Specialty Food Magazine

14 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM ASSOCIATION NEWS MONDAY, OCTOBER 4 1 p.m. Scaling Your Business With Strategic Angel Investment The investors you bring into your business, and the tenor of the relationships you build with them, can accelerate the achievement of your business goals in meaningful ways. In this session, industry experts and investors including Lauren Abda, founder and CEO of Branchfood; Marcia Hooper, partner at Branch Venture Group, LLC; Suzanne Angello, senior vice president at Devonshire Investors; and Nicolas Warren, co-owner and director of community investment at ReVision Energy, share their approach to early-stage investment considerations including deal identification, startup evaluation, conducting due diligence, valuations, and best practices in working with investors. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5 11 a.m. SFA Research: Today's Specialty Food Consumer Join the team behind SFA's newly released Today's Specialty Food Consumer annual research, including David Browne, market research retail and brand consultant, and David Lockwood, research consultant. They will discuss who makes up the core specialty food consumer, their buying habits, preferences, and drivers, and how the pandemic has changed and influenced their behaviors. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6 11 a.m. Sourcing With a Focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion The retailers and e-tailers on our panel, which includes Jeremiah McElwee, chief merchandising officer, Thrive Market; LeShaun Smedley, manager of diversity and inclusion at Kroger; Rachel Krupa, founder of The Goods Mart and Krupa Consulting; and Kate Weaver, supplier diversity manager for Peapod Digital Labs, are committed to sourcing from vendors who provide the best products for their customers while following the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Join us for a discussion on how buying decisions are made at some of the most interesting and important specialty outlets. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7 11 a.m. Will Foodtech Change What We Know About Making Food? Join three leading experts in the food world as they discuss how our everyday staples—eggs, sugar, milk—are radically changing, and what that means for the new wave of products coming to market. Whey protein just like a cow produces in their milk, but not from a cow? Larissa Zimberoff, author of "Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat," will lead a discussion with Oregon State University's Food Innovation Lab and CPG expert Sarah Masoni and Jonathon Deutsch, upcycling evangelist and professor at Drexel to tease out what this means for our favorite foods, and the foods yet to be dreamed up. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8 11 a.m. Trends from Fancy Food 24/7: Trendspotter Panel SFA's Trendspotter panel of buyers, writers, researchers, and industry watchers explore SFA events, seeking out patterns and predicting shifts in food and beverage categories. Listen in to be among the first to learn about the hottest trends that will take us to 2022 and beyond, from Kantha Shelke, a principal at Corvus Blue LLC, a food science and research firm that expedites development and commercialization of new food products, and Lisa Schwartz, chef, journalist, and cookbook author.

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