Program

Download a printable agenda here.

7:45 AM - 8:45 AM

Registration & Refreshments

8:45 AM - 8:55 AM

Chair’s Opening Remarks

Dan Howell, Director of Product Development, La Terra Fina USA

Introductory remarks by the Chair in the plenary room

8:55 AM - 9:30 AM - Keynote

R&D & Formulation

What Came First the Chicken or the Egg?

Chris Jones, VP of Product Development, JUST, Inc.


Changing how we make food, by looking at the seed, the cell and everything in between.

- Seed to plate and the automated discovery system
- Product development pipeline
- Cell development – tasting tomorrow today
- The future of hybrid products
- Finally the answer of what actually came first

9:30 AM - 10:05 AM - Case Studies

Consumer Insights & Marketing

Consumer-Driven Innovation: How to Engage with Consumers to Gain Insights which lead to a Compelling, Insight-Driven Bundle

Brigette Wolf, Global Head of SnackFutures Innovation, Mondelēz International

  • Full session abstract TBC

Consumer Insights & Marketing

Finding your North Star: How Brand Integrity and Values Influence Innovation and Ensure Consumer Relevancy

Dr. Behroze S. Mistry, VP Innovation and R&D, Boulder Brands/Conagra

As both food industry and consumer behaviors evolve, brands must follow along with the evolution. Brands that have rested on their laurels with outdated True North Stars, are now finding themselves irrelevant to their once loyal consumer base, while new category entrants with applicable offerings, chip away at market share. Here, we will share a Case Study of finding our North Star: Udi’s bread reformulation that we undertook - the challenges we overcame, the lessons we learned and our success in the marketplace.

10:10 AM - 10:45 AM - Case Studies

R&D & Formulation

The Modern Marriage: Agility - meet Scale, Scale - meet Agility

Tammy Butterworth, Global R&D Manager, PepsiCo

As part of PepsiCo’s Performance with Purpose vision, we are committed to open innovation and collaborating with the change-makers of the future to help lead the transformation of the food and beverage industry. This is why for years PepsiCo has fostered relationships with startup brands, including through programs like the Nutrition Greenhouse and The PepsiCo HIVE, and through partnerships with The Hatchery Chicago and Mass Challenge.

These initiatives tie back to three critical ideas: embracing the entrepreneurial mindset, seeding future growth, and mutual mentorship, with a commitment to diversity underpinning our efforts. We believe the future of food is built on collaboration, and in this talk I will discuss how marrying the innovation and agility of small companies with the scale and know-how of big companies can help ensure more consumers get access to more of the trusted, delicious and nutritious food and beverages they are looking for.

Innovation & Technology

Data for Dinner: Turning Data and AI into Successful Products

Clifton Lyles, VP of Culinary Excellence, Revolution Foods

  • Why should you care about data-driven product development
  • What is big data and AI
  • What does the data say
  • How can it help you develop successful products
  • How to use data to improve the product development process

10:45 AM - 11:45 AM

iSolve Meetings & Networking Refreshments

11:45 AM - 12:20 PM - Solution Spotlights

Innovation & Technology

Extending PLM throughout the Supply Chain using Portal Technology

Michael Frankel, Vice President of Sales, North America, Selerant

  • Formula-based product lifecycle management (PLM) is a vital end-to-end platform for new product development in food manufacturing companies
  • How Supplier Portal technology extends the capabilities of PLM systems throughout the food manufacturing supply chain
  • Potential areas of high return and performance for food manufacturers in deploying supplier portal technologies with PLM systems

Innovation & Technology

AI and Insight - How Innovation in Methodology is Driving a Higher Standard of Product Innovation

Nikolas Pearmine, VP Client Relationships, Black Swan Data

  • According to Nielsen 3 out of 4 CPG product launches fail within a year.
  • AI applied to Social data offers brands an unprecedented opportunity to understand consumer trends and mathematically predict what’s next
  • With lessons from the field, find out how PepsiCo, Danone and McDonald’s are using this capability to act at speed and improve the quality of their innovation programmes

12:25 PM - 1:00 PM - Case Studies

Innovation & Technology

Tugging on Heart Strings: Using Nostalgia to Energize Menus

Owen Klein, VP, Global Culinary Innovation, CKE Restaurants

Often menu innovators struggle to bridge the gap between buzzworthy new menu items and consumer knowledge, due to lack of familiarity or foodie culture. One of the most effective ways to bridge that gap is by utilizing nostalgic foods, or foods that consumers were raised eating. Tapping into the inner “kid” or tugging on heart strings by showcasing childhood cuisine favorites is the focus of this presentation. Coming of age favorites, timeless classics, regional family cuisines, and retro/generational foods will be covered. Tools learned in this presentation can apply to both US and international menus.

Innovation & Technology

Reinventing Dairy through Open Innovation

Caroline Miron, Director of Innovation, Architecture & Strategy, Agropur

Discover the benefits of doing open innovation and working agilely in a large corporation.

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Networking Lunch



The Path to Supply Chain Risk Management

Roundtable led by:

2:00 PM - 2:35 PM - Solution Spotlights

Innovation & Technology

How AI and Automation Ignite New Product Development

Gary Nowacki, CEO, TraceGains

  • With seismic shifts in consumer priorities and changing sales channels, how can food and beverage companies stay competitive?
  • A McKinsey survey report highlights that food and beverage companies fail 75 percent of the time when bringing new products to market, how can businesses solve this problem and compensate for such poor success rates?
  • The supply chain is larger and more complex than ever, how do manufactures and brand owners immediately find what they need to build their products faster and automate the rest?
  • How can food and beverage companies connect stakeholders, streamline workflows and scale the business without adding resources?

2:40 PM - 3:15 PM - Case Studies

Consumer Insights & Marketing

Leveraging Innovation to Elevate Limited Time Offers

Molly Hug, Senior Manager, Consumer Insights, Red Lobster

Red Lobster leverages current food trends to develop innovative products to integrate into existing limited time promotions to keep them relevant and fresh for the consumer and further drive urgency into the restaurant.

R&D & Formulation

Product Evolution: Good to Great

Joel Warady, General Manager, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Enjoy Life Foods

  • Full session abstract TBC

3:15 PM - 4:15 PM

iSolve Meetings & Networking Refreshments

4:15 PM - 4:50 PM - Solution Spotlights

Innovation & Technology

Compliance can Drive Innovation

Severin J. Weiss, CEO, SpecPage

  • Complying to regulations forces companies
  • Speed up time-to-market and product innovation
  • Automated regulatory compliance checks by design
  • How blockchain support supply chain compliance

R&D & Formulation

Demystifying Startup-Corporate Collaboration

Mike Schumann, Vice President of Corporate Development, MassChallenge

Over the last decade, we've seen a seismic shift in how large businesses interact with startups. But, many organizations still struggle with delivering the right ROI from these relationships. During this session, you'll:
  • Evaluating models for engaging startups relevant to your business
  • Challenges causing internal R&D and innovation teams to lose out to startups and approaches for solving
  • Insights from MassChallenge and EIT Food Accelerator collaboration
  • 3 MassChallenge food startups on the move - what they needed, when

4:55 PM - 5:40 PM - Panel Discussion

Consumer Insights & Marketing

How to Translate Consumer Insights into a Successful Product Launch?

Amy Sunderman, Vice President of Research & Development, Swanson Health

Clifton Lyles, VP of Culinary Excellence, Revolution Foods

Dan Howell, Director of Product Development, La Terra Fina USA

Joel Warady, General Manager, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Enjoy Life Foods

  • Has social media become the new focus group?
  • Defining the real preferences, demands and concerns of the contemporary consumer
  • How can you define the needs and drivers for the consumer from social media?
  • What is the best approach in aligning your product to the interests of the consumer?

5:45 PM - 6:45 PM

Evening Drinks Reception

8:00 AM - 8:45 AM

Registration & Refreshments

8:45 AM - 8:50 AM

8:50 AM - 9:25 AM - Keynote

Innovation & Technology

Perfect Day: A New Supply Chain for Protein

Ravi Jhala, Head of Food Development, Perfect Day

The global demand for nutritious animal protein such as dairy protein is expected to increase by more than 60% within the next thirty years. Extensive use of land, energy, and water as well as resulting greenhouse gas emissions related to animal farming are already taking a significant toll on the planet. At the same time more and more consumers are looking for alternative products to replace animal-based proteins within their diet.

Perfect Day is a food company headquartered in Berkeley, CA. With currently around 35 full-time employees, the company’s goal is to deliver sustainable and animal-free dairy products without compromise in taste, nutritional value, and quality. We currently focus on the manufacturing of dairy proteins, caseins and whey proteins, that are identical to what the cow provides.

Our approach is based on microbial fermentation processes, which are both scalable and safe. Our products are turned into yogurts, cheeses, ice creams, and more by chefs in a manner that is not different from standard manufacturing methods.

9:25 AM - 10:00 AM - Keynote

R&D & Formulation

Building Internal Relationships: A Marketing and R&D Success Story or How Two Leaders Built their Soft Skills

Dan Howell, Director of Product Development, La Terra Fina USA

Stephanie Robbins, Vice President of Marketing & Innovation, La Terra Fina USA

The importance of strategic relationships for speed to market is integral in this highly competitive marketplace.
  • We will look at communication techniques for building strong cross functional relationships to maximize project success
  • Learn ways to nurture relationships for better collaboration and job satisfaction
  • Understanding how soft skills impact process and success
  • Transition to a functional, inclusive process for better product launches

10:05 AM - 10:40 AM - Case Studies

Innovation & Technology

Why is it Important to know Where your Food Comes From?

Joe Heitzeberg, Co-Founder and CEO, Crowd Cow

  • Crowd Cow brings high-quality craft meats from independent farms directly to your doorstep, empowering consumers to discover better-tasting, dry-aged meat that’s not available in stores, and to know exactly where their food comes from
  • The Crowd Cow team has envisioned a marketplace of hundreds of producers, complete with transparency and a direct connection between consumer and farmer, starting with the meat industry. The sharing economy’s latest big idea allows consumers to buy portions of an actual cow online with strangers by claiming their favorite cuts, tipping the cow and becoming a “steak holder.” The marketplace assures every part of the cow is consumed - no parts wasted in this transparent model
  • In this session, Crowd Cow’s co-founder will discuss how transparency should be a universal right and share consumer insights that reveal how consumers are demanding to understand where their food comes from, right down to the name of the farmer that produced it

Innovation & Technology

Transform or Stand to be Disrupted

Andria Long, Former VP Innovation & Consumer Insights, Johnsonville Sausage (Formerly)

Successful transformation is absolutely critical for businesses to survive now and anywhere in the near future. The pace of change is accelerating and learning quickly to evolve for the future is essential.

The food industry has changed immensely in the last five years. There’s never been a more important time to understand exactly what consumers want and need.

Andria is a transformational innovator who has successfully driven strategic growth at 5 Fortune 1000 companies in the intensely competitive CPG space.

She has learned what it takes to survive in a rapidly changing consumer, competitive, and industry landscape.

The key insights she will share with real in market examples:
  • How do you evolve by starting with the consumer?
  • What are the key questions you should be asking?
  • What should you be considering right now to keep pace with change?

10:40 AM - 11:40 AM

iSolve Meetings & Networking Refreshments

11:40 AM - 12:15 PM - Keynote

Innovation & Technology

Innovation by Re-Thinking Restaurants

Emily Splett, Director of Menu Development, Farmer's Fridge

  • The way modern society grows, prepares, orders and delivers healthy food is changing an industry
  • The way we think about the modern restaurant, and how we get delicious food when we want it, is also changing
  • Convenience, customization and quality ingredients from trusted sources are as paramount to the consumer as it is to the restaurant and its suppliers
  • Kiosk ordering through touch-screens may be gaining momentum in fast casual restaurants, but technology and algorithms that learn consumer buying habits, reduce food waste and aide with improving the overall food experience through consumer feedback is driving sales today
  • The modern restaurant concept is an evolving and innovative space: food, technology and data can converge to offer a modern society better access to delicious, nutritious food

12:20 PM - 12:55 PM - Case Studies

Innovation & Technology

Culinary Gold Standard Plus (+)

Chris Kline, Senior Executive Chef, Tyson

The process of taking an idea from restaurants into the innovation and development processes and back out again, via a culinary lens of a Chef/Scientist/Consumer.
-Trends: where, when and how they start
-The Culinarians
-Manufacturers and the process

Innovation & Technology

Intersections of Innovation

Natalie Shmulik, CEO, The Hatchery Chicago

As emerging brands continue to spark interest and gain market share, many companies are exploring new ways to innovate. Gain a unique perspective on industry trends by discovering a new approach to innovation through unique collaborations and new integrations.

12:55 PM - 1:55 PM

Networking Lunch

1:55 PM - 2:30 PM - Case Studies

R&D & Formulation

Space Food: LEO and Beyond

Vickie L. Kloeris, Retired NASA Food Scientist, NASA Johnson Space Center (Formerly)


This session will include:

  • The current NASA food system used on the International Space Station (ISS) in Low Earth Orbit
  • The contributions of the International Partners to the ISS food system
  • Challenges for a food system beyond LEO
  • What’s on the horizon for NASA in 2019

Consumer Insights & Marketing

Global Consumer Trends for 2019

Luis Carlos Chacón, Op-Ed Columnist | Global Growth Consultant, Forbes Latin America | BusinessCase

With more than ten years developing and consulting futures for global FMCG's, this keynote review which will be the twelve most relevant socioeconomic and cultural phenomena that in 2019 will impact consumption patterns worldwide, showing on each one how cases from niche and massive companies inside the food industry that are using this emerging patterns to transform and improve their businesses, and also the way people eat around different places, ages, and traditions, in a moment where society confronts 2020 as the beginning of ‘a new future’.

2:35 PM - 3:10 PM - Keynote

Innovation & Technology

A Disciplined Approach to High-Risk Innovation

Reggie Moore, Senior Vice President, Sales, Marketing & Innovation, Land O’Frost

Reggie will discuss the evolution of Gone Rogue® High Protein Chips, from a manufacturing “idea” to a commercial launch rooted in disciplined loyalty to the consumer insights driving the innovation.

  • Share the challenges of new-to-world innovation and how they were overcome
  • Discuss how insights into the consumer through each stage of the process influenced the development of the brand
  • Share the non-traditional approach to reaching the millennial, protein-craving consumer with the Gone Rogue proposition

3:10 PM - 3:45 PM - Keynote

Innovation & Technology

The Day Food Innovation became Meaningful…Again

Amy Klein, VP Product Innovation, SpoonfulOne

  • Learn how to adopt a new way of thinking and become part of the new food maverick class
  • Discover how to use design, data, I.P. and truth to drive towards real food innovation
  • Find out how to let go of the old innovation tool box and use a new set of levers to create hit products consumers both need and crave
  • Weigh the benefits of leaving the food innovation business and joining new category creation business as your next job