By Paul Damaren, Chief Revenue Officer at RizePoint

Recently, the RizePoint team had a significant presence at two prestigious industry events, the North American Executive Supply Chain Summit and North American Food Safety & Quality Conference, where CEO Kari Hensien and I discussed the importance of using the latest technologies to improve safety and quality programs. Specifically, we discussed how tech innovations are dramatically improving quality, safety, transparency, accuracy, efficiency, and more.

At September’s North American Executive Supply Chain Summit (NASCES), I chaired and presented at 10 different sessions, including Revolutionizing the Supply Chain: Accelerating the Manufacturing Process Through Development and Innovation, Building a Risk Averse Supply Chain and Sustainability Matters: Strategies and Impact in the Value Chain. In these sessions, I emphasized how tech innovations are significantly elevating quality programs, maximizing safety, boosting compliance, and reducing risks for brands of all sizes and budgets.

A few weeks later, at the North American Food Safety & Quality Conference in Chicago, I chaired an important panel and presented on the topic of the “Top 5 Tech Trends in 2023 and Beyond and Their Impact on the Food Industry,” alongside Kari as well as the VP of Food Safety and Quality Assurance of HomeChef/Kroger, the VP of Quality Assurance of The Wendy’s Company, and the Senior Director, Quality and Food Safety for Thrive Market. This panel explored how the top tech trends – including AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, 5G, Quantum Computing, and more – are driving dramatic improvements in quality, safety, consistency, compliance, and accuracy, while also improving the customer experience.

Two overarching themes dominated discussions among some of the world’s largest organizations at these conferences:

• First, the growing importance of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an innovative force poised to reshape daily business operations and integrate into supply chain solutions.
• Secondly, there was a huge, focused commitment on sustainability, specifically ESG. Sustainability is clearly a pressing priority as companies work diligently to chart a path towards greener operations.

Other key learnings and insights from the conferences included:

• Digital Transformation Is Key: The impact of the digital revolution on food safety and quality was a significant theme, highlighting the importance of technology and data analytics. Experts emphasized the importance of digitization and process automation, revealing how AI and tech advancements are highlighting the industry’s lag in these areas.
• Proactive Compliance is an Essential Trend: The industry has shifted from reactive to proactive compliance, with continuous improvement and staying ahead of evolving regulations now being imperative.
• Tech Advancements are Modernizing Processes: There’s a growing industry readiness to adopt automation and leverage technology advancements, recognizing the need to modernize processes.
• Traceability Challenges Need to be Addressed & Resolved: Enhanced traceability in the food industry is anticipated, but its immediate actionable value is a concern.
• Recall Management is a Significant Pain Point: Managing recalls remains a complex and cumbersome process, calling for a simplified and effective solution.
  

It was absolutely a pleasure to present at these important conferences. We were also there to listen and learn from other industry experts and thought leaders at the forefront of the food and quality sector. It’s exciting and invigorating to be around the best and brightest minds in the industry, exchanging ideas, discussing trends and emerging technologies, hearing about the issues people are facing, and talking about the most cutting-edge ways to solve these pressing challenges.

These conferences reinforced our team’s commitment to lead in food safety and quality, while adapting to industry trends. We leave these conferences just buzzing with ideas and thinking of cool new solutions we can develop to cure customers’ pain points and make our software even more valuable.

Did you attend these conferences? What were your biggest takeaways?

For more information about how RizePoint’s solutions can help your organization strengthen your food safety, quality, and compliance programs, let’s talk.