It's hard to believe Catersource + The Special Event 2024 wrapped up over a month ago already! We are certainly feeling inspired and energized for the year ahead. In that spirit, we'd like to share our 2025 Call for Speakers! Take a moment and submit your topic for this ultra-creative conference loaded with fresh and impactful content. We want to hear from you now so we can build our best program yet.
Where & When: February 24-27 in Fort Lauderdale, FL at the Broward County Convention Center. We are partnering once again with The Special Event, with a combined tradeshow floor that will bring over 5,000 professionals and 300 suppliers together to provide an unmatched opportunity to source, network, and learn in one-sensory stimulating environment. You can immerse yourself in a spectacular event that encompasses everything catering- and event-related. The alliance of these powerful, established brands will bring unique industry all-stars from both worlds—under one roof for four momentous days.
Additionally, we'll once again be hosting Art of Catering Food. Held the two days prior to Catersource Conference & Tradeshow, Art of Catering Food (AOCF) is a stand-on-its-fabulous-own event, with all of the delicious samples, networking lunches, tours, parties, and togetherness you can pack into two days. Taking place at Broward County Convention Center, the event will be highly experiential, focusing on catered events of all kinds.
Our Audience: Our audience is in the business of helping people celebrate the most important milestones in their lives. They are on and off-premise, doing drop off delivery, executing private parties to multiple day festivals, driving food trucks, and setting up field kitchens and events in the most unlikely of places. Caterers and event planners are some of the hardest working people in business today.
The Education: Over 120+ sessions will span the length of the conference, within tracks such as:'
- Culinary (culinary techniques, F&B trends, demos, industry concerns such as food waste)
- Event Trends & Production (events, wedding trends, destination events, more)
- Business & Professional Development (best business practices, business growth, C-Level operational strategies)
- Trends & Design (related to colors, floral, lighting, venues)
- Off-Premise Catering (drop off, corporate catering, events)
- On-Premise Catering (colleges & universities, hotels, casinos, stadiums, wedding & event venue catering)
- Sales & Marketing (client-facing ideas and strategies)
- Sustainability & DEI
More interested in presenting during AOCF? Food and beverage (and recipes to accompany) are at the helm of this conference, but we are also looking for hands on activities, solutions for off-premise catering in dire or unusual conditions, outrageously creative ways to deliver the guest food experience, and more. Put your thinking cap on: what have you learned over the past year that you could share with your colleagues to make their work lives easier? What was the restaurant or food truck experience that you recreated and turned into a best-selling short plate on your wedding menus? What are your best catering hacks? What is the best way to pack a catering truck for an off-prep event
How to Apply: Click here to fill out your submission for Catersource Conference & Tradeshow, and to get all other details as well as some ideas to get you thinking about the kind of session you'd like to present. Click here to fill out your submission for Art of Catering Food.
Your Deadline: The deadline for speaker/session submissions is June 10, 2024 at 11:59 pm CST.
We can't wait to see you next year in Fort Lauderdale!
