Page 9 - 2018 Jan Feb CFESA Magazine

ALLIED CORNER

JOE SCHMITT

PRESIDENT
FEDA

One Giant Step end with “that is going to be too tough
to coordinate,” or “let’s focus on 2020” or
some other date that would be forgotten by
Echoing Neil Armstrong’s famous quote,
the time the next leadership group took the
I believe our industry is on the cusp of a
reins. Instead, everyone decided to focus on
giant step this March with our first-ever joint
that giant step, realizing that accomplishing
conference, “The Future Starts Here: E&S
shared goals would require us to work
Industry Summit.”
through the organizational challenges and
start planning a joint convention.
The industry leadership of CFESA, MAFSI,

FCSI, NAFEM and FEDA, who at the time
were led by Paul Toukatly, Joe Ferri, Bill
The planning is nearing completion for
Taunton, Mike Whiteley and Brad Pierce,
this first-ever event, which I believe will
respectively, got the ball rolling with a
be one of the most valuable meetings in
simple focus on talking. Talking turned into
our industry. The topics are varied and will
more back and forth and a genuine desire
challenge each of us to better prepare our
to find common ground. True collaboration
own businesses for the future.
always starts here.
Most of us are accustomed to attending
In June of 2016, the same group met in
multiple industry events, and when we
Denver, along with the current leadership
look around the room we recognize our
from our trade organizations, and I knew
old friends, buying group partners and
that something significant was about
competitors. Hopefully, we also realize that
to happen. The focus of the leadership
we are sharing the room with those who
meeting was to identify how we, as an
have similar backgrounds and experiences.
industry, could harness this growing spirit
Being able to recognize we all face many
of collaboration and use it to address
similar challenges in preparing for our
shared concerns—enhancing the quality
collective futures, understanding that
of training for foodservice professionals,
we all serve the same end customer and
the need to engage more young talent,
sharing best practices across disciplines, will
improving profitability for all, how we could
undoubtedly provide for great conversation
communicate more effectively as a channel,
and problem-solving opportunities. We
etc. Then, the conversation turned to the
may even find our way to building bridges
possibility of hosting a joint convention.
that we would have never conceived before
arriving in sunny Palm Desert.
A joint convention—at the time, I really
didn’t think the idea had wings and would
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CFESA Magazine | JAN / FEB 2018 | www.cfesa.com 9