SNAXPO goes to Dallas

Snack food professionals will mosey on down to Dallas, March 1-4, to attend SNAXPO 2014, the Snack Food Association’s annual exhibition and conference. Attendees will be able to check out more than 125 exhibits, attend educational sessions, network with colleagues and more at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and the Omni Dallas Hotel.

SNAXPO 2014 will convene in Texas this year, a state renown for doing things on a large scale. Sponsored by the Arlington, Va.-based Snack Food Association, the annual exhibition and conference will be held March 1-4 in Dallas at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, which boasts more than 1 million sq. ft. of exhibit space, a 9,816-seat arena, a 1,750-seat theater and three ballrooms. The event’s headquarters hotel, the Omni Dallas Hotel, is adjacent to the convention center.

Snack food professionals will find SNAXPO’s 2014 schedule equally impressive. The tradeshow kicks off on March 1 with a “Welcome to Dallas” party from 7-10 p.m. at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Attendees can start Sunday, March 2, with breakfast from 9-9:45 a.m. at the Omni Dallas, followed by presentation at the same venue by general session speaker Anindita “Ann” Mukherjee, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Frito-Lay North America, Plano, Texas. Mukherjee will discuss how companies can adapt to changing consumer snack preferences.

Show kickoff

At 11:15 a.m., an exhibit hall ribbon-cutting ceremony at the convention center will kick off the show, which will remain open until 3 p.m. Following the ceremony, SNAXPO attendees will have plenty of time to visit with more than 125 exhibitors of processing and packaging equipment, food ingredients and other products and services for the snack food industry.

Three concurrent educational sessions will take place on the tradeshow floor, from 3:15-4:30 p.m. Donald Moy and Eric Laube, client service managers at Commodity & Ingredient Hedging LLC, Chicago, will discuss strategies for establishing an effective hedging process. Martin Hahn, a partner at Hogan Lovells U.S. LLP, Washington, DC, will provide a law and regulation update.

The third session is one of two comprising this year’s Latin American Program, which is delivered in Spanish. Senior executives from Alimentos Munchy C.A., Gonac, Productos Alimenticios La Victoria and Alimentos Jacks de Centroamerica S.A. will address business challenges for Latin American snack companies.

Monday, March 3, begins with breakfast from 8-8:45 a.m. at the Omni Dallas. At 9 a.m., Sally Lyons-Watt, senior vice president of SymphonyIRI Inc., Chicago, will give the annual State of the Snack Food Industry presentation in the hotel’s Trinity Ballroom. During the hour-long event, Lyons-Watt will update visitors on the latest industry and snack food trends and consumer insights for the major snack food categories.

Three concurrent, educational sessions will be held on the tradeshow floor from 10:30 a.m. to noon, before the exhibit hall opens. Dave Borden, executive vice president of Bizet Human Asset Management, McMurray, Pa., will talk about tools for hiring and retaining employees. Discussing legislation and regulations affecting the snack industry will be three experts in their fields: Mike Torrey, principal, Michael Torrey Associates, Washington, DC; Elizabeth “Beth” Johnson, MS, RD, principal and founder, Food Directions LLC, Washington, DC; and Earl Eisenhart, principal, Government Relations Services, Ellicott City, Md. Jose Peres, DSM Food Specialties Brazil, will present the second Latin American session, “The Prevention of Acrylamide in Snacks with Asparagines.”

The exhibit hall will be open from noon to 5 p.m. on Monday. A reception will be held in the hall from 3:30-5 p.m. The final day of the SNAXPO, Tuesday, March 4, begins with breakfast at the Omni Dallas from 7:30-8:30 a.m. The general session from 9-10 a.m. will feature a discussion with George W. Bush, 43rd president of the U.S., moderated by SFA president and CEO Tom Dempsey.

The exhibit hall will be open from 10 a.m. to noon. SNAXPO 2014 concludes with a reception and dinner from 7-11 p.m. at the hotel.