My wife Bernice and I founded Catersource in October, 1992. We saw a need to organize and educate professional on and off-premise caterers on the art and science of catering, plus we needed to pay our mortgage! Right from the start we created a win-win situation for ourselves and our customers. In the early days, I travelled North America presenting ninety days of seminars each year!
In 1992 we also held our first conference in New Orleans. Just under three hundred caterers came to the first conference. We didn’t have a tradeshow, but we did have three vendors who set up tables in the back of the room. It was a grand time. Looking back, one can say that the growth of the Catersource conference, from then to now, has been amazing! In 2012 thousands of caterers will become part of the greatest gathering of catering professionals in the world in Las Vegas!
What we learned starting with our first conference was that while education was important, networking was why most people came. For many catering business owners it was the first time they had a chance to speak and share info and ideas with their peers. The friendships that have been formed during networking at our annual conferences have changed the industry and greatly benefited the public that use caterers.
Each annual conference permits caterers to see, touch, and taste the latest trends. Additionally, attending caterers return home with a large number of ready-to-use marketing, selling, pricing, and management tactics and strategies that will increase their company’s profits and raise their staff’s quality of life.
Yes, it costs a good amount of money to make the trip to the conference, but these costs, and your tuition, are negligible when one considers the business benefits taken back from the conference. Over the last twenty years over 40,000 catering businesses have added worth to their companies by attending, taking video and photos of what they see, making friends to chat with all year round, and adapting what they learn to their own operations.
Education, networking and new friendships are the fuels that power culinary and business growth for catering companies – come to Las Vegas to fill and top off your fuel tanks! If not now – when? See you in Las Vegas!
