Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show Successfully Brings Restaurant, Foodservice and Lodging Industry Together in New Orlando Venue

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Shows & Events
Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show Successfully Brings Restaurant, Foodservice and Lodging Industry Together in New Orlando Venue

11/10/2022
ORLANDO, FL, – After a three-year hiatus, Clarion Food & Beverage Group held The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show at the Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando. The re-imagined trade show and conference brought together hundreds of exhibiting companies and 2,211 industry professionals, providing restaurateurs, foodservice, specialty beverage and lodging professionals access to hours of education, dozens of special events including culinary competitions, awards presentations and much more. In addition, Clarion Events donated $49,384 to the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association Disaster Relief Fund to help support those that were impacted by Hurricane Ian.

“What a wonderful week, we are so happy we were able to support the FRLA’s relief fund while bringing the industry together in a new location with many new features including wonderful hospitality at the Caribe Royale Resort. During the event, our attendees were able to taste new food and beverage items and learn from industry leaders what makes a restaurant, foodservice and lodging establishment operation successful,” said Rita Ugianskis, Vice President, Clarion Events Food & Beverage Group. “We received such positive feedback on the content in the education sessions and the opportunity to source new products and we thank our exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, attendees, media partners, supporting organizations and partners who helped to make the event a huge success.”

One participant stated, “I’ve been attending The Florida Restaurant Show for years and am so pleasantly surprised to see all of the exhibitors and attendees who are here and all of the terrific changes that have made to this show.”

Below are the highlights of the event and the winners from the various awards and competitions.

The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association brought together leaders in the restaurant and lodging industry for several panel discussions to discuss maximizing talent, best practices, and the future of the hotel industry. Speakers represented Red Lobster; Tijuana Flats; Loews Hotels at Universal; and Courtyard & SpringHill Suites by Marriott; Omni Resort @ Championsgate; Signia by Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Bonnet Creek; The Ritz-Carlton Orlando and others.
The Thought Leadership Theater on the Show Floor offered presentations by several vendors and kicked off with a Q&A with Distributors about Supply Chain Issues featuring representatives from Sysco, Ben E. Keith, Gordon Foodservice and US Foods.
The newly redesigned event hosted several networking events, including two morning breakfasts with a featured speaker, lunch in the exhibit hall, an opening night mix and mingle and a Welcome Reception which were all well attended and enjoyed by attendees and exhibitors.
There were two general sessions including one on the opening morning featuring Donna Hood Crecca of Technomic who provided an overview of the state of the foodservice industry in the U.S., including new consumer and market dynamics, lodging segment specifics and what to look for in 2023. On Thursday morning Jim “Murph” Murphy, Founder and Chairman, Afterburner and Former F-15 Instructor Pilot, USAF wowed the breakfast audience and introduced the Flawless Execution methodology through a dynamic, high energy & engaging keynote providing insight on how to apply combat-proven principles of elite fighter pilots to improve the output of day-to-day efforts.
The Torch Award, given each year to an outstanding chef or restaurateur, was presented to Chef Jim Shirley a chef and restaurateur in South Walton, Florida, who owns Great Southern Café, 45 Central Wine and Sushi Bar, and b.f.f. in Seaside, Florida. Jim is also past Chairman of the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association board.
Industry editors met with a dozen exhibitors to review products and voted BrewLogix the Best in Show for Pitch the Press for their brand-new Performance Platform which provides on deck planning, draft program management, inventory valuation, product knowledge, and more.
Center Stage, sponsored by Sysco, included culinary demonstrations by Chefs Mareya Ibrahim and Shaun O’Neale and featured two exciting competitions.
The winner of the Rapid-Fire Challenge: Sizzling Sirloin was Olivia Gismervik from Olivia’s Kitchen who won $1,000 for her steak recipe. The competition was judged by Marianne Hunnel, Culinary Program Manager at Walt Disney World; Chef Shaun O’Neale, FOX's Season 7 Champion of MasterChef and Chef David Rev Ciancio, Handcraft Burgers & Brew.
Hip Sip: Battle of the Modern Bartender Competition – Bourbon Competition. Contestants created cocktails using Savage & Cooke Distillery's The Burning Chair Bourbon. The winner, Michael Edgar from Pineapples EGAD in Melbourne, FL won $1,000, bragging rights, and a free trip to the Savage & Cooke Distillery. The judges were Mia Mastroianni, Celebrity Mixologist, seen on Bar Rescue; Phil Wills, Owner/Partner, The Spirits in Motion, seen on Bar Rescue and Art Sutley, Director of Northeast & Strategic Accounts, Savage & Cooke Distillery.
The Education Program expanded to offer dozens of sessions and workshops delivered by subject matter experts who spoke on a variety of important topics for restaurant and foodservice professionals, including sessions on marketing mistakes, disruptive innovations, plant-based ideas, reducing food waste, retaining employees, and much more.
At the close of the show, the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida collected 1,775 pounds of food from the exhibitors which will be donated to more than 500 feeding partners in six Central Florida counties.

The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show is owned by Clarion Events Food & Beverage Group and sponsored by the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association. The Clarion Events Food & Beverage Group also includes the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York, Coffee Fest, The NGA Show, and the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo.

Clarion Events operates over 180 events in 50 countries from 15 offices in the UK, the US, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, Singapore, UAE, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the Netherlands. Clarion can trace its roots back to 1947 and takes great pride in being one of the oldest independent event organizers in the UK. More recently the firm has developed an international portfolio of brands and now has interests in a number of global vertical industries including energy, security and defense, hospitality, electronics, technology, fashion, retail, gaming and marketing. The teams at Clarion create uniquely effective and stimulating environments that can serve as a platform to build businesses, enhance customer relationships and accelerate product awareness. us.clarionevents.com.

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