Food Protection Trends

COMMENTARY from the executive director
November 2005

““A review of IAFP 2005””
By David W. Tharp, IAFP Executive Director

This issue of Food Protection Trends is the largest ever produced which is probably appropriate because within this month’s FPT is included a review of IAFP 2005 which was the largest Annual Meeting ever held by IAFP! A number of years ago, we changed FPT to a perfect bind (glued on cover) from a saddle stitch (stapled on cover) for this reason – to enable FPT to produce issues of more than 100 pages. Looking back, this was a good decision!

For the review of IAFP 2005, we must first report on attendance. Again this year, attendance exceeded our expectations and increased by 12% to 1,774 attendees. This was an increase of 190 attendees over IAFP 2004! The hotel we chose (four years prior to the meeting) was a great property with beautiful views of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, but ended up being too small for the needs of our meeting and attendees. In the end, it all worked out and we had an excellent meeting!

A review of IAFP 2005 begins on page 838. If you were able to attend, we hope this review brings back memories of things learned and friendships made. If you were not able to be with us in Baltimore, maybe this review will entice you to begin plans now to be with us in Calgary for IAFP 2006.

IAFP’s encouragement of student activities continued again this year with students helping in each of the session rooms. As a part of this program, the student monitors are asked to write a summary of the session they are assisting in. These summaries begin on page 870. Our thanks to all of the students who helped out at IAFP 2005 – this is a great program that assists both our Student Members and the Annual Meeting!

Students also participated through the student booth where they held a job fair with job postings as well as student resumes for those actively searching for their first job. The job fair has worked out very well over the now many years it has been held. For educational purposes, a Student Luncheon was held on Sunday with more than 70 in attendance and for fun, a Student Mixer took place on Tuesday evening.

A new Student Travel Scholar-ship was established for IAFP 2005 with two scholarships being awarded – one to Brooke Whitney from Virginia Tech and the second to Stephen Grove from the University of Tasmania. Both students were awarded the scholarships during the Opening Session on Sunday evening. You may read summaries regarding their participation in IAFP 2005 beginning on page 870. For 2006, the IAFP Foundation will support four scholarships. We are proud of our student involvement and look forward to increased activities in the future.

Social events are a large part of the IAFP Annual Meetings and this year we held the Opening Reception on Sunday evening in the exhibit hall; on Monday we cruised the Inner Harbor on a dinner cruise; and on Wednesday, the Awards Banquet was held. In addition, all breaks were held in the exhibit hall and lots and lots of conversations took place in the foyers. Many of our survey comments report that networking is a very important part of the IAFP meeting. We can learn so much from each other in face-to-face conversations!

Presentation reviews submitted by Dr. Douglas Archer (our Ivan Parkin Lecturer) and Dr. Michiel van Shothorst (our John H. Silliker Lecturer) are presented on pages 856 and 863, respectively. Both lectures were well received by those in attendance. Thank you to Dr. Archer and Dr. van Shothorst for their excellent presentations.

I want to take a minute to thank Jill Snowden, the Chairperson of this year’s Local Arrangement Committee (LAC). Jill organized and helped keep the Capital Area Food Protection Association volunteers on track throughout the meeting. The LAC volunteers helped at registration, with the silent auction, in the audiovisual-speaker ready room, and with all social events. Thanks to Jill and thank you to all the volunteers who assisted during IAFP 2005. Your help is very much appreciated!

Also, I want to sincerely thank each of our sponsoring companies and our exhibitors. With your wonderful support, the IAFP Annual Meeting has grown and thrived. Listings of exhibitors and sponsors and are shown on pages 924 and 931 respectively. We appreciate the assistance sponsors and exhibitors give through their financial support. This helps make IAFP’s Annual Meeting the best gathering of food safety professionals any place in the world! Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in Calgary.