Arlington, VA – The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) announced today that FMI Connect, which was next scheduled for June 13-15 as a co-location with United Fresh in Chicago, will be discontinued. Instead, the association will shift its focus to designing an event more in-line with the accelerating pace of the grocery sector.
“FMI aims at all times to be as agile and as bold as required to serve the needs of our members as well as the broader food industry,” said Leslie G. Sarasin, FMI President and CEO. “Therefore, we must design new occasions that are more appropriate to the faster paced rhythms of food retail, and in unique formats more attuned to the specific needs of our industry.”
The show was co-located at McCormick Place with United Fresh and the newly launched Global Cold Chain Expo. The combined events drew 13,926 attendees this year, of which 6,464 were unique visitors to FMI Connect. FMI Connect showcased products that included food, food servicing, catering services and food retail products. The show also hosted 491 exhibitors.
The institute’s portfolio already includes a number of conferences that are more vertical in nature than FMI Connect, dealing with varied topics such as meat merchandising, legal issues and supply chain. It also hosts the invitation-only FMI Midwinter Executive Conference for senior-level executives of the industry.
Sarasin said, “With the elimination of having to fill two football fields’ worth of space as ‘The Show’ configuration required, FMI will be liberated to explore new, focused and more flexible events.”
Reach Leslie Sarasin at (202) 452-8444 or lsarasin@fmi.org
