Co-located FS/TEC, NAFEM events spark higher attendance

Nation's Restaurant News,  Oct 29, 2007  by Alan J. Liddle

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ATLANTA -- Attendance was up and the exhibit area sold out at FS/TEC 2007 in this, the first year of a co-location agreement with The NAFEM Show equipment and supplies event, organizers said.

Produced and managed by Nation's Restaurant News with Robert N. Grimes, chairman and chief executive of Potomac, Md.-based Accuvia, the 12th annual International Foodservice Technology Exposition ran Oct. 10-13. FS/TEC was held at the Georgia World Congress Center here and featured prominent foodservice and technology experts in keynote speeches, general sessions, educational seminars, vendor tutorials, an awards luncheon, and nightly social and professional networking events.

In addition, more than 160 companies exhibited their foodservice technology products or services at the conference.

This year's FS/TEC theme was "Networking for Profits," and NRN publisher Alan Gould said 2007's dual-show format, in conjunction with NAFEM's event, appeared to create a profitable experience for attending professionals.

"Combining NAFEM and FS/TEC seems to have made perfect sense for the attendees and the exhibitors of both events, and we look forward to doing more of the same in future years," he said.

FS/TEC's educational program touched on everything from career tips for chief information officers and hiring pointers for the companies wooing them to tools for enhancing food safety and facilities management. The conference also focused on strategic considerations being weighed by chain CIOs and executives of major technology vendors.

The founding sponsors of FS/TEC are MICROS Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. The corporate sponsors are Epson America Inc., PAR and Radiant Systems Inc. Affiliate sponsors are HyperActive Technologies Inc. and Torex Hospitality.

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