The first year of Street Food Live ran alongside Takeaway Innovation Expo and as a rapidly growing section of the food industry it was great to include this exciting event. NCASS, one of our partners, were in attendance and gave help and support to start-up catering companies and established street food vendors.
For Duncan Stanley, enthusiastic street food entrepreneurs over-filled the seminar hall as he delivered an insightful talk on thriving in the world of street food.
The Takeaway Innovation Expo, the premier business event for food entrepreneurs and business owners, welcomed 6,312 visitors last week, growing in size dramatically. The event was held at ExCeL, London on the 29th & 30th September. The show has grown by 1000 visitors, has gone from 120 to 200 exhibitors, and was covered by BBC1 Breakfast News.
Along with thousands of independent restaurant and takeaway business owners, key figures from the major QSRs and large takeaway chains attended the event, (MD of Just Eat Graham Corfield; CEO of GBK Alasdair Murdoch; Head of Operations at Nando’s Ben Taylor, and more) giving expert advice and judging the Takeaway Innovation Awards. See below for a breakdown of the award winners.
After the show, event director James Williams said “the show has been a huge success, the hall was buzzing with excitement and the number of business owners and experts coming together to build profitable business relationships was inspirational”.
Next year the show is going to be held on 28th & 29th September, once again at ExCeL, London, and is already shaping up to be a much larger event, incorporating Takeaway Innovation Expo, Street Food Live, and new show Restaurant Design.
Takeaway Innovation Award Winners:
Innovation Award Winner – Handle-It – a drinks holder with handle for carrying coffee cups and other drinks, making it easier to carry multiple drinks and perfect for displaying promotional branding.
Enterprise Award Winner – AdGen – a user-friendly cloud-based platform allowing venues to create their own animated notices and ads even if they have no previous design experience.
Food Allergy Awareness Award – Kafoodle – an app to find allergen and intolerance friendly places to eat, won the Food Allergen Awareness Innovation Award.
The Visitor’s Choice Award – Foam Aroma UK – an innovative lid that enhances the coffee or tea experience.
Further highlights from this year’s show included packed out seminars from the UK’s leading takeaway expert Ajmal Mushtaq, ‘The Streetfood Pimp’ Duncan Stanley gave a seminar to a hall filled with eager street food entrepreneurs, Panel Sessions including marketing ideas & essential knowledge to grow your business, where a panel of experts and interesting figures from the food world discusses prevalent issues to the restaurant industry. Bob Fox, MD of NCASS, gave two packed seminars sharing the street food wisdom he has gathered over the last 30 years he has spent in the catering industry.
It was the quality of visitor that uplifted the show and created an incredible atmosphere. The excitement generated by having some of the biggest names in the industry in attendance with exhibitors introducing their products and services to major players in the food world created a truly amazing event.
The two-day event saw 200 food industry suppliers display and demonstrate products and services from every element of food service. With everything from the latest online ordering platforms to innovative interactive advertisement and a vast selection of innovative equipment.
The Artisan Food Trail will announce the winner of Pitch to the Experts, awarding a life changing investment opportunity to one of the contenders from this year’s show. The winners will receive £10,000 and an incredible amount of support and business advice from a selection of highly successful business people.