This is Associate Editor Alyse Thompson's second Sweets & Snacks Expo, but it already feels like old hat. Getting around was a breeze, and she enjoyed catching up with manufacturers, suppliers, sales people and marketers she's gotten to know over the last couple years.

At Candy Industry’s 73rd Kettle Awards, with nearly 250 guests in attendance, Mitchell Goetze, ceo of Goetze’s Candy Co., received the industry’s most prestigious award, the gleaming copper kettle. 

The blue-ocean approach encourages entrepreneurs to create uncontested market space instead of competing in "red oceans," where there's likely to be plenty of blood in the water. It's a strategy that Jan Kolański, president of the Colian Group, has embraced and evolved .

Candy Industry Magazine’s Kettle Awards Committee has announced the list of nominees for the industry’s most prestigious award.