Everything you ever wanted to know about Alaska food available under one roof: that’s how the promoters of Global Food Alaska 2007 are pitching the event scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday at the Soldotna Sports Center.
No event like it has happened in Alaska before, and one won’t occur again until 2009, according to event spokesperson Robin Richardson, president of Global Food Collaborative LLC, one of the sponsors.
The event is open to anyone in Alaska’s food-supply chain — from major commercial and institutional buyers such as Alaska school districts and the Alaska Marine Highway System, and smaller businesses and organizations, like restaurants, hotels, bed-and-breakfast operators, to suppliers of all kinds, Richardson said. Exhibitors — there is a rapidly growing list — will serve as hosts.
Attendees will be able to meet directly with food, beverage and bio-product buyers and sellers from around Alaska and access and work with Alaska’s entire food supply chain — harvest to market — under one roof, Richardson said. Among other things, those in the food industry may find ways to reduce shipping costs to and from Alaska.
“People are looking for efficiencies,” Richardson said. “A lot of people are coming up to address that issue and there are a lot of people participating who want to find solutions.”
Show hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, and while most hours during the two days are to be devoted to industry members, the general public will be admitted on Thursday afternoon from 3 to 5 p.m. Public admission is $10.
A successful event depends on broad participation, Richardson said. Thus, buyers of Alaska seafood, produce, agricultural and manufactured products are invited to register and participate at no charge.
The two-day conference, organized by Global Food Collaborative LLC and Kenai Wild, is expected to include more than 100 product and service displays.
Among the sponsors listed on the event Web site are Lynden International, GCI, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Agrium, and Era Aviation.
Scores of companies and organizations already have registered and are listed on the Web site at www.globalfoodcollaborative.com.
Richardson said she is enthusiastic about the entire event, and she’s really jazzed about a particular group expected to attend.
“One thing I think is the coolest is that the ‘Deadliest Catch’ captains are coming,” she said, referring to several Bering Sea crabbing skippers who have become popular figures nationwide as a result of the Discovery Channel show.
Richardson said she never expected they would come, but was contacted by the fishers who offered to attend, saying they wanted to be part of the event.
“They said they would spend the entire two days and talk about the business of the Alaska seafood industry and crab,” she said.
Hal Spence can be reached at hspence@ptialaska.net.
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