FSMA Top2Top and The CRFA SHOW

March is an exciting month for those of us in the foodservice industry with plenty of trade shows to keep us busy. While we are still in the first half of the month, CHD Expert has been raking up the air miles with separate trips to Orlando, Florida and Toronto, Canada. In a quick 24hours we had to say good to our flip flops and hello to our snow boots!

The FSMA Top2Top conference is put on by the Foodservice Sales & Marketing Association. This national trade association works with food & equipment manufactures, vendors and sales agencies to help grow their businesses.  This year’s show was a little down in attendance, but there was still a lot of good information shared during the sessions and a lot of solid networking.

The CRFA Show or the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association Show is Canada’s Foodservice Event of the Year.  The show is held at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto and if you have not been in Toronto, it is worth a trip. The growth in the city is quite impressive, and down town Toronto skyline is full of cranes and promise for the future of the city.

Relationship building is critical in business, especially the foodservice industry. Food & Equipment Manufacturers use our data in a lot of different ways and we are always eager to introduce our products to businesses in different regions.  Below are some photos that we took at the two events. Check them out and consider joining us next year.

Lots of good exhibitors in attendance

Great Party In Toronto

10 Must-Attend Foodservice Industry Trade Shows for 2014

2014 is finally here and for foodservice industry professionals, that means another year full of foodservice trade shows. Every year there are a number of foodservice industry trade shows that we like to attend, but the hard part is determining which ones.

After much consideration, we’ve selected our 10 Must-Attend Foodservice Industry Trade Shows for 2014, which we’ve listed in chronologic order. Take a look:

1. Technomic Trends & Directions Conference
Newport Beach, CA (Jan 22 – 23)
Our partners’ at Technomic invite restaurant industry leaders to come together at their annual conference in Newport Beach California. Attendees will examine consumer foodservice attitude and usage—as well as demographic dynamics and marketing and social media trends, in order to position themselves for success today and into the future. Technomic executives will present proprietary consumer, menu and industry research, while consumer insight analysts and innovative operators will lend their knowledge and experience.

2. FSMA’s 20th Annual Top2Top Conference 2014
Orlando, FL (Feb 24 – 27)
The Foodservice Sales and Marketing Associations’ 20th Annual Top2Top Conference is the premier event for foodservice sales & marketing executives.

3. CRFA Show
Toronto, On (March 2 – 4)
The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association Show is the leading foodservice and hospitality event in Canada. A comprehensive forum of industry products, the CRFA Show, attracts 12,000 industry professionals and puts them face to face with exhibitors showcasing all their latest products.

4. Midwest Foodservice Expo 2014
Milwaukee, WI (March 10-12)
Produced by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, the Midwest Foodservice Expo (MFE) is the leading regional food, beverage and hospitality industry event in the Midwest. Since we are not too far away, this is one of the shows we enjoy bringing several members of the team to.

5. 30th Annual International Pizza Expo 2014
Las Vegas, NV (March 25 – 27)
The Pizza Expo is the world’s largest pizza-only trade show, and it’s now in its 30th year. This is one of our favorite shows to attend because of the passion and energy we see on the trade show floor. We also enjoy the competitions, the food and innovations This show is attended by pizzeria or pizza-concept restaurant owners, operators and managers, as well as distributors and food brokers to name a few.

6. SIAL The North American Food Marketplace
Montreal, QB (April 2 – 4)
SIAL Canada is an international trade show dedicated to North American food industry professionals. Every year, over 700 agrifood exhibitors and 14,500 professionals come together for this uniting event.

7. NRA Show 2014
Chicago, IL (May 17-20)
One of the biggest trade shows of the year is the National Restaurant Association’s show in Chicago (NRA). Every year, over the course of four days, more than 1,800 suppliers and tens of thousands of buyers come together to make lasting connections that drive business profitability and shape the future of the restaurant, foodservice and hospitality industry. This show is perfect for any business looking for new products, trends, and ideas that will make a difference in their business’ future. Let’s just say, May is one of our favorite months of the year!

8. AHF Healthcare Foodservice
Orlando, FL (June 3-6)
The Association for Healthcare Foodservice conference is the only conference of its kind, uniquely tailored to the needs of the healthcare foodservice self-operator and the business partners that support them. If you are interested in the healthcare foodservice industry, this is the show for you!

9. Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo
Anaheim, CA (Aug 7-8)
At the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, you’ll find everything needed to profit in the industry, from the latest trends to how to charm your guests, to ways to reduce cost and inspire your team. Plus it’s located in sunny California!

10. Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show
Orlando, FL (Sept 7 -9)
The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show is the only all-encompassing event in the Southeastern United States for the restaurant and foodservice industry, making it THE one-stop source for everything you need to succeed in today’s restaurant market. We can’t wait to see what trends, innovations and other technology are launched at this show.

Each year, CHD Expert attends several trade shows. Trade shows give us the opportunity to meet other foodservice professionals, listen to new ideas, network and share our solutions with other professionals in the foodservice industry. Today, so much business is done over the phone or via the Internet, so it’s really a pleasure when we have the opportunity to talk face-to-face with clients, partners, and influencers in the business.

If you don’t typically attend trade shows, or haven’t in the past few years, consider attending one or two of the shows from the list above. Remember, this isn’t our entire list of trade shows we will be attending in 2014, but these are a few of our favorites. Throughout the year, as we confirm our attendance to other shows, we will keep you updated.

Happy New Year and we hope to see you at the next show!

Just in Time for The 2013 National Restaurant Association Show, CHD Expert Launches New Menu Type Segmentation For Their Foodservice Data, Web-Based Query Tool, Easy2Find

Leading food service data and analytics company CHD Expert, releases a new menu type filter allowing for more granular segmentation of restaurants by specific menu type.

Author: Nicolas Watson

Just in time for the 2013 National Restaurant Association Show, Chicago-based foodservice database, and analytics firm, CHD Expert, expands their available menu filters allowing for foodservice businesses to more narrowly target unique restaurants with their sales efforts.

As American food culture grows in popularity, themed and diverse restaurants are now opening on a regular basis. Ten years ago, few would have ever imagined dining at a Japanese Moroccan fusion restaurant or a restaurant specializing in meatballs, but now diverse ethnic menus are all the rage. While a diverse restaurant scene has been a treat for Americans’ taste buds, this presents a challenge for foodservice industry professionals, who are constantly trying to identify and pin point these relentlessly growing menu segments.

CHD Expert’s web-based query tool, Easy2FIND, provides a solution for foodservice industry professionals who need to sell and market to the ever changing restaurant landscape, and this new set of filters allows for deeper insight into a wide-range of less common menu types.

With Easy2FIND, more granular filters are now available for many emerging Asian and African menu types, including but not limited to: Malaysian, Cambodian, Pakistani, Tunisian, Lebanese, Russian, and many more. This is in addition to the already available “standard” menu types like Chinese, Barbecue, Vegetarian, Kosher, etc. Furthermore, this new segmentation capability also allows for standard menu types to be further dissected. For example, the common ‘Italian’ segment can be filtered to identify ‘pizzerias’ within the Italian segment.

“The restaurant industry is extremely competitive and complex,” said Nicolas Watson, Marketing Manager at CHD Expert. “As consumer pallets continue to evolve, restaurateurs, chefs and entrepreneurs tenaciously push the envelope to introduce exotic, unique menus. And while consumers reap the benefits, this becomes incredibly challenging and cumbersome for someone who is selling a product like Asian Chili Oil. With these new Easy2FIND filters, foodservice manufacturers and distributors now have a much deeper level of insight on their target markets, making their sales and marketing process much more efficient. We have already received some excellent feedback from our beta testing, and are very excited to roll out this tool in time for the National Restaurant Association Show.”

To schedule a demo of the Easy2FIND tool, and see if you qualify for a seven day trial, please contact Brad Bloom.

Our Foodservice Trade Show Recap: #NAFEM and FSMA Top2Top

As we mentioned in our previous post, we are going to be attending a ton of foodservice trade shows and conferences this year.  This year, as the Director of Sales for CHD Expert, I got to attend a few great shows. Here is a short recap with photos and videos from both the #NAFEM 2013 Trade Show as well as the FSMA Top2Top 2013 Conference.

Here are a few snapshots from the NAFEM 2013 Trade Show. Just look at the amazing entrance to the conference! We were eager to check out all of the HOT and COOL foodservice products, and as we do at most shows, we like to snap a quick photo of the entrance. We also wanted to share the magnitude of this conference so we also got a few great shows of the trade show floor so you can see how MASSIVE the show actually is. The North American Association of Foodservice Equipment Manufacturers is one of our favorite shows of the year and we were happy to attend and be part of the foodservice action. Check out our photos:

Hello! NAFEM 2013

Inside at NAFEM 2013

NAFEM 2013 Food Service Products

#NAFEM 2013 Trade Show Exhibit Floor

Just a few days after the #NAFEM 2013 show wrapped, we attended (and are still at!) the Foodservice Sales And Marketing Association’s 19th Annual Top2Top Conference. We have really enjoyed the TEAM Meetings and learning about the state of the industry and how big foodservice companies are addressing these challenges. We’ve enjoyed hearing people like Pietro Satriano is Chief Merchandising Officer, of US Foods and Wendy Perrin,  Condé Nast Traveler’s Director of Consumer News and Digital Community. Here are a few more photos from the sunny California conference:

Top2Top FSMA Meet And Greet

Top2Top in sunny California!

We hope that you have enjoyed a few our pictures from the events.  If you’d like to connect and talk more about either one of these trade shows, let’s set up some time to meet or have a call. Please email me, Brad Bloom, at bbloom@chd-expert.com. I am looking forward to connecting!

The 50th Annual IFMA/IFDA Presidents Conference

With extreme weather wreaking havoc on the Eastern U.S., a few lucky members of the CHD Expert team get to spend this week in beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona for the IFMA/IFDA Presidents Conference.

The International Foodservice Distributors Association and the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association have teamed up to co-host this premier conference “Where leaders meet”.  This annual event is by invite only and is aimed at connecting c-suite level exectutives among manufacturers, distributers, operators and other foodservice channel partners.

Also taking place at Presidents Conference is the annual Distributor Awards, which acknowledge leadership and excellence among companies within the foodservice industry.

If you are attending the Presidents Conference and would like to schedule some time to meet during or after the event, please send an email to Brad Bloom (bbloom@chd-expert.com) and we can set up some time to network.

Or if you will not be at the event, but would still like to talk foodservice marketing, please reach out and let us know how we can be of service.