Reflections

FoodPro24 Thrive Conference,Friday June 7th, Vancouver

Happy Monday Everyone!

I have had the weekend to reflect on attending the annual BC Food & Beverage FoodPro conference last Friday. This year’s event felt a little different right from the start. I should add that I wasn’t there last year due to a wildfire highway closure, but there was a much different vibe compared to 2022 and it took me a bit of time to process.

FoodPro24 Thrive Conference had an agenda packed with passionate entrepreneurs, origin stories and triumphs over personal, physical and financial barriers that generated a couple of well-deserved standing ovations. The audience was heavily engaged in the presentations, showing how much the content resonated with today’s business environment. The stories were a testament to the sheer grit it takes to be in business – especially food!

Some of my favorite parts:

Tareq Hadhad shared a gripping story of how and why he founded Peace by Chocolate. Many of us were moved by parts of the story such as his father keeping the factory running in Syria to ensure his workers could continue to earn and thus increase their chance to survive the conflict.

Lily Harper had many of us doing a self-check on how far we have come by our late 40’s and early 50’s. Lily founded Lily Lou’s Aromas and at the age of 10, has hit a $1 million in sales and has written a children's book to accompany one of her best selling products.

I enjoyed seeing Brian Saul from Brand Natural on stage with co-founder, Johanna Israel-Duprey. I have been a longtime fan of Brian's work, and the presentation he made about authenticity hit home for the folks at my table. We linked it to focusing on specific markets and problems to solve – many brands try to be everything to everyone and loose opportunities to capture key customers

Jerin Mere, co-founder of Nude Beverages, shared the roller coaster ride of creating and scaling with examples of working the cold calls, building customer relationships, creating demand and midnight fundraising to make it to the next day.

Taylor Lindsay-Noel, Cup of Té, was an excellent story of pivots and becoming a food business when it wasn’t her first, or second choice. Another great example of creating a strong brand around the product and how she had to manage the disruptive growth of being put on “Oprah’s list” of favorite things.

The BC Food and Beverage State of the Industry Report was very much top of mind and moved through discussions all day. The big takeaway here is that building or maintaining a food or beverage business these days is tougher than ever.

The ‘Scale and Sell’ panel said it well: ?– “there are always headwinds.” ?I feel that all agencies supporting the food manufacturing ecosystem need to take note that we need to do our best to keep our foot on the gas and help build strong, resilient companies that can push through these rough times of high interest, labour shortages, supply disruptions and more. Fighting these headwinds will require continued support, at scale, for innovation, productivity, and scaling.

·??????? Not one at a time.

·??????? Not just a little bit here and there

·??????? And not just the low hanging fruit

I think the speakers and content of the event were well matched for the audience and the current business environment out there right now.? The vibe was very different - reflective of the intense pressure being felt my the food manufacturing sector right now.

As I begin my week, my mind is on all those working so very hard. Kudos to the food manufactures out there today, tomorrow, the next day, and the next day – building our economy, our communities and our future.

?It is always fantastic to connect in person! Thanks Lindsay Bisschop Zac de Vries Linda Dun Andrea Hoerger Mat Patterson Mica Munro Rickey Yada Marc Wandler Kimberly Chamberland Sid Mehta Alisa Hutton James Donaldson Maria Ivancic and many more for your time to talk shop!

Protein Industries Canada

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