Eating at a Meeting

Event Professionals from across the country have told me on many occasions — and I've personally experienced it — that event venues refuse to donate leftover, untouched food due to concerns about food safety. One planner even shared that a hotel told his organization, "Don't make us do this," in spite of the fact that the catering contract stated all remaining, untouched food would be donated. Aub...

In late October Tracy visited the Javits Center in New York City to tour their rooftop farm and learn how they are using their harvest to feed employees and event goers. In two different interviews, Tracy chats with the Executive Chef Niko Marinos for Culivated, the culinary arm of the Javits Center as well as Orion Ashmore, the farm manager at the Javits Center for Brooklyn Grange Farms. Connect...

What do climate change, sustainability, and events have to do with each other? A LOT! Two weeks ago in one of my education sessions at IMEX — an events industry convention that has won awards for its sustainability efforts — I was surprised that only 10% of the attendees were currently incorporating sustainability questions in their venue requests for proposal or their events. To boot, a few other...

Recorded on Day 3 of IMEX America 2022. Tracy is joined by Katie Kulp, a meeting planner whose niche is planning events for groups who have disabilities. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeetin g thrivemeetings.c om

Recorded on Day 2 of IMEX America 2022. Tracy is joined by David Stevens who is a director of field marketing and global events who talks about how to create more healthful events by focusing on three M words — movement, mindfulness, and meals. Listen as they chat about how to provide for your attendees by creating dining experiences that are not exclusive, but inclusive. Let people make their own...

This episode of Eating at a Meeting was recorded live on day 1 of IMEX America 2022. Tracy sat down with Ruud Janssen of the Event Design Collective who designs award-winning corporate events and gatherings. Listen as they chat about how, when, and why food and beverage should be part of the design process. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeetin g thrivemeetings.c om

In this episode, Tracy sits down with Stephanie Beatie of Scottish Event Campus and Rory Archibald of Visit Scotland to talk about food and beverage and how to create safe, sustainable, and inclusive events in Scotland and in general. Listen to get great ideas on how they manage and promote their practices. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

October was National Disability Employment Awareness Month To bring more awareness to how food allergies (and other medically-necessary dietary needs) are disabilities that impact productivity, engagement, and inclusion in the workplace, I'm chatting with Lauren Soltwisch and Noreen Okarter, two young professionals with food allergies about the ins and outs of managing food allergy in theirs caree...

Monday, October 10, 2022 is Indigenous Peoples Day. To celebrate Native peoples throughout the US., Tracy chats with Chef Sean Sherman, co-owner of the restaurant Owamni (Minneapolis, MN) and founder of "The Sioux Chef", a company dedicated to revitalizing and reclaiming Native American cuisine. A member of the Ogalala Lakota Sioux tribe, Sherman is fervent about bringing indigenous food systems l...

On this episode, Tracy and Erin Malawar of Allergy Strong recap The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. This is the first conference of its kind in more than 50 years. The first and only other one was held in 1969. The Administration's goal is "to end hunger in America and increase healthy eating and physical activity by 2030 so fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases...

Megan Walker, Owner and Executive of Made by Meg had me at "health inspection score." She was teaching an educational session at The Special Event back in 2017 on what food safety means and what planners need to know/ask of their caterers. Yes! When I surveyed hashtag#EventProfs on how often they asked their caterers about food safety practices before COVID, 70% of them said NEVER. While we should...

Tracy has known Chef Todd Annis of Cru Catering for ~20 years when we were both in Atlanta - as a caterer and a corporate event planner. When I randomly found his podcast "Catering...WTF", I laughed, was amazed, and immediately reached out because the stories he shares about the behind-the-scenes of catering is important for hashtag#EventProfs to understand. Listen in as Tracy & Todd talk about TH...

On this episode of Eating at a Meeting, Tracy chats with Jennifer Squeglia CMP, principle at RLC Events, Inc. about what silver linings she sees that came from the pandemic throwing the industry in a tailspin. One of those is the value of sharing a meal with others. Tune in to learn how we can use the pandemic to adapt, execute, and use food and beverage as opportunity to foster connections and cr...

Have you ever witnessed someone having an anaphylactic reaction? It is pretty scary. Tune into the next episode of Eating at a Meeting LIVE to learn what my good friend and event planner Heather Herrig, CMP recently experienced to put her on the personal side of the dietary needs question on an event registration form. Heather has been a part of the meetings & events industry since 2005 - and love...

Meet the young entrepreneur — Zak Marks — who has lived with a severe nut allergy his whole life (24 years) and has created a company and product — Kitt Medical — "to save lives, implement change, and create a new standard for allergy care." Zak and the Kitt Medical team believe that EVERY public place must be equipped with emergency anaphylaxis provisions - just like a defibrillator, but for alle...

With airline medical kits not being fully stocked being in the news lately and it being Medic Alert Awareness Month, I wanted to talk event safety expert Alan Kleinfeld about what hashtag#MeetingProfs need to know. From hashtag#epinephrine to defibrillators, what should hashtag#EventProfs make sure their medical staff has on hand? Join Tracy and Alan on Wednesday for hashtag#EatingAtAMeeting LIVE...

Do you believe your food and beverage purchases have an impact on the environment? Do you follow a diet or eating pattern (clean, plant-based, mindful, calorie-counting)? Do you seek out "natural" foods to avoid artificial ingredients? Do you choose your beer to get more out of the price (higher ABV) or to reduce alcohol consumption altogether (zero ABV)? If any of these apply to you, then you're...

In this episode Tracy opens up the podcast to Eating at a Meeting followers to come on the show to chat about food and beverage. Nancy Sutta Burns and Lynne Wellish join her. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeetin g thrivemeetings.c om

As the partners of Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited, a Toronto-based consulting practice, Larry Mogelonsky and Adam Mogelonsky are a dynamic duo whose mission is to "write about the world of hotels and try to make hoteliers understand that there's more to their life than just counting the number of bread rolls in a basket." Their 40+ years of joint experience consulting with and staying in hotels, L...

Brandon Snook, pictured here with his grandma Ceese, is owner and chef of Hudson Valley BBQ Company. Brandon takes great pride in using locally sourced ingredients from the Hudson Valley so he can make almost all of the items offered on his catering menu from scratch on event day. Having grown up in the cattle country of Montana, there was always locally sourced food on his family table and every...

What does it take to manage food and beverage for one of the meetings industry's largest association conventions? Listen as Tracy talks with Tanya Philyaw, Senior Event Planner and Annette Gregg, Chief Revenue Officer for Meeting Professionals International about the organization's 2022 World Education Conference. They chat about how to use food to build community, what they are still learning abo...

In this episode, Tracey looked back through 150 episodes to find how her guess answers the question and what their perception of safe, sustainable, and inclusive is to them. From making a conscious effort to think about it to think about understanding where your food is from where you're getting it through allergy safety and making sure that everybody has a seat at the table. Hear Tracy reading ex...

The copy/paste approach to BEO, menu and service planning prevents achieving food waste reduction goals, introducing healthy and sustainable options, and capitalizing on other promising trends. Instead, we need to adopt the improv principle of "yes, and"! Opposite of the "we've always done it this way" thinking that is too common in foodservice operations and menu planning, Molly Crouch Corporate...

Brian Peterson is a 5th grade teacher, a beekeeper, and gardener. On this episode of Eating at a Meeting LIVE he's going to share how and why pollinators are so important to the food and beverage industry and meetings. As founder of the nonprofit Bees in the D, he's aiming to bring back Michigan's declining pollinator population and educating us all on the complexities and importance of bees and p...

I'm SO excited to be chatting with my friend and industry leader Rachael Riggs to talk about the 5 Dimension of Wellbeing on the Eating at a Meeting podcast this week. For more than 25 years, Rachael has been dedicated to creating holistic event experiences that motivate people to be the best versions of themselves. As the Wellbeing Leader of Maritz Global Events, she focuses on improving the gues...