Call for Presentations

Who can present?

Presentation Outlines for Prepared Foods’ 2008 R&D Applications Seminar are now being accepted from ingredient suppliers, product development firms, software companies, testing labs, consultants, and academic institutions associations.

What kind of presentations?

The Seminar's continued success and credibility is highly dependent on the presenters who deliver educational, non-commercial, generic, practical, applications-oriented information to our bench-level R&D attendees.

2008 Program Documents

• CLICK HERE to view detailed Monday Schedule (PDF)
• CLICK HERE to view detailed Tuesday Schedule (PDF)
• CLICK HERE to view detailed Wednesday Schedule (PDF)

The R&D Seminar's 2008 Program will be updated regularly as presentations are accepted. Please check back with us.

How many presentations can a company submit?

There is a limited inventory of seminar presentations. To guarantee a broad spectrum of topics, organizations will be limited to a maximum of two (2) presentations.

• Presentations will be considered on a first come, first served basis.
• All speakers must register separately for the conference.
• Speaker registration policy. CLICK HERE for Speaker Registration Policy (PDF document).
• Presentation acceptance is at the discretion of the Seminar’s independent Advisory Board (see below).

Presentation Submission Process

Organizations interested in speaking at the 2008 R&D Applications Seminar must first submit a Presentation Outline. The Presentation Outline is intended to provide the Advisory Board with a general description of your presentation. This allows the Advisory Board to evaluate the presentation(s) for suitability, topic duplication, and intelligently position your presentation in the proper seminar track.

Presentation Outlines must be Submitted electronically via Online Presentation Submission Form (located at the end of this section). Your Online Submission Form is forwarded directly to the Advisory Board.

Important Deadlines

• Presentations Outline submission deadline February 25. Extended to March 31!
• The Advisory Board will notify you immediately upon receipt of your presentation[s].
• The Advisory Board will notify you no later than May 20, 2008 as to whether or not your presentation(s) have been accepted.
• Once your Presentation Outline has been accepted, your PowerPoint presentation is due to the Advisory Board no later than August 22, 2008.
• Early Bird Discount registration discount expires September 8, 2008.
• The R&D Seminar will only provide attendees with copies of all finalized PowerPoint presentations received no later than September 12, 2008.
• Special discounted rate at Eaglewood Resort expires on September 18, 2008.
  
  

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board has been engaged to serve as independent advisors to the R&D Applications Seminar. The Advisory Board’s primary function is to receive, review and ensure that the presentations are non-commercial, generic and educational in nature. Presentation acceptance is at the discretion of the Advisory Board.

Once your Presentation Outline has been received, the Advisory Board will:

• Review your Presentation Outline for general content, topic suitability, duplication, and speaker contact information.
• Ask you to change your PowerPoint presentation if they determine that it is too commercial and not educational in nature.
• Click here for Speaker Registration Policy.

Presentation Guidelines

1. Length: 40 minutes including 3-5 minutes for questions and answers.
2. Topics: Presentations can be of several types.

• How to use an ingredient(s) to solve a formulation problem. This would include why an ingredient should be considered (i.e., what is its function), its use level in a formula, considerations in its use (such as interactions with other ingredients/food components), ingredients it may replace and at what levels, and regulatory, labeling and production considerations.
• Informational topics crucial in product development. Typical topics include regulatory information such as health claims, labeling, allergens, nutritional labels; testing such as analytical or sensory; software and information technology developments and so on.
• Consumer and food industry trend information. Examples include trends in new retail or foodservice products, restaurant menus, flavoring systems, consumer issues such as children’s nutrition, obesity and other health issues, data on foods for Baby Boomers or ethnic groups. Information should be factual and provide a broad overview (rather than an argument for a specific ingredients use, for example.) Additional examples can be found on the Seminars’ 2007 Program section.

3. Technical level: the audience will be bench-level to supervisory level R&D, generally with a technical undergraduate or graduate degree, or with corporate chef background.

What is acceptable presentation content?

• Speaker & company affiliation on opening slide.
• All opening slides should include the following: "Prepared Foods' 2008 R&D Applications Seminar".
• Company or branded ingredient logo may appear as part of the “master slide” design and not within the context of each slide.
• At the conclusion of your presentation, inviting the audience to visit you at your Tabletop for further discussion.
• Providing your business cards to the audience at the conclusion.
• Handing out samples (e.g., finished consumer products) to exemplify a point in the presentation.
• Presentation handouts* or company brochures can be passed out at the presentation.
• You will have the option of posting your 2008 R&D Applications Seminar PowerPoint presentation(s), synced with the audio component, to a special E-Learning section on www.PreparedFoods.com/elearning
  

  *Note: Prepared Foods will have copies of presentations available, subject to their being submitted prior to September 12, 2008.

To view current line up of 2008 R&D Applications Seminar presentations, click Program.

Effective Presentations

• Presentations of this length normally accommodate 30-35 graphics. All graphics should be submitted in PowerPoint, PC compatible format only.
• Keep slides simple, making sure that they’re easy to read & understand.
• Express one concept per slide and limit each bullet point to 6-8 words.
• Make the text on the slides either black or blue for easy reading.
• Use between 18-28 point fonts for the text.
• Stick to basic fonts such as Times New Roman and Arial.
• The purpose of the slides is to support the conversation that they accompany.
• Beware of color’s impact on readability. For example, many attendees may have degrees of color blindness making red text on blue backgrounds undecipherable.

Presentation Submission Form

To submit a Presentation, please complete the submission form CLICK HERE The Advisory Board will review your Outline for length, educational orientation, generic content, overt commercialism, and its focus on a particular application, or formulaic challenge.

Upon approval, you will be notified by the Advisory Board and assigned a day, track and time slot.