Volume 1, No. 16. September 7, 2001
Courting
food
This year's Fun Expo/AMOA International
Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 4-6 will have a noticeable new centerpiece:
food. For the first time, the show's organizers have invited food and food equipment
vendors to place their booths in "Restaurant Village" right in the middle of
the show floor. The concentration of food suppliers will surround a mini-theater
featuring 20-minute demonstrations on food preparation.
"We've always had food people in the show," said Carole Sjolander, executive
director of the International Association for the Leisure and Entertainment
Industry (IALEI). "What prompted us to do (the Restaurant Village format) was
the belief that a lot of fun centers are not doing food as well as they could
for customer satisfaction and their own bottom line." The schedule of seminars
will be posted at the theater, which will have about two dozen seats. "People
can get off their feet for awhile and learn something and be entertained at
the same time and rejuvinated," Sjolander said. "It also gives exhibitors an
extra opportunity to connect with the people who are attending." The village,
too, will get "good smells going on there," she said.
Food service gets further focus in the IALEI's seminar program in the two days
preceding Fun Expo. A full-day's worth of four workshops will be devoted to
the topic on October 3, while on the preceding day food will be integral to
an all-day seminar titled the "Birthday University's One-day Associate Degree
Program."