Food Protection Trends - January/February 2021 - 111

Our Experiences (continued)

I am deeply honored and humbled to have been selected as a recipient of the IAFP 2020 Travel Award for a Food
Safety Professional in a Country with a Developing Economy, and am truly grateful to the IAFP Foundation for the
opportunity to attend IAFP 2020, A Virtual Annual Meeting, the Association's first-ever virtual meeting of its kind.
I should emphasize that despite the ensuing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizers have taken
a truly appreciable and remarkable initiative to keep my aspirations alive with attending my first IAFP Annual Meeting
and extracting the maximum value out of it. For me, this was the very first time attending a conference held completely
virtual. The meeting platform was very attractive and offered easy navigation, and by the end of the first day, I was fully
familiar with all features available. Although I missed the in-person experience of networking, along with numerous
coffee breaks and lunches, the alternative networking events offered during the first and the second day of the conference were quite innovative and unique and nearly replicated the actual experience. The virtual exhibit booths were also
set up in a highly interactive manner, and I managed to establish some contacts with some of the exhibitors to get my
queries answered.
The breadth and depth of the technical content covered in the sessions remained up to my expectations. I was
eagerly looking forward to listening to the presentations in the technical session on " Alternative Protein Sources for
Chathudina Janitha
Future Foods: Food Safety Challenges " and the roundtable on " Pre-harvest Food Safety Challenges and Research in
Liyanage
Developing Economies " to gain insights to shape my ongoing research work. Both sessions were truly useful in that
Sabaragamuwa University
sense. Given the fact that the platform enables direct interaction for an additional six months after the conference to
of Sri Lanka
ask for any clarifications from the speakers is perhaps one of the best assets of the meeting, along with the ability to
Sri Lanka
view the recordings to note highlights. This feature also avoided the hassle of moving between rooms where concurrent
sessions are held in a typical in-person meeting. I was at ease during the meeting listening to the most interesting talks
in real time, knowing for sure that I would not miss any other interesting talks in simultaneous sessions.
I especially enjoyed the way in which the thematic focus shifted from audacious innovation to contemporary scenarios resulting from the pandemic,
from the Ivan Parkin Lecture to the John H. Silliker Lecture, and the amazing array of topics related to food safety covered during the three days.
In conclusion, I had a unique and fantastic experience attending IAFP 2020. I am also very glad that for the first time I was able to participate in a
comprehensive international meeting without physically leaving my home in Sri Lanka. I earnestly thank the organizers for their great efforts in 'recreating'
the whole meeting without exposing participants to any health risks related to the pandemic.

It was a great honor for me to attend IAFP 2020, A Virtual Annual Meeting. I would like to congratulate IAFP for such
an excellent and successful arrangement of this virtual event. The Exhibit Hall provided a good opportunity to learn more
about the goals and products of different companies and organizations. It was also a great opportunity to learn about the
latest updates on food safety standards and regulations across the globe. Different experts on food safety presented their
research work that will serve as examples to follow for the junior researchers and early career scientists.
Frank Yiannas and Mindy Brashears provided the U.S. Regulatory Update on Food Safety, which is a way for
developing countries to follow and adopt. Poster presentations were an excellent segment and the range of subjects
covered were from food safety policy to genomic analysis, providing innovative ideas for research and learning.
The most exciting part for me about this year's Annual Meeting is that contents are available for six months after the
close of the meeting, which helps to attend those sessions missed due to different time zones across the globe. I would
again like to thank IAFP for selecting me as a recipient of this Travel Award, which provided the opportunity to learn from
scientists and experts from around the globe.

Muhammad Bilal Sadiq
Forman Christian College,
A Chartered University
Lahore, Pakistan

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Food Protection Trends - January/February 2021

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