There’s a big deadline coming up on April 15 and it has nothing to do with Form 1040. Next Friday is the last day to register for the annual Food Safety Summit when full discounts will be available. The summit’s early bird registration rate and special hotel deals will not be available after Tax Day.

With registrations for the 2016 Food Safety Summit running ahead of previous years, more traffic is predicted for the event's trade show floor this year. For the first time in its history the summit is in Chicago, which organizers say is proving popular with attendees and exhibitors.
With registrations for the 2016 Food Safety Summit running ahead of previous years, more traffic is predicted for the event’s trade show floor this year. For the first time in its history the summit is in Chicago, which organizers say is proving popular with attendees and exhibitors.
Attendees of previous summits who are on the fence about whether to make the trip this year can be sure that new information and insight will be on the agenda, said senior event manager Adriene Cooper. The focus for the May 10-13 summit will be on recently published final rules related to the Food Safety Modernization Act and what food producers, handlers, wholesalers and retailers need to know to comply with them. “Beginning with our keynote and continuing through educational sessions we will cover the new rules,” Cooper said. “That’s what our regular attendees said they wanted this year.” Attendees with specific questions can visit the Food Safety Summit website to submit those queries before the event. Cooper said summit organizers want attendees to help shape the content of the event presentations. “It’s an interactive event and we encourage attendees to take make the most of the opportunity to ask these experts the questions they want answered,” Cooper said. With this marking the first year for the summit to be in Chicago, Cooper said response to the move from the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area has been tremendous. The number of exhibitors for the trade show floor this year is up 15 percent, with about 190 booths confirmed as of this week. Attendee registrations show similar strength, Cooper said. Another first this year is the opening of the trade show floor on the evening before the summit’s educational sessions begin. The show floor is being used this year for the Tuesday evening opening reception event, which is also a fund-raiser for the food bank network Feeding America. Cooper said the summit will match attendees’ contributions, as it did in previous years. Donations can be made in person or on the summit website. The 2016 summit will offer more information than ever before on products and services, with 13 Solution Stage presentations scheduled. Cooper said there was so much demand for the presentations this year that they outgrew the trade show floor. “We’ll have 10 presentations at the Solution Stage Theaters on the show floor plus three presentations in the conference area,” Cooper said. Attendees who are subscribers of Food Safety News can receive an additional 15 percent off the early bird registration price by using the discount code FSNReader16 when they sign up for the summit. The subscriber discount will remain available after the early bird registration period ends on April 15.
Booths on the trade show floor for the 2016 Food Safety Summit were almost full up at the end of March, with the white spaces on the above floor plan showing the available spots as of March 30. Organizers of the May event say a complete sell-out is expected.
Booths on the trade show floor for the 2016 Food Safety Summit were almost full up at the end of March, with the white spaces on the above floor plan showing the available spots as of March 30. Organizers of the May event say a complete sell-out is expected.
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