Food Tank Summit Recap

I had the privilege of attending the Food Tank Summit last month as a member of the media.  It was filled with interesting speakers and attendees with a background in food and agriculture or who had an interest in these areas.  While many of these events can serve as an echo chamber for a certain viewpoint, what was nice about this summit was that Food Tank made an effort to have a diversity of speakers with contrasting ideas.  One example that really stood out was GMOs, which are hotly contested and definitely in need of serious debate, so I appreciated hearing speakers with different viewpoints on this issue.  I also appreciated getting to hear from such a wide variety of speakers ranging from restaurant owners, to media members, to representatives of government agencies, to founders of food businesses, to members of non-profit organizations. From a networking standpoint, I don’t normally get to meet so many people in one place who care about our food system and having substantive discussions, so this event had great value to me.  And as one who plans so many events, I know how much work goes into coordinating so many details and promotion, I was very impressed to see such a large scale event run so smoothly and make such effective use of technology.  I look forward to attending again next year!