We all dine daily. Meals represent an iconic, even celebratory, joy that tracks back to earliest childhood, and often to some of life’s most cherished, and certainly most comforting, memories. Thus, the subject of food and beverage is always near and dear to everyone’s heart.

Indeed, everyone loves to eat. People may not agree on social policy, religion or music, but everyone agrees on a succulent steak, a tasty paella or a scrumptious piece of pie. So when it comes to F&B at association meetings, planners need to be up to speed on the latest food trends and deliver what attendees want and need.

The Survey Says

According to the annual National Restaurant Association (NRA) “What’s Hot in 2010” survey of American Culinary Federation member chefs, a comprehensive culinary forecast, the top F&B trends are local sourcing, sustainability and nutrition. The top five trends are mini desserts and locally grown produce, locally sourced meats and seafood, sustainability as a culinary theme, and locally produced wine and beer. The list also includes half-portions/smaller portions for a smaller price, farm-branded ingredients, gluten-free/food-allergy conscious meals and sustainable seafood.

Also on the list are superfruits, organic produce; regional ethnic cuisine; non-traditional fish, including barramundi (farmed fish) and Arctic char (looks like salmon, tastes like trout), and newly fabricated cuts of meat, including Denver steak (generously marbled, juicy and tender) and pork flat iron steak (gigantic portions, impressive presentation).

How do the top three F&B trends — local sourcing, sustainability and nutrition — play into association meetings, conferences and trade shows? All of the meeting planners to whom Association Conventions & Facilities spoke agreed that these top F&B trends are becoming increasingly important to attendees and the organizations that sponsor their meetings and events.

The National Association of Catering Executives

With more than 4,000 members, the National Association of Catering Executives (NACE), headquartered in Columbia, MD, is one of the most prominent and respected food industry organizations in the U.S. It serves catering professionals, and the vendors and suppliers that support them. From July 25–28, NACE will hold its annual conference, to be known as “Experience 2010!” It will take place in Austin, TX, at the Hilton Austin Downtown.

According to Leslie Jones, NACE’s director of education and certification, who also handles meeting planning, approximately 700 association members will be in attendance at the NACE conference this year.

“This year’s theme is sustainability, which obviously is a big trend in the industry today,” said Jones. “To support that, one of the exciting things we will feature this year is what we term the ‘Culinary Experience.’ We will pair off four local chefs from the Austin area. They will partner up with local farmers and local farmers’ markets in the Austin area. They will work on menus that will focus on sustainability and the use of local ingredients. This is something we want to showcase this year.”

Jones explained that NACE’s Culinary Experi­ence is similar to the Iron Chef show on the Food Network. Four chefs will be up on the stage. The moderator for the event is from Whole Foods, the natural foods retailer, which is headquartered in Austin.

The National Association of Catering Executives' 2009 Experience! conference in Charlotte, NC, included a Global Luncheon, which revolved around ethnic foods. The 2010 Experience! will feature a sustainability theme. Photo by PKphoto.com/indigo/courtesy of NACE

“Each chef will prepare a different item,” said Jones. “What’s nice this year is that we will be eating the same dishes that the chefs will prepare that day. One chef will prepare an appetizer, another will do an entrée, another will do a dessert and another will do a salad. The Culinary Experience takes place during one of our general sessions, so we will serve everyone at the same time in the same room.

“This year, we will serve the appetizers and the salad first,” said Jones. “We will have two chefs come up and prepare these items. Then we will have a break. After that, we will serve the entrée. Then, we will watch a demonstration concerning what went into preparing the entrée that all of the attendees were just able to experience.”

Jones explained that as food service professionals, NACE attendees always take a proprietary interest in F&B when they get together with each other each year. “At NACE, food is very much a centerpiece and a cornerstone for our conferences,” said Jones. “Our attendees really come to the conference to learn new [food] ideas, to see the latest developments in F&B and so on.

“What is really nice is that we always give all of our attendees copies of the menu,” said Jones. “We routinely receive feedback from our attendees who take the menus back to their catering companies. Or if they work at hotels, they take the menus back to their chefs, and say, ‘Look, at what they did at the Experience! Conference. We should be doing that here.’?”

In the 2009 Experience! conference, held at The Westin Charlotte, NC, NACE used its “Global Luncheon” to educate attendees about ethnic events and ethnic foods. “We showed our attendees how to plan them, what are the customs specific to each event, and so on,” said Jones.

The American Counseling Association

From March 18–22, approximately 3,600 members of the American Counseling Association (ACA), Alexandria, VA, met at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh for the organization’s annual convention. For ACA, it was the second largest meeting in terms of revenue and members in the past 10 years.

The headquarters hotel for the convention was The Westin Convention Center, Pittsburgh, which is located adjacent to the convention center. The Omni and the Hilton and the Renaissance picked up ACA’s overflow.

F&B represented a key element of the ACA conference, according to Robin Hayes, ACA’s director of conference and meeting services, and a member of ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership’s meetings and expositions section council. She and her colleagues planned the F&B component for the event so that it matched some of the key food trends detailed by the 2010 NRA survey.

“Our attendees are more conscious of foods today, and they want foods that are healthy,” said Hayes. “For our lunches, we did a percentage that were vegetarian as well as gluten-free for folks with dietary needs. When we had our opening party at the convention center, because our group is so diverse, we included ethnic cuisine, something Italian, something Asian, that sort of thing. We certainly tried to mix it up.”

Is F&B important for ACA attendees? “It is no secret that one of the ways to attract folks in the hall is by having quality food. That helps build traffic,” said Hayes. “Our attendees are counselors. Some of them who come to the conference must pay out of pocket for their meals. This can represent a huge expense. Therefore, we try to provide some sort of meals to help offset their costs.”

Hayes agreed with the NRA regarding the recent push to buy nutritious foods on a local basis. “I see the trend is shifting to healthy and locally grown,” said Hayes. “That is one of the reasons why we love to be in Pittsburgh. A lot of their food is locally grown. In fact, the David L. Lawrence Convention Center has a garden on the rooftop where they grow a lot of their vegetables and fruits. Being green is something of which they are very proud.”

Society Of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography

When it comes to association meetings, Dana Neill, CMP, is an enthusiastic advocate for fresh, nutritious foods that are purchased locally. Neill is the new director of meetings for the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT), Vienna, VA. SCCT is the international professional society representing physicians, scientists and technologists advocating for research, education and clinical excellence in the use of cardiovascular computed tomography. SCCT has about 2,900 members.

Known as CT, computed tomography is a high-tech medical imaging method that involves computer processing. Previously, Neill handled meeting planning for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), Washington, DC.

“I like local ingredients and produce. That keeps costs low. It also provides a better menu for attendees,” said Neill. She spoke of her previous work with NAW. “F&B was an important aspect of NAW’s meetings and events. We always made sure to get local produce and local meats,” said Neill. “We did a lot of meetings in Chicago, so that was easy. We also made sure portions were smaller. I will continue to do that at SCCT, helping to provide smaller portions and mini desserts that attendees really like.”

Neill noted that SCCT conducts six to eight small meetings each year and one large convention. This year’s annual conference will be held from July 15–18 at The Bellagio in Las Vegas. SCCT members will come from all over the world to attend the meeting. She pointed out that as medical professionals, SCCT members are very nutritionally conscious. Plus, because the membership is international, a diverse menu, with numerous ethnic options will make sense for the conference.

National Association Of Sports Commissions

More than 600 attendees noshed and networked at the National Association of Sports Commissions’ 2010 Sports Event Symposium, which took place in April at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Pictured above is the keynote luncheon, which was sponsored by Sports Illinois. Photos courtesy of Wonderworks Studios

Providing healthful food options to attendees at their events is important to the National Association of Sports Commissions (NASC) headquartered in Cincinnati. NASC is the sports event industry’s leading networking organization. NASC members — more than 500 organizational members and about 2,000 professionals — include organizations that attract sporting events to their community (for example, sports commissions and convention and visitors bureaus), event owners, and vendors and suppliers to the sports event industry.

The NASC Sports Event Symposium is a national conference held each April. This year, it took place from April 13–15 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, OH. The Hyatt Regency was NASC’s headquarters hotel. About 600 NASC members were in attendance.

“At our events, we try to get away from heavy desserts,” said Beth Hecquet, CMP, NASC’s director of meetings and events. “Instead, we offer our attendees more protein, mixed nuts, and a nice selection of fruits and berries for dessert. We want to provide foods to attendees that will not drag them down, for example, selections with high sugar contents. Instead, we try to provide protein-based foods.

“For next year’s event, we are thinking to provide sliced apples with either prepackaged peanut butter or caramel dip,” said Hecquet. “Things like that energize attendees throughout the day, instead of giving them a sugar overload that makes them crash during the middle of education sessions.

“Our second trend, as far as our luncheons go, is that we do not like to have dinner for lunch,” said Hecquet. “So, we have been trying to get a little more creative with our lunches. We have two lunches during our conference. We do one as a plated meal and one as a buffet if possible.

“This past year, we went family style with slider stations,” said Hecquet. “We had crabcake sliders, vegetarian sliders and beef hamburger sliders. We had french fries and a huge garden salad. Thus, our attendees could pick and choose and create their own meals. It wasn’t the typical chicken, starch and a vegetable. On our second day we had stations where attendees could create their own pasta meals and salads. Also, we had warm pizza that was already pre-sliced.”

Hecquet stated that NASC also now makes day-long soft drinks and snacks available to attendees at their conferences. NASC does so at the cyber cafés it now sets up at its conferences.

Centerplate

Clearly, nutritious F&B choices are becoming increasingly important for association meeting planners and their groups. This tracks closely with F&B trends as identified by the NRA. What other F&B trends are taking place that directly affect associations and the meetings and events they sponsor? To learn about these, Association Conventions & Facilities spoke with executives at Centerplate, the giant hospitality firm headquartered in Stamford, CT.

Centerplate is the F&B vendor at 40 convention centers throughout North America. Additionally, among other activities, it provides F&B at numerous high-profile events, including all NFL games, as well as the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl; the NCAA Final Four; professional baseball games; and the recent Nuclear Security Summit, held in Washington, DC.

“I think that flexibility and no-perceived-value-change are the main F&B trends today,” said John Vingas, senior vice president in charge of Centerplate’s Western convention center operations. “Shows are becoming much more flexible today. So, the last days for events are sometimes becoming half-days, which eliminates our lunch opportunities.

“At the beginning of events, we are seeing receptions truly becoming bona fide receptions, not three-hour strolling smorgasbords for various food concepts, followed by live entertainment,” said Vingas. “Receptions are becoming 11/2-hour events, with either cocktails and light hors d’oeuvres, or just beer and wine and soft drinks of course. Associations are cutting back on their expenses.

“Also, we are now waiting longer for the registration numbers to come in as clean as possible,” said Vingas. “We prefer our guarantees to come in 72 hours in advance, but in some instances we are now waiting until only 48 hours so the meeting planners can get their arms completely around what their registration numbers are, and not just assumptions.”

As associations cut back on their budgets, how does this affect the quality of F&B at their meetings and events? “Through some good menu engineering, we have managed to keep meals whole,” said Vingas.

“We are protecting the guest experience yet maintaining a sensitivity to the budgets of today,” said Bob Pascal, Centerplate’s senior vice president of marketing.

What does Centerplate think of the NRA’s F&B trends vis-à-vis associations’ current meetings and events? “We are really not out of the box any longer.” Said Vingas. “Today, it’s the same basic commodities we all have been serving for many years that are still very much in fashion. For example, we continue to serve nice portions of chicken breast, standard salmon, mahi mahi, halibut and top sirloin.”

“The distinction now is that even though these are familiar dishes, through the presentation, the sauce, or by other means, you now add excitement to what on the surface might seem to be traditional dishes,” said Pascal.

What about the trend to buy F&B locally? “Most certainly, we are going to regionalize to our locales,” said Vingas. “So, in Vancouver we will be using British Columbia farm-raised hens with a more traditionally Northwestern flair. For our Southern California operations, we will adopt a Southwestern flair.”

“I think conventioneers are much more interested today in the provenance of foods served,” Pascal said. “As a result, our chefs are now taking a long, hard look at that, and trying to incorporate local food choices when they can.”

“We certainly try to do so where it makes financial sense,” said Vingas. “But everything is relevant to our customers’ budgets. If we can incorporate locally grown produce, and we are dealing with the same price and we are cutting out food miles, I think that is a good thing for the environment and for everyone involved. However, in many instances sustainable food products and the organic products are dramatically more expensive and prohibitive for many of our planners’ budgets.”

Hecquet agreed that in the final analysis, budget trumps sustainability, buying locally and so on for association events. “We are very much into partnering with our host communities and whatever organizations we are working with, whether it is Centerplate or other F&B vendors,” said Hecquet. “I rely on the expertise of such firms to advise on the best ways to maximize my budget and still provide top-quality food and beverage items.

“No question, sustainability is very important, and it would be great to always use locally grown foods,” continued Hecquet. “However, due to budget restraints, sometimes doing so is just not going to be financially possible.”

Pay What You Like

In addition to the 2010 food trends spotlighted by the NRA, the “pay what you want” trend is also spreading slowly across the country. According to a recent article in The New York Times, Panera Bread, a quickly expanding U.S. chain restaurant, no longer charges set prices for the meals it serves in one of its outlets in Clayton, MO.

Instead, the café requests that diners pay whatever they think is fair for the food items they order. They do so by putting their money in lockboxes. This pay-what-you-want pricing policy represents a trend that has developed out of the organic food movement.

One World Everybody Eats, a Salt Lake City restaurant that opened in 2003, is one of the oldest dining establishments to operate on a pay-what-you-want basis, although it now suggests that diners pay a nominal amount for their meals, for example, $4 for their main entrées. The nonprofit group that runs the unusual eating establishment advises restaurant owners how to implement the pay-what-you-want approach.

So what about pay-what-you-want F&B for association events? Certainly, associations, which like every other organization, have had to reduce their meeting budgets in recent years, would like (love!, love!, love!) this option. Of course, it would be naive to think that hotels and other venues, with decreased bookings, tightened budgets and increased competition, will offer groups a pay-what-you-want F&B plan any time soon.

However, some hoteliers are classic outside-the-box thinkers, so maybe hope exists. Think not? Then stay a night at Winvian Cottages, Litchfield, CT (quirky playhouses for adults); the Kunst Hotel, Berlin (rooms with oddball themes such as shoe fetishes and Audrey Hepburn); the Ice Hotel, Sweden (made entirely of ice and snow); and the Poseidon Undersea Resort, Fiji (40 feet below a lagoon’s surface). Thus, when it comes to pay-what-you-want for F&B at association events, never say never. After all, association meeting planners can dream, can’t they?    ACF