Who’s ready for Baking Tech 2019? In this episode we discuss the American Society of Baking annual conference offering with Kent Van Amburg, Executive Director.

ASB is a trade association in the commercial baking industry. Members are individuals, not companies. Members are students, industry professionals and retirees. ASB’s mission is to help all the individuals in the commercial baking industry to further their career by providing education and broadening their network.

Their annual meeting is called Baking Tech. This year the highlights are on the future of baking.

3 keynote speakers

• Dr. Morgaine Gaye – Food Futurologist
  Dr. Gaye looks at food and eating from social, cultural, economic trends, branding and geo-political perspectives. Her work involves collaborating with food manufacturers on developing new products and ideas.
• Tom Gumple – Founder of MDJ Baking Inc.
  Mr Gumple wil be covering what’s going on in the future of bread production and what innovations we’ll be seeing from the baking companies 10-15 years down the road.
• John Frehse – Senior Managing Director of Ankura Consulting Group, LLC.
  He’ll be discussing some innovations in labor management, specifically looking at the type of labor that is used in the commercial baking industry.

Bread Talks

This is New! There will be 2 talks and the purpose is to get people thinking and to start questioning what is everything in the future of commercial baking or their part of the industry. The first bread talk is called: Baked in Space. Sebastian Marcu will discuss the challenges of baking bread in space. The second one concentrates on the emerging market of At Home Meal Deliveries: This will be a panel discussion concentrating on a presentation from Blue Apron. They’ll be discussing their future plans within the industry for incorporating bread in this segment.

Young Professional Session

This session targets individuals that are younger than 40 years old. The purpose of this session is to provide a friendly and comfortable place to network with their peers. This section puts together their own program, and this year they decided to discuss Advocacy Marketing, developing the brand story through advocacy. This means they’ll be addressing how companies develop a brand but also how they can develop their own brand. The speaker for this session is Danielle Benjamin from Canyon Bakehouse, a company that’s done an amazing job in their marketing and growth.

Product Development Competition

The purpose of this session is to facilitate the development of innovative bakery products. These products are developed by students. Some of these students haven’t been exposed to the baking industry, ASB is connecting them to mentors, finalists get an AIB scholarship and an opportunity to tour a commercial bakery while in Chicago for the competition.

This year the theme is Flatbreads. There are 15 teams from across the country that submitted proposals,  4 finalist teams were selected. Each team gets 20 min for a presentation and answer questions from the judges. Through the meeting app, attendees are able to rank them 1-4, which will allow for some extra points towards the final ranking.

Prizes include: 20k in scholarships, AIB will also offer every single finalist a scholarship to their residency program.

All these new and expanded offerings to ASB are all because of their sponsors. If you’re interested in sponsoring the sessions/meeting, please contact Kent at kvanamburg@asbe.org.

Remember there’s still time to become a member (and if you’re one, remember to renew!). Check it out at www.asbe.org