Saladplate kicks off inaugural virtual theme-based Sourcing Festival

Virtual festival to connect food and hospitality industry with complimentary livestream of content and hot product showcases from 13 October to 2 December 2020.

The first virtual theme-based Sourcing Festival, opens with a jam packed session of free-to-attend industry webinars and product highlights to provide food and hospitality suppliers with a conducive platform to promote their products, and provide buyers with the opportunity to conduct business and gain important knowledge around key industry topics.

Live content stream

Featuring speakers from Asian Consumer Intelligence, Specialty Coffee Association, Nanyang Polytechnic, WWF-Singapore and SODEXO, the webinars will outline how businesses can take note of major trends and future proof their practices in the 'new normal'.

• In Market Trends of Fine Foods & Beverages - Product Launches, Ingredients and Opportunities, Asian Consumer Intelligence will give insights into the ingredients that will drive product launches, which new foods are expected to excite the Asian market and what product trends can tell businesses about the performance of their brands in the region.
• COVID-19 and the Future of Specialty Coffee presentation will touch on the present and future trends, competitive landscape and opportunities for independent and chain coffee shops.
• In the lecture Marketing Re-defined -- Design Thinking & Storytelling for Food Brands, SMEs and F&B distributors can get practical tips on effective communication and how to innovate their messaging in these challenging times.
• Sustainable Sourcing, Packaging and Future Proof Practices will look at companies are making science-based sourcing decisions that will help businesses grow. Industry experts will share how to combine smart business with new industry standards.

Product discovery stream

Hosted on the Saladplate platform, the Product Discovery Stream will highlight multiple sourcing days within a single, digital ecosystem. Focused on selected countries and categories such as Fine & Specialty Food, Alcoholic Beverages, Fruit Juice & Soft Drinks, Coffee & Tea, buyers and sellers will enjoy enhanced business networking through Saladplate Meets & Saladplate Match across the entire Sourcing Festival duration. They will also be able to join themed Networking Breakout sessions (Saladplate MatchLive) held after the industry webinars. 

October highlights:

• Week 1 (13 - 19 October) -- Fine & Specialty Food, Alcoholic Beverages, Fruit Juice & Soft Drinks, Coffee & Tea
• Week 2 (20 - 26 October) -- Health Food, Disposables
• Week 3 (27 - 30 October) -- Confectioneries & Snacks, Chocolates & Cocoa, Bread & Desserts & Baking Ingredients

Details of new content and product discovery streams will be announced here.

"As cross-border travel remains extremely challenging, we feel that the time is right to stage a virtual sourcing festival that runs over an extended period to bring curated experiences to communities of specific product categories and geographical interests," said Mr. Dave Chan, Founder -- Saladplate.com, Vice President -- Digital Business & Advanced Analytics, Informa Markets.

"This longer and richer event will afford our community members more space and time to gain maximum benefits from digital innovations and make it easier to connect one-on-one with prospective trade partners around the world. After the Festival, our community will find it a natural transition to continue the sourcing journey on Saladplate.com 365-day."

Sourcing Festival is organised by Saladplate in partnership with leading food and hospitality events organised by Informa Markets in the region -  FHA-Food & Beverage, Food & Hotel Malaysia(FHM), and Food, Hotel & Tourism Bali (FHTB).

Registration for Sourcing Festival:

For suppliers: Please register here. 

For buyers: Please register for webinars here. To access Sourcing Festival participants must first register with Saladplate.  

Join the conversation:

#fhsourcingfestival #saladplate #FHA #FHAFoodnBeverage #FHM #FHTB