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James Beard Foundation Announces Seventh Annual JBF Food Conference

James Beard Foundation Announces Seventh Annual JBF Food Conference


NEW YORK, NY
Thursday, July 14th, 2016

As the industry shifts and swirls around the ever-evolving trends and creations within the industry, James Beard Foundation (JBF) has announced that its upcoming annual Food Conference will celebrate and explore the theme. 

This October, attendees of the seventh JBF Food Conference will experience the theme Now Trending: The Making of a Food Movement, in a two-day event. 

Mitchell Davis, Executive Vice President, James Beard Foundation

“In a world of 24-hour news cycles and viral hashtags, we are so susceptible to trends and forever craving the next big thing,” said Mitchell Davis, Executive Vice President of the James Beard Foundation. “By looking at other trend-focused industries and other social movements our esteemed speakers will present thought-provoking views to evaluate our appetite for change and answer the all-important questions: Is there a food movement, who is part of it, and what is it moving toward?’”

As experts from all industry realms prepare for the event, JBF is planning to explore the birth and subsequent span of trends as they spawn and influence food-systems. In a recent press release, the foundation announced that the conference will digest and discuss how the enthusiasm for a topic becomes a social movement. 

Attendees of the conference can experience the following speakers and panelists: 

  • Tim Gunn, Actor and TV personality: Discuss the way trends impact individual behavior
  • Madhur Jaffrey, Actress and Cookbook Author; and Adam Gopnik, Writer: Debate over the lasting value of food trends
  • Eric Wolfson, Founder of Freedom to Marry: Present lessons learned from the LGBTQ movement to strategize for the food movement.
  • Sam Kass, former Obama Administration Senior Policy Advisor: Will go head to head with challengers opposed to the existence of the food movement

This year’s event will also include the James Beard Foundation Leadership Awards dinner and ceremony, which will take place the first night of the conference at Hearst Tower, co-hosted by Good Housekeeping. The ceremony will honor the following visionaries and influencers, who will also participate in the conference: 

  • Greg Asbed and Lucas Benitez
  • John Boyd, Jr.
  • Anna Lappé
  • Jim McGovern
  • Raj Patel

The Food Conference will be held at the Convene Conference Center in New York on October 17 and 18. Conference attendees are also invited to the official welcome reception, which will feature winners of the Blended Burger Project, at the James Beard House on October 16. 

For registration information, and a list of funders for this year’s event, click here.

James Beard Foundation