Expo & Education Event

This year’s Expo & Education Event was held again in Newark, Ohio!

 

Day one included a presentation on Navigating Difficult Conversations, provided to you by the exciting new LEAD to Succeed™ training from the School Nutrition Foundation!  We discussed the different conflict styles and depending on your conflict style, how that benefits or not benefits you as a leader. How good of a listener are you? As food service workers, we are constantly working in teams. Difficult conversations are bound to come up. How do you handle it and what might be a better way to approach it? We ended day one with trivia! Thank you to Andrew Mendez for hosting the fun night!  Day one also included a networking trivia social event that evening.  It was so fun to team up school and industry partners to compete.

 

Day two included multiple sessions in the morning, leading into the exhibit show that afternoon! We started the day hearing industry professionals about why the exhibit show is important and how to navigate it effectively.  How to make food shows effective?  Be engaged during your time there.  Take the time to have conversation and give feedback. This is an opportunity to find out about new products or see a product being used in a way you might not have thought about before. Always bring your business card, identify your goals, and take pictures/take notes of the products.

 

The next presentation was Go Team Go: Presented by Connie Little.  What is team work? Why is team work important? The benefits of all members contribution. Learning new ways to solve challenges. Efficiency and productivity increases. Team pride in the accomplishments. Seven components of teamwork: trust, respect, communication, sharing, encouragement, adaption to change, accountability. SMART Goals. 

            

To end our presentation part of the day we heard from ODE on updates regarding everything from CEP updates to verification reminders. 

 

The final session How Do You Bring Value To The Workplace? was again provided by the LEAD to Succeed™ training program from the School Nutrition Foundation.   

 

We then jumped right into the food show. Lasting a little over 2 hours, members were able to taste and experience hundreds of new products and services! Thank you to industry for being a huge part of the SNA Fall Expo & Education Event and allowing our members to get inspired and find new things to menu in their program!