San Diego Graphic Recording Event – The Flavor Experience.
On August 18-20th, we worked a San Diego graphic recording event for The Flavor Experience 2024! This is an annual event that brings together some of the biggest and brightest in the foodservice industry, all concentrating on the main theme of trends and flavor!
DAY 1:
Since this was the 20 year anniversary of The Flavor Experience, to kick off the event, Cathy Nash Holly (President of The Flavor Experience and Editor in Chief of Flavor & The Menu magazine) and Katie Ayoub (Managing Editor of Flavor & The Menu magazine) took attendees on a flavor tour with A Trends Timeline: 20 Years of Flavor Trends to Predict What’s Next and also sharing Flavor’s 2025 Trends Forecast. Attendees were even given samples of items such as Taiwanese pineapple cake for a more interactive experience.
DAY 2:
KEYNOTE Speaker Author Dan Heath in his talk Overcoming Obstacles & Driving Lasting Change, shared advice from his recent book, RESET, relating it to the foodservice industry. Dan added some sprinkles of humor to liven up the crowd and get them prepped for their long day of sessions.
In Disrupting the Dine: Navigating Shifting Consumer Decisions, Maeve Webster (President of Menu Matters) shared how diners have changed over the years and how the foodservice industry can meet the current wants and expectations of consumers.
For 5 Macro Themes to Grow Your Business in 2025, David Portalain (Senior VP & Food Industry Advisor for Circana), shared the current state of the consumer and how the food industry can use that to their advantage for growth.
The Next Big Beverage Trends shared by Renee Lee Wege (Trendologist, Senior Publications Manager, Dataessential) listed some of the newest trends in both alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.
In Calamity as Inspiration: Learning To See Food System Challenges As Opportunities for Innovation, Dr. Jason Evans (Founding Dean of the College of Food Innovation and Technology at Johnson & Wales University) shared with the audience calamitous events (in business and life) that have shaped future changes/innovations and how the food industry could do the same.
DAY 3:
In The Race To The Next Generation: Where The Industry Should Look To Drive Distinction, speakers Graham Humphreys and Betty Kaufmann, explained how younger generations are changing the future of dining and how the foodservice industry can adapt to these changes.
For the next session, Author Arielle Johnson dove deep into some of the concepts of her book, Flavorama: Unlocking the Science & Art of Flavor, sharing with the audience that flavor is just more than just what we taste. This was also an interesting session since it also turned into a discussion/Q&A session for the attendees.
Final session of the day was A Journey to the Future of Flavor by Mike Kostyo (VP of Menu Matters) shared with the attendees the possible future of the foodservice industry based on what was predicted and what is currently trending.
After each session, we placed the completed boards out in the main hall for all of the attendees to see. We got some amazing reactions from the attendees and really enjoyed speaking with everyone who were involved in the event.
Thank you to The Flavor Experience for entrusting us as their first graphic recorders for the event. It was a great experience for us as we learned so much about the foodservice industry and flavor (we did not have time to taste everything, but all the food smelled so good!)
Nick and Angela