5 Questions with Erik Wolf of the Foodworx Conference
Erik Wolf serves as the Executive Director of the World Food Travel Association, the world’s largest community of almost 35,000 food, drink, travel nd hospitality professionals in 135 countries. As the visionary founder of the world’s food tourism industry, Erik is a highly sought speaker, thought leader, strategist and consultant, in the US and abroad, on food and drink tourism issues, and is considered the go-to food tourism industry resource for media outlets everywhere.
We asked him a few questions about his upcoming event, the Foodworx Conference happening on Saturday, February 7, 2015.
1. You're about to host the third Foodworx Conference in Portland, Oregon. Can you tell us what the conference is all about?
FoodWorx is an exceptional annual event welcoming hundreds of food-focused people – business owners, consumers, thought leaders and industry experts – to come together and discuss the future of food and drink that is important to us all.
FoodWorx is different from other food issues events. First, FoodWorx takes a hard look at the combination of food with a major industry sector like transportation, technology, medicine and so on. FoodWorx discusses today’s issues and their impact on tomorrow, and presents food for thought how we can work together to solve – or celebrate – issues that affect us all. We all eat and drink. If you care about what you put in your body, then you cannot afford to miss FoodWorx!
FoodWorx was the first public event to explore the Future of our Food. We have continued to refine this approach each year to source and deliver the most relevant content for our audience. Thank you for your support!
2. Who attends the Foodworx Conference?
Everyone who cares about the food and drink that they put into their bodies. This includes consumers, business owners, thought leaders, students, journalists – everyone who eats or drinks.
3. What's new at this year's event?
New this year is the lunch experience curated by Whole Foods Market, featuring 40 regional food and drink vendors. We’re also streaming the event live around the world. We change venues this year so that we can do more with food and drink.
4. Who are some of the speakers that you are looking forward to hearing?
Oh, wow, that’s hard. I’m looking forward to all of them. I think one of the most unusual talks is about astronaut food and space tourism, i.e. what we’ll be eating when we travel into space as tourists. But literally every single talk interests me!
5. Tell us about the panel discussions
We’ve got a couple of great panels this year. The first panel looks at food labeling. Did you know that in the United States, “olive oil” only needs to contain a drop of olive oil to be called “olive oil”? Yep, it’s the law. We don’t think that’s right. We look at this and other labels like organic, natural, etc. and discuss the changes needed. The second panel looks at reforming the food distribution system, not just for retail food stores and restaurants, but institutional foodservice as well. Our industry experts will share their insight so that we can help move the progress forward.