The first virtual theme-based Sourcing Festival, opens today with a jam packed session of free-to-attend industry webinars and product highlights to provide food and hospitality suppliers with a conducive platform to promote their products, and provide buyers with the opportunity to conduct business and gain important knowledge around key industry topics.

Live content stream

Featuring speakers from Asian Consumer Intelligence, Specialty Coffee Association, Nanyang Polytechnic, WWF-Singapore and SODEXO, the webinars will outline how businesses can take note of major trends and future proof their practices in the new normal.

In Market Trends of Fine Foods & Beverages - Product Launches, Ingredients and Opportunities, Asian Consumer Intelligence will give insights into the ingredients that will drive product launches, which new foods are expected to excite the Asian market and what product trends can tell businesses about the performance of their brands in the region.

COVID-19 and the Future of Specialty Coffee presentation will touch on the present and future trends, competitive landscape and opportunities for independent and chain coffee shops.

In the lecture Marketing Re-defined -- Design Thinking & Storytelling for Food Brands, SMEs and F&B distributors can get practical tips on effective communication and how to innovate their messaging in these challenging times.

Sustainable Sourcing, Packaging and Future Proof Practices will look at companies are making science-based sourcing decisions that will help businesses grow. Industry experts will share how to combine smart business with new industry standards.

Product discovery stream

Hosted on the Saladplate platform, the Product Discovery Stream will highlight multiple sourcing days within a single, digital ecosystem. Focused on seleced countries and categories such as Fine & Specialty Food, Alcoholic Beverages, Fruit Juice & Soft Drinks, Coffee & Tea, buyers and sellers will enjoy enhanced business networking through Saladplate Meets & Saladplate Match across the entire Sourcing Festival duration. They will also be able to join themed Networking Breakout sessions (Saladplate MatchLive) held after the industry webinars. 

October highlights:

Week 1 (13 - 19 October) -- Fine & Specialty Food, Alcoholic Beverages, Fruit Juice & Soft Drinks, Coffee & Tea

Week 2 (20 - 26 October) -- Health Food, Disposables

Week 3 (27 - 30 October) -- Confectioneries & Snacks, Chocolates & Cocoa, Bread & Desserts & Baking Ingredients

Details of new content and product discovery streams will be announced here.

"As cross-border travel remains extremely challenging, we feel that the time is right to stage a virtual sourcing festival that runs over an extended period to bring curated experiences to communities of specific product categories and geographical interests," said Mr. Dave Chan, Founder -- Saladplate.com, Vice President -- Digital Business & Advanced Analytics, Informa Markets.

"This longer and richer event will afford our community members more space and time to gain maximum benefits from digital innovations and make it easier to connect one-on-one with prospective trade partners around the world. After the Festival, our community will find it a natural transition to continue the sourcing journey on Saladplate.com 365-day."

Sourcing Festival is organised by Saladplate in partnership with leading food and hospitality events organised by Informa Markets in the region -  FHA-Food & Beverage, Food & Hotel Malaysia(FHM), and Food, Hotel & Tourism Bali (FHTB).

about Saladplate

Saladplate is the premier international wholesale marketplace for sourcing food, beverages and hospitality products globally. Our 365-day online platform provides the one-stop solution for globally minded brands in food, beverages and hospitality to connect with professional markets across Asia. Through our extensive network of physical tradeshows and deep industry connections in major Asian markets, we provide suppliers highly cost-effective means to reach the right buyers; and for professional buyers to source efficiently with our unique 3-step qualification process. We make sourcing new food and hospitality products simple for the new normal. 

about Informa Markets

The Food & Hotel series of events in Asia is organised by Informa Markets, a division of Informa plc. Informa Markets creates platforms for industries and specialist markets to trade, innovate and grow. We provide marketplace participants around the globe with opportunities to engage, experience and do business through face-to-face exhibitions, targeted digital services and actionable data solutions. We connect buyers and sellers across more than a dozen global verticals, including Pharmaceuticals, Food, Medical Technology and Infrastructure. As the worlds leading market-making company, we bring a diverse range of specialist markets to life, unlocking opportunities and helping them to thrive 365 days of the year. 

about FHA-Food & Beverage

The platform of choice for industry professionals, including distributors, importers, manufacturers and retailers from Asia to see and source for high quality, new-to-market food ingredients, drinks, fresh produce, services and equipment across three key profiles -- Food & Beverage, FoodTech and Restaurant, Bar & Café. More than 80 per cent of the 2,000 exhibitors participating in FHA-Food & Beverage are renowned manufacturers and brands hailing from 100 countries and regions. ProWine Asia (Singapore), a satellite event of the highly successful ProWein in Düsseldorf, Germany, will return for its third edition alongside FHA-Food & Beverage. 

about Food & Hotel Malaysia

Food & Hotel Malaysia (FHM) is the largest biennial food and hospitality trade in Malaysia, standing strong for almost 30 years now. It has established itself as a strong marketplace for buyers to source for new clients and business opportunities globally. The show is always packed with thousands of product displays, conference programmes, cooking demonstrations and many other exciting activities. Not only that, two esteemed events were also held concurrently, the Culinaire Malaysia - The Malaysian Battle of the Chefs Competition and In4tec Conferences, empowering innovation in the food industry. 

about Food, Hotel & Tourism Bali

Pamerindo Indonesia, Indonesias leading trade fair organiser, part of Informa Markets, have successfully hosted trade exhibition in the food and hotel industry for more than 20 years. This year, the 12th edition of Food, Hotel & Tourism Bali (FHTB) presents FHTB 2020 Virtual as the First Food & Hospitality Virtual Global Event in Indonesia on 18 - 20 November 2020. FHTB 2020 Virtual is part of the Saladplate Sourcing Festival which offers a comprehensive set of marketing services to help customers generate awareness with millions of engaged decision makers across Food and Hospitality sector in Asia. Premier international wholesale marketplace for sourcing food, beverages and hospitality products globally. To generate leads for suppliers by promoting their brand, connect, and engage with buyers and give buyers an experience to explore hundreds of products from food, beverage, food equipment and hospitality industries. A series of event activities will take place at FHTB Virtual 2020, such as industry webinars, talk shows, live cooking competitions, business matching and live chat and meet between suppliers and buyers.