The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) annual conference and food show was quite the trip this year. In the Big Easy - New Orleans - most of the Food Processing / Wellness Foods staff joined 25,000 or so visitors, exhibitors and IFT support staff at the many informative sessions. We scoped out the exhibitors' wares and attended numerous meet-and-greet sessions with old friends and new in the universe of food ingredients. And indeed, there are lots of new, impressive health-oriented ingredients and foods coming out, folks!First, let me get the kvetching out of the way: Not enough time, too much to attend to. Not helping things was that the guide to the sessions was confusing and hard to read. OK, I admit middle age has the best of me but c'mon, guys…8-point type??? And New Orleans in the summer would have been more tolerable in a cleaner, nicer - and better air-conditioned - venue. Also, this convention center was one of the least convenient for getting around that I can think of.But the show itself was excellent. Keynote speaker Malcolm Gladwell was a tough opening act for anyone to follow. His presentation, based on his best-selling books "The Tipping Point" and "Blink," gave incredible insight into the workings of the human mind when it comes to the process of decision making. I sincerely hope anyone who is in a position of managing new ideas was listening. Here are some quotable quotes from Gladwell's speech:
- "We must be careful about how we construct the environment in which insight is expressed."
- "The gift that brings innovation - that brings new ideas - is enormously fragile…and we need to do whatever it takes to keep this quality alive."
- "There are endless consequences to the endless complicating of decisions."
- "We must not disable the ability of people to make a successful instantaneous judgment."
- And my favorite, "Experts only have confidence when they're in cultures that empower them."