Speakers at Global Food Forums Events-Policy

Originally Published: August 11, 2020
Last Updated: September 13, 2021
Speakers at Global Food Forums Events

Global Food Forums has a long standing policy on speakers for our in-person events. Speakers, experts in their fields, are chosen to provide actionable, valuable and hard-to-get information to help our customers with their job responsibilities. The caliber of the speakers and the quality of their presentations has resulted in very successful events, a number of which have sold out in advance.

There are two categories of speakers and the invitation to speak is extended to each through a different process.

1. GENERAL SESSION SPEAKERS

Such speakers are identified through industry networking efforts, Internet searches, long-term familiarity with the conference organizers who have spent many years in the industry and so on. The speakers are chosen based on their often career-long expertise in an area and that the subject matter contributes nicely to a conference theme while not overlapping with other presentations.

Although great expertise lies in the business-to-to business ingredient vendor community, the policy of Global Food Forums is to not invite presenters affiliated with ingredient suppliers. Instead, general session speakers are carefully selected from independent consulting and research firms, universities, specialized product development companies and food scientists, nutritionists and regulatory personnel from leading companies. The goal is to provide in-depth, impartial advice and data.

2. TECHNOLOGY SNAPSHOT SPEAKERS

Presenters of Technology Snapshots who are selected to give 15 minute presentations on their product through a jury process. (Currently these only occur at Clean Label Conferences.) For a better understanding of these presentations including their purpose, how they are chosen and forms to make a submission, please see posts at https://cleanlabel.globalfoodforums.com/technology-snapshots-information.

We believe that through advances in food science, the ingredient supplier community has empowered food processors to develop convenient, safe, great tasting foods, beverages and nutritional products in which consumers find value.

Since the goal of Global Food Forums is provide useful, yet hard to find information, the jury process works to ensure the presentations chosen will help attract attendees to its events.

The selection process involves ingredient vendors submitting a two-page submission form along with information they feel is relevant. This is provided to the Technology Snapshot Advisory Panel, chaired by John Smith, Ph.D., Cantaleir International. Each panel member scores each submission on seven criteria and the highest ranked companies, based on highest ranked score are invited to participate for an event.

FAQs on Technology Snapshots

Clean Label Technology Snapshot Evaluation Form

Click on the image to enlarge the form.

Q: What is the Advisory Panel looking for when submissions are being scored?
A: Questions on the submission form are meant to relay information that would help identify ingredients that attendees would be interested in learning more about. Influential factors include:
• How newly marketed the ingredient is
• How well it contributes to the formulation goal of the product developer (e.g., simplifying an ingredient legend for Clean Label Technical Snapshots)
• How unique it is in the marketplace, that is, how is it different from similar ingredients in its category
• How much detail will be given to the ingredients key physiochemical properties
• How well it will contribute to an overall balanced program. A range of functional ingredients from different categories are desired.

Q: Can a Technical Snapshot be on solutions for clean labels rather than on a specific product.
A: Companies are encouraged to submit on a specific ingredient (or ingredient line) for a number of reasons.
Since the total time is only 15 minutes, it helps make sure more hands-on, useful information is conveyed to the food scientists rather a “top line” overview, which is less likely to provide formulation tactics.
Focusing on a specific ingredient also helps prevent duplication of presentations. For example, if we have several companies all speaking on “natural colors” in a general sense, the Technical Snapshot presentations would possibly not only be very similar, but also duplicate information provided by a general session presenter speaking for 45 minutes on the topic.
We truly see these Technical Snapshots as part of the program and thus they have a role of helping to entice R&D folks to attend. We strive to have a more balanced portfolio of ingredients addressing many functions such as preservation, emulsification, thickening, etc. A program with, say, eight flavoring presentations would not be as attractive to potential attendees who are dealing with a lot of different formulation challenges.
Lastly, members of the Technical Snapshot Advisory Panel truly rate submissions as to which would be most interesting and bring most to the program. They tend to be tougher on submissions that appear to be vague in content.

Further information:

Please contact Jenny Stricker, Jenny@GlobalFoodForums.com if interested in submitting a Technology Snapshot for an up-coming event.