Food Protection Trends - July 2010 - 402

from the executive director
s we prepare for the July issue of Food Protection Trends, June is just now upon us. As Vickie related in her President’s Column, the US Memorial Day holiday traditionally marks the beginning of summer for America. It is something we always look forward to, but this year even more so with the extreme winters most of the USA endured. In IAFP, June marks a new beginning for our European Symposium on Food Safety. I say it is a new beginning because for the first five years, this symposium was held in October or November and now this year, we have moved it forward on the calendar to June. This came at the advice of our organizing committee and the change in date, along with the selection of Dublin, has proven to be a successful combination. It is still too early to report on a financial outcome or final attendance number, but it appears we will have more than 275 people in attendance with a possibility to reach 300 or more. This compares to totals of 215 last year and 209 the year before. Needless to say, we are very pleased to see the support shown through these registration numbers. In addition, we are equally happy with the eager support provided by the exhibitors and sponsors of the European Symposium. We will provide a full report along with a sponsor listing and pictures in the August issue of Food Protection Trends. We are excited to continue with the organization of our European Symposia in the second quarter of the year and expect to announce the 2011 date and location in the coming months. It has been a challenge for the IAFP staff to simultaneously organize the European Symposium and IAFP

“COMMENTARY”

By DAVID W. THARP, CAE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

“We hope you will join us in Anaheim for what will truly be a stellar event in IAFP’s history”

2010. There are a number of functions for both meetings that have run on parallel tracks over the past couple of months. Program preparations, speaker communications, exhibit sales, registrations and hotel reservations all have been underway for both events. I want to take just a minute to recognize the great IAFP staff we have working in our Des

Moines office. It is their extra effort and dedication to IAFP Members that have allowed us to plan and conduct these two superb meetings at the same time. It has not been without challenges and frustrations, but the end result will be worth the effort put forth. Thank you to the IAFP staff! Of course we cannot make meetings happen without the help of many of our Members. We have an energetic organizing committee for the European Symposium who have also dedicated many hours of their time to ensure the program content will be top notch. There are countless hours of time taken to verify presentation timing, proper title and subject matter focus and then the presenters also have to provide their time in preparing a presentation abstract and their actual presentation. So, we must thank everyone who combined their effort and donated their time to help the IAFP European Symposium on Food Safety be such a success. I mentioned IAFP 2010 in Anaheim is also in full swing for preparations as it will begin just seven short weeks after the Dublin Symposium concludes. All of the print materials for IAFP 2010 are in their final layout phases and at the same time we had been working to complete the handout materials for Dublin. So many of the functions for one conference were taking place at, or about, the very same time as they were taking place for the second conference. We are fortunate to have a dedicated staff to keep it all straight! It is also appropriate to thank, in advance, everyone who is working to make IAFP 2010 a great success! This includes our exhibitors and sponsors who support IAFP 2010 financially along with each of our

402 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | JULY 2010

Food Protection Trends - July 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Food Protection Trends - July 2010