Food Safety Show Marks Firsts

By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 4/3/2006

LAS VEGAS—The Food Safety Summit & Conference was already the first show for the food safety industry. But it also recently celebrated several other milestones, including its first international licensing agreement.

The show's March 21–22 run at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center represented the 6-year-old show's only appearance in the West. It marked the show's inaugural collocation as well. Food Safety, a 2003 Tradeshow Week Fastest 50 winner, was held adjacent to the Snack Food Assn.'s 66-year-old SNAXPO, held March 19–22.

This year's Food Safety Summit was also the first for new owner Stagnito Communications, a subsidiary of Ascend Media. And it was the last for Eaton Hall Exhibitions President Scott Goldman, who sold the show to Ascend in January.

"I got to hear a lot of good things going out," said Goldman, adding that he personally knows most of the show's 190 exhibitors. Goldman will now move on to launching new shows.

Based in Deerfield, Ill., Stagnito produces 15 food and beverage magazines, as well as a series of gaming summits and magazines. President Harry Stagnito and Vice President Korry Stagnito operate the company. Hoyt Publishing veteran Scott Wolters has been brought in to serve as Stagnito's director of tradeshows and conferences.

Next year, the Food Safety Summit will mark yet another milestone: the launch of a food safety show in the burgeoning Chinese market.

Under a licensing agreement, Hong Kong-based InfoEX-World Services will launch the China Food Safety Summit in Beijing. The show is expected to be an immediate hit, because China's $241 billion food industry has tripled in size over the past eight years. At the same time, the country is also experiencing an explosion of food-borne illnesses.

"We think it's going to be terribly successful," said Global Event Strategies CEO Stephen Sind, who negotiated the licensing agreement. "Food service is a huge industry, and this is the leading event in the market."

Sind said about 125 exhibitors are expected at the inaugural event, which will be conference driven.

Exhibitors at this year's Food Safety Summit didn't seem concerned about the ownership change. Rather, the biggest debate was over whether it made more sense to hold the summit in the West, where exhibitors could be exposed to new buyers, or in its traditional home at the Washington (D.C.) Convention Center, which is more convenient for regulators.

For its Las Vegas debut, the show, which drew an estimated 2,100 attendees, was bustling with traffic on its first day. "So far, we've had a lot of activity," said Drew Lafferty, of Lafferty Equipment, based in Little Rock, Ark.

The Food Safety Summit is Stagnito's third food and beverage event. Stagnito is organizing a New Products Conference Sept. 7–8 at Chicago's Drake Hotel and the Products That Sell Conference at a time and place still being finalized.

Its gaming events include BingoWorld Conference & Expo, Casino Marketing Conference, Florida Gaming Summit, Gaming Technology Summit, Indian Gaming Natl. Marketing Conference, New York Gaming Summit and Southern Gaming Summit