FSMA 2020 Top2Top Postponed
Jerry Campbell, Chairman of the Foodservice Sales & Marketing Association (“FSMA”), has announced that the Board of Directors decided to postpone their 2020 Top2Top Conference. Top2Top was scheduled to be an add-on to the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association’s ("IFMA") Presidents Conference, to be held in Arizona on November 3-4, 2020. Larry Oberkfell, CEO of IFMA, remarked that he understood the need for FSMA to postpone their Inaugural Event with IFMA at the Presidents Conference and offered a meeting room for FSMA Members at the IFMA 2020 Presidents Conference in the event that circumstances change.
Jerry indicated that as a result of the pandemic, foodservice sales and marketing agencies have been adversely affected by the closings of restaurants, schools, hotels, and other hospitality organizations that they service. These foodservice venues have lost almost 70-80% of their business and, correspondingly, so have the agencies who service them.
While FSMA is anticipating that the mitigation efforts by all Americans will result in discontinuation of the various state shelter-in-place orders and allow foodservice businesses to resume at some point in the future, the uncertainties of that timing, whether the resumption would include all jurisdictions, as well as the possibility of a fall flare-up of the virus and reduced attendance, have handicapped its conference planning. In lieu of the Top2Top this year, FSMA will offer Webinars, Seminars, White Papers, and other legal briefs and opinions to allow its Members to economize during the pandemic and avoid the costs of travel, hotel rooms, and other meeting expenses they would need to pay in advance for the Top2Top Conference.
In this regard, Jerry Campbell requested that any Manufacturers, Distributors, or Sales and Marketing Agencies who have topics they would like to have considered to please send them to him at the following address:
Foodservice Sales & Marketing Association
5225 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 316
Washington, DC 20015-2055
Phone: 202-596-8112
Email: jcampbell@fsmaonline.com
FSMA recently published a copy of its White Paper pointing out that Manufacturers who use agencies have an advantage during events that close businesses, because agencies are only paid on sales commission as opposed to a Manufacturer which employs a direct sales force.
Copies of the White Paper and the Sales Cost Analysis Tool (in a customizable Excel spreadsheet format) are available for download at no cost from the FSMA Foundation website at www.FSMAonline.com
