The AACT Trends Forum will feature four speakers and explore trends in a variety of arenas including consumer research, flavors, and ingredients. Trends in confections from the marketplace and their influences will be presented as well as current trends in flavors and ingredients. We will also explore new ways to connect with the consumer to understand their preferences. There will be tastings and plenty of opportunities for questions to our panel of experts.

To follow, we will present the Walter Hopkins Memorial Scholarship winners.

5:30-6:00 Networking and Appetizers
6:00 Trends Forum Presentation
7:00 Buffet Dinner/BYOB
7:30 Scholarship Presentation

Register Here

Consumer Research: Blueberry Marketing Solutions
A full-service market research consultancy, Blueberry combines expertise in marketing research, product research & sensory science. The company excels at exploring the consumer usage experience across the product’s sensory elements… to understand the emotional connections that reveal aspirations and true motivators for product purchases.

Kristen Robeson
An experienced moderator with a strong marketing background, Kristen guides Blueberry’s Qualitative & Immersive Research practice. Kristen has the ability to cull deep and meaningful insights by getting inside consumers’ minds through the Consumer Experience Landscape approach.

Lisa McGurk
Lisa leads Blueberry’s Quantitative practice for food, beverage and personal care. With a blended back-ground of client, supplier and academic experience, Lisa brings a balanced perspective to her research projects. Grounded in real-world, practical solutions, Lisa immerses herself in her client’s categories to bring thorough yet innovative thinking to their research project.

Flavors: Comax Flavors
Sofia Elenis is currently Senior Food Technologist at Comax Flavors. As a technologist in flavor applications, her work to formulate new products as well as improve existing products has applied within the food industry to confectionery, beverage, bakery, alcohol as well as outside the food industry including cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and others. With ten years of experience working closely with clients on formulation development and improvement, Sofia works on the front-line of flavor trends and food innovation. She holds a BS degree in Food and Nutrition and is a member of the Institute of Food Technologists and Women in Flavor and Fragrance Commerce. Most recently, Sofia completed the Resident Course in Confectionery Technology at the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Ingredients: Ingredient Connections
Mike McDermott founder of Ingredient Connections Incorporated is a small local ingredient sales company representing dairy, fruit, vegetable, spice, herb, and flavor enhancing ingredient suppliers to the food processing industry in the Northeast Corridor. Represents primary ingredient processors, as well as companies who source ingredients from the US and from all over the world. All products are sold for industrial use, produced to quality standards of the food processing industry. Focus is to determine customer requirements in our local market and match those ingredient needs with the capabilities of our suppliers. Come prepared to taste confections using the more popular chilies we have out there.

Trends in the Marketplace: Trendincite LLC
Amy Marks-McGee is an award-winning creative marketing professional with over twenty years of success within the fragrance and flavor industry. Her work experience includes fine fragrance, air care, and personal care marketing for three leading fragrance houses. Amy founded Trendincite LLC, a consulting company to help clients cull through, distill, and translate pertinent trend information into tangible products. Amy’s strength is her ability to identify and analyze emerging trends early. She recognizes patterns across a variety of industries and concisely synthesizes the information into new product ideas. The company’s core values are to engage all five senses, capture inspiration from unexpected places, and make the creative process enjoyable. Her clients include fragrance and flavor suppliers, consumer packaged goods manufacturers, and market research firms. She has been recognized by Women in Flavor & Fragrance Commerce for the 2011 Woman of the Year Award for her excellence in marketing and leadership.