Food Protection Trends - April 2009 - 202

from the executive director “COMMENTARY” T his issue of Food Protection Trends is our pre-Annual Meeting issue where you can learn about all that will be offered this year at IAFP 2009. First off, let’s make sure you know the location! IAFP 2009 will be held at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center located in Grapevine, Texas. This facility is only fifteen to twenty minutes away from the DallasFort Worth Airport, so access is very easy. Stan Bailey has already described the hotel and convention center in his President’s column this month, so I will just affirm that everyone will enjoy this wonderful venue. It is beautifully decorated, large enough to hold all of our meeting needs and has many unique features when compared to other hotel facilities. We have received a few questions about other hotels offered for IAFP 2009. Because the Gaylord Texan contains more than enough rooms to fit our attendees’ requests, there is not a need for us to contract with additional hotels in the area. When considering optional hotels, you need to take into account the taxi or rental car expense and the related parking fees at the Gaylord. For these reasons, we encourage you to book your room at the Gaylord and enjoy all the resort has to offer! Our Annual Meeting coverage begins on page 236 and shows the program topics, workshop o f fe r i n g s , a dd i t i o n a l eve n t s including the golf tournament, Monday Night Social and the Tuesday Evening Fundraiser for the IAFP Foundation. You should review this information carefully By DAVID W. THARp, CAE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR “We encourage you to participate in IAFP’s conferences wherever they take place around the world” to plan your experience at IAFP 2009. It is sure to be an historic event. I want to change topics now to provide a short update on the Dubai International Food Safety Conference (DIFSC) held recently, in late February. In fact, I am preparing this column from Dubai as I participate in the conference. It is IAFP’s second year of involvement and we can already see our efforts are paying dividends. The Dubai Municipality became a Silver Sustaining Member, an Affiliate was established titled the United Arab Emirates Association for Food Protection and we have seen Member growth in the Middle East and Gulf Region. IAFP is proud to be a supporter of this conference and looks forward to many years of continued participation. During the opening plenary session, Stan Bailey and I presented Hussain Nasser Lootah, Director General of the Dubai Municipality with a commemorative plaque recognizing their efforts in food safety. In prepared comments, I explained the special relationship IAFP has with DIFSC and the Dubai Municipality. It has been exciting for IAFP to be involved with this growing food safety conference in the beautiful city of Dubai. This year in Dubai, there were many people who stopped me to say they were IAFP Members. They are proud to be associated and known as a Member of the Association. T h o s e M e m b e r s communicate with each other around the conference and help to encourage new Memberships. Also, it is interesting to know that more than fifty percent of the speakers were IAFP Members. There were close to 850 attendees this year at the Dubai International Food Safety Conference. DIFSC is organized and supported by the Dubai Municipality. They recognize the significance of having and enforcing strong food safety laws. They see the importance of sharing food safety information among food safety professionals in the region and that is the reason they have now organized this conference 202 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | APRIL 2009

Food Protection Trends - April 2009

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