Are you wondering if attending industry events as a food and beverage business or professional is worth your time?
Read on to find out.
Why Attend Food Industry Trade Shows?
If you are a processed food and beverage manufacturer, a food ingredients supplier, a restaurant operator, a hospitality company with F&B outlets, etc., attending the trade fairs and other similar events is worth your time and investment. Even third parties that supply adjunct products or services to F&B manufacturers, restaurants and other F&B organisations – e.g., these third-party providers include logistics companies, software companies, banks and financial institutions, and packaging manufacturers – will find value in attending.
The following are some of the reasons why exhibiting at or participating in food industry trade shows is worth it:
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Meet Clients and Suppliers
You can meet your entire supply chain, upstream and downstream, at trade fairs, trade shows and industry conventions. Meet suppliers, buyers, distributors, retailers, and service providers. You can also find organisations from specific verticals you can cooperate or work with to create innovative products or solve persistent problems.
The following are some examples of the connections you can forge at F&B industry events like Gulfood Manufacturing:
- A canned beverage company can find manufacturers of concentrates, colouring agents, flavours, and speciality ingredients like energy, nutrient, mouthfeel, and flavour enhancers.
- A restaurant chain planning to offer diners vegan options can meet distributors of vegan steaks, burger patties, milk, cheeses, baked goods, and beverages.
- A vegan steak manufacturer can get acquainted with companies that manufacture or distribute high-moisture meal textured proteins, protein isolates and concentrates, starches, fibres, fats, oils, flavours and seasonings, colours, and vitamin and mineral premixes.
- A wholesale distributor can find products to stock supermarket shelves or offer to F&B manufacturers.
- A bread manufacturer can meet the suppliers of ingredients (e.g., bread improvers) and equipment (e.g., dough rollers and sheeters) they need for cost-efficient operations.
- F&B manufacturers can find packaging suppliers.
- Distributors can find logistics providers and transportation solutions providers.
Since F&B trade shows bring together industry experts and players, networking opportunities abound. They enable manufacturers to forge partnerships, explore collaborations and expand their business networks.
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Learn
Trade fairs and shows often include summits and focus sessions on relevant topics. Interested in sustainability, net-zero and plant-based strategies? There are probably talks on the trendiest topics and the F&B industry’s most pressing threats and opportunities.
Don’t quite know how to automate your manufacturing workflows? There should be other manufacturers and solutions providers at the event that could teach you and demonstrate how things work for you. There might even be sessions in smart factories, discussing how to integrate enterprise resource planning, 5G, internet of things, eSIM, artificial intelligence, and machine learning into manufacturing operations for better efficiency and productivity.
Do you need help generating more profits or onboarding investors on your F&B venture? You can listen to talks on monetisation and pitching strategies or talk to business owners, venture capitalists, and others who have been there and done that.
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See or Showcase New Products, Technology and Innovations
If there’s one place you will be able to see the latest marinating injectors, vacuum mixer blenders, dough rollers, pasteurisers, sugar dissolving systems, and mixing tanks, it’s at F&B manufacturing trade shows. Indeed, participating in trade fairs is fun because you can see the newest models of manufacturing equipment or even prototypes of machines that won’t be released until a few years later. More importantly, seeing all these new products and innovative ingredients may inspire you to develop new products yourself.
Likewise, if you have cutting-edge tech or innovative solutions to present, a trade fair is a great place to showcase them. You have in one place everyone who might find a use for or get inspired by your invention or product. You can improve awareness for your company, products and services and, hopefully, win clients or get other organisations to buy into your idea or innovation.
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Gain Feedback
Especially if you’re offering something radically new to the market, the participants at a trade show can give you valuable feedback. You can use that feedback to gauge product-market fit, predict how well your product will do when you launch it, and gain insights into how to improve or change it so your target market will buy it.
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Gain Insights
By interacting with exhibitors, listening to resource persons and conversing with other attendees, F&B manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and suppliers can gain insights into consumer and client preferences, emerging trends and market demands.
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Build Brand Visibility and Enhance Credibility
Building brand visibility and enhancing brand credibility are two major benefits of exhibiting at trade shows. Want to increase brand recognition significantly? Invest in a custom-made stand. Make it the tallest, widest and biggest stand in the hall and place it at the centre, perhaps near the forum or summit area, or the hall’s busiest intersection.
Attending trade fairs will give your brand a big boost of credibility. Your clients and suppliers can be assured as they can meet and talk to you in person. At trade shows, your presence can be reassuring, and your mere absence can be worrying. In the case of the latter, the companies you do business with might wonder if you are having problems and if it might be time they shop around for a replacement supplier.
Show Up and Represent
F&B manufacturing fairs and shows are an excellent venue to learn, showcase new tech and innovation and win new business. At the very least, attending these will boost your brand visibility and credibility.