Are you planning to attend a Food and Beverage Expo or tradeshow this year? Attending a large-scale event can be intimidating so, let us help pave the way to ensure you don’t miss any important stops (and opportunities). 

Join our panel of industry experts to learn the "ins and outs" of making expos and tradeshows work for you and your business.  From networking to checking out the competition, and hopefully accessing the buyer, there are several key tasks you will want to accomplish. 

It is an exciting time to be working in food & beverage; get a sense for the state of our industry and let innovation come to you by attending an upcoming expo event.  Whether you are hosting a booth or walking the show, join CFBN and JPG Garden for this interactive session where you will walk away with specific actions to ensure you get the most out of your next Expo experience. (Maybe even next week’s Expo West!)

AGENDA:

4:30 pm Arrival & Networking for In-Person Attendees

Moderator:

Alan Reed, Executive Director, Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network and Bigger Table

Alan Reed is the Executive Director of Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network and Bigger Table. Prior to this role, Alan was Executive Vice President, Strategy & Innovation at Dairy Management, Inc., and was responsible for creating and driving innovative strategies to grow dairy demand. Alan has a degree in Telecommunications from Indiana University and an MBA in Management & Strategy from Northwestern University.

Panelists: 

Maya French, Founder, MJF Ventures, LLC.

Maya is a serial entrepreneur with 7+ years of experience in the Food and Beverage Industry. She previously Co-Founded the brand Koia, a plant-based beverage, at the age of 23 alongside her partner Dustin Baker in 2013.  With no prior experience in food and beverage, the pair sought to fill a market gap with high protein, low sugar protein drinks after discovering she was lactose intolerant. Since then, the brand has sold nationwide in over 18,000 retailers with over 25m in sales annually. Through Koia, Maya saw the opportunity to improve the health of others through better-for-you foods, and in 2020 began investing, advising in other healthy snack brands. Maya strives to mentor other early-stage entrepreneurs in the industry so that they can avoid the many bumps she faced early on. Her overall mission is to deliver easy access to healthy, better-for-you food/beverages to the masses by creating category disruptors that pave the way for other natural foods in mass markets.

Lauren Gollnitz, VP of Marketing, Simple Mills 

Lauren joined Simple Mills in 2018, after spending 7 years at Unilever in brand management, customer marketing, and innovation roles on a range of personal care and food brands.  As VP of Marketing, she oversees brand strategy, product portfolio management, and integrated marketing activities across paid, owned, and earned channels. Lauren has an undergraduate business degree from Indiana University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 

Brian Polencheck, Partner/VP Sales, FDM Business Development LLC

Brian has been Partner and VP of Sales for FDM for the past 10 years. He has 15 years in management with a major specialty food distributor, and eight years as sales manager with Manischewitz, the nation’s premier distributor of kosher foods.

Dean Sinclair, Business Partner, Garden & Business Development, JPG Resources/JPG Garden

Dean is a Business Partner with JPG Resources based in Battle Creek Michigan, which has a strong presence in Chicago and NY. He leads the JPG Garden practice area with business partner Veronica Lehman. The Garden platform offers CPG Founders coaching and resources to help grow their food and beverage start-ups or emerging brand. Dean has been a CPG Founder and business coach since 2009.

   We appreciate the support and collaboration of our sponsor for this event:      

• SP+ Parking: 1014 W Carroll Ave https://goo.gl/maps/3Tonf5Nq7YC7VQDMA (.4 miles)
• SP+ Parking: 328 N Ada St https://goo.gl/maps/AttuZ26WS1EnT8aJ6 (.7 miles)

• Metered: Metered street parking can be found generally to the east and south of CoLaboratory
• Free: Free street parking is limited but can generally be found on the surrounding blocks including Lake St., Racine St., Fulton St., and others north and west of CoLaboratory. Be sure to check street signs to avoid parking tickets, as signage for construction work changes often