Education Sessions Recap from The Global Produce & Floral Show

At the Global Produce & Floral Show on October 17, IFPA kicked off the education sessions with our two main keynotes, Cathy Burns with the State of the Industry presentation and Marc Randolph, founder of Netflix. Additionally, between these sessions, a series of fast paced workshops took place during the Education Festival. Here is a brief sample of some of the sessions that took place!

The State of Science

The morning’s Education Festival kicked off with Vonnie Estes, IFPA’s VP of AgFood Tech Innovation, hosting a panel of speakers exploring what technologies are on the market, and what customers are excited about. The use of technology has become a mainstay in the industry, so now what does the future look like?

The panel immediately touched on the excitement surrounding breeding technologies. While the 2000s saw the growth of disease-resistant biotechnology, new benefits are being offered to customers today. Purple tomatoes, for example, are the latest innovation being touted for their nutritional benefits.

Another innovation seen in recent years is that of Del Monte’s pink pineapples. Aesthetically pleasing to look at and post online, they also provide a value proposition for shoppers with their nutritional benefits. Their place in the market has been well-received by consumers and is here to stay.

A common theme emerged throughout today’s panel: Companies must express a desire to connect with their shoppers, and the topics of nutrition and sustainability were emphasized. If you deliver benefits to your consumers, they will come. Bundling consumer and grower traits has proven to be a win-win, and retailers are encouraged to open their doors to these opportunities.

Biotech and boosted breeding technologies continue to evolve, especially in the face of the climate crisis. Growers must adapt to changing temperatures, and handle water stresses.

What does the timeline look like for everything that’s in the R&D pipeline? Well, some innovations may debut within the next year, but others have yet to announce an official launch date.

The future will see a large focus on plant architecture. The panel encouraged attendees to deliver relatable traits to consumers, while solving issues for crop growers and retailers. Confronting challenges with a full toolbox will result in rewarding outcomes for all.

Increasing Demand in the Retail Space

Did you know that shoppers make their buying decisions in a matter of seconds? While going for the “tried and true” products, allowing new offerings to emerge at the forefront is top of mind for several key players. This panel highlighted the benefits of collaboration, creativity, and conversion when increasing demand in retail.

Do you understand your shoppers? The need to listen and work together has never been more important. Finding unmet needs to solve is foundational. From there, working the resolution into the marketing of the product will aid in communicating with the consumer. But it doesn’t stop there.

Yan Branco, Lead, Produce Sourcing Innovation & CEA Development at Sobeys, noted that “The world doesn’t stop once a product hits the shelf.” The need to communicate and look and shopper marketing data must inform future decisions, and further the innovation pipeline. While projects can end up on the backburner due to budget constraints, world events, or other delays, maintaining a sense of urgency is still very important.

It all comes back to the fact that 60% of shopping decisions are made at the point of purchase. Marketers must pull a product along all steps of the production process – from sourcing the products, to putting them in stores. Packaging, messaging, and the promise of quality must all be on point, especially for younger generations who are shaking up the current market.

Creative branding will get attention and drive customers to produce brands more effectively. “Experience drives consumers,” said Joe Watson, IFPA’s VP of Retail, Foodservice & Wholesale. As they make memories with a company’s products, positive experiences will bring them back again and again.

General Session – That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea

Marc Randolph was the co-founder and first CEO of Netflix and played an essential role in the company’s transformation. But his career goes back more than four decades! He’s a serial entrepreneur and serves as a mentor to several startups. He believes there is no such thing as a bad idea, but shared with attendees how they will find themselves on the path to success.

He began with his dad’s advice: “The only way out is through.” When Blockbuster first rejected Netflix’s business proposition, he wasn’t sure what would come next. However, as he and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings found themselves working through months’ worth of business ideas, he realized that the following traits helped him on his entrepreneurial journey:

If you are unwilling to disrupt yourself, there are plenty of other competitors that will be happy to do so.

Develop a tolerance of risk: Doing something that you don’t know the outcome of can serve as an important learning process for future attempts.

Have confidence: You must continue to believe in your concept, even if others do not.

New technologies, current trends, and business models may foster new ideas, but “looking for pain” is Randolph’s tried and true technique. He encouraged the audience to look for problems in their businesses, or with customers, and to find ideas worth developing in order to solve them.

The concept of good ideas continued to present itself. Randolph’s key to innovation emerged when he realized that it didn’t make a difference whether something was perceived as a good idea or not. The best ideas were the concepts that resonated with people, and building a system, process, and culture for developing the idea at hand.

Randolph concluded by pointing to the ideas we all have in the shower. Toweling off and doing something about the idea, learning, and growing, will propel an entrepreneur or company to where they want to be. “I am living proof of this!” he said in closing.