bakon
Annie Ryu, jack & annie's
Simon Sacal, Soley
Gilles Stassart, General Mills Foodservice
2:30 PM
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