Food Protection Trends - May 2010 - 266

from the executive director

“COMMENTARY”

any times I am asked how IAFP decides on our meeting locations, whether it be Annual Meeting, our European Symposium or the International Symposium. It might be good to review our procedures to familiarize you with our selection process. For the IAFP Annual Meeting, we are normally working on site selection four to five years in advance of the actual meeting taking place. We have found that this ensures our ability to find locations that match well with the needs of our meetings and attendees. For instance, at the current time we are working to finalize contracts for IAFP 2014 and have begun the city selections for IAFP 2015. We begin the selection process with a Board review of where we have been (prior meeting locations) and where we will be meeting in the upcoming years. By looking at those locations, we can then assess if there is an area of the country that we have not recently held a meeting or do not have plans to hold a meeting in for a number of years. Our “unwritten rule” is to not return to the same city or state for a 10-year period. We also avoid returning to the same facilities within a city where we have previously met. By adhering to these “guidelines,” we feel our Annual Meeting attendees are able to experience new cities and exciting properties each and every year. Once a review of our past and near future locations is completed, we can then properly look to the future. In an Executive Board discussion, regions of the country are discussed and advantages of each are addressed. The Board ends their discussion with a short list of cities to be considered. It should also

By DAVID W. THARP, CAE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

“We feel our Annual Meeting attendees are able to experience new cities and exciting properties each and every year”

be stated that IAFP avoids holding successive meetings in the same geographic region. For instance, we do not want to hold a meeting in Orlando followed by a meeting in Atlanta. It is our preference to move it around the country to allow for variety and ease of access for Members around North America and the world.

At the point where the Board develops a list of cities, IAFP staff then conducts a search of facilities in those cities and arrives at viable options for the Board to consider. After this Board discussion and arriving at a more defined direction, staff continues to focus in on a specific city or facility to arrive at contractual agreements. It is a long process, but one that has proven to provide a good variety of facilities in many interesting cities around North America. We are fortunate to be of a size where we have many options for facilities to accommodate our Annual Meeting needs. Although we have outgrown most single facility properties, we have found many new opportunities that offer new areas to explore! For our European Symposium, we rely on the organizing committee to give us direction on where to establish our meeting site. In years past, we held this symposium during the fourth quarter of the year and that was somewhat limiting on acceptable locations. This year, we moved the symposium to June and will hold the event in Dublin. In the future, we hope to be able to establish at least a two-year list of future locations but at present, we are still planning one-year at a time in Europe. We have seen an increased interest in the European Symposium and have worked to spread the news about IAFP’s efforts in Europe. If you have colleagues in Europe who could participate we hope you will encourage their active involvement in IAFP’s European Symposium. This can help to further their contact list within Europe and beyond. To conclude, let me review our International Symposium and

266 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | MAY 2010

Food Protection Trends - May 2010

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