2015 SQF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE JW MARRIOTT ...

2015 SQF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE JW MARRIOTT, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA NOVEMBER 3-5, 2015 CALL FOR PROPOSALS Click here to submit a proposal The Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI) is dedicated to providing conference attendees with the most relevant and valuable education experience. We invite you to share your expertise and experience with food safety professionals at our 2015 SQF International Conference. Please review these guidelines and submit your online proposal no later than April 30, 2015. Presenters are requested to craft a proposal that demonstrates a clear plan to disseminate information that is interesting, exciting, unique and memorable. ONLY PROPOSALS SUBMITTED VIA THE ONLINE PORTAL WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR REVIEW. AUDIENCE PROFILE • • • •

Food safety professionals at all levels of the supply chain & from companies of all sizes. Individuals from companies who wish to enhance their current food safety program. Representatives of companies that are developing or beginning to implement a food safety program. Auditors and consultants.

Generally, attendees are experienced and knowledgeable in the food safety and third party auditing field AND expect education that provides cutting edge ideas, current information and the highest level of expertise. Attendees are looking for practical, takehome guidance to help them formulate, implement and improve their food safety and quality programs. The education focus is on KEY TAKE-AWAYS, so sessions must provide actionable learnings rather than be theory-heavy. New in 2015: Advanced level sessions will be offered for SQF Practitioners. Please indicate if your proposal can be offered at the Advanced level. Audience size for general sessions is around 600 people, 75-200 for breakout/express learning sessions and 10-30 for food sector-specific roundtables. Click here for a list of attendees from 2014 for more information on audience composition. For an overview of the SQF Conference and the agenda, please visit the conference website.

CONFERENCE FORMAT The education program begins on Tuesday, November 3 at 10.30 a.m. and ends on Thursday, November 5 at 12:30 p.m. and consists of general, breakout and express learning sessions as well as roundtables and idea exchanges. There are: •

FIVE General Sessions (55-60 minutes) These sessions typically focus on leadership, motivational and general food safety topics that appeal to all stakeholders in the audience.

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TWELVE Breakout Sessions (55 minutes)** These sessions focus on industry-specific as well as soft skill topics (please see below for topics chosen by this year’s committee). They allow for a 45 minute presentation or interactive workshop, followed by Q&A. Breakouts are repeated, so if you are chosen to participate, you will need to present your session again on the following day.

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TWELVE Express Learning Sessions (25 minutes)** These sessions are designed to offer participants bite-sized learning in the form of key takeaways. They are similar to the breakout sessions in the sense that they focus on industry-specific or soft skill topics, but allow no time for Q&A and focus solely on offering practical take-home tips in a fast-paced, express, “nofluff” learning format. Express Learning Sessions are repeated so if you are chosen to participate, you will need to present your session again on the following day.

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ONE Roundtable Discussion (90 minutes) This will be led by experts in a particular food safety category. Please indicate your interest in participating as a roundtable expert when you register for the conference as well as the particular FSC in which you are an expert.

**You may elect to submit a proposal as both a breakout session and as an express learning session but you must submit SEPARATE proposals for each. SPEAKER BENEFITS The following benefits will be enjoyed by all speakers: • • • •

Increased visibility and credibility as a subject matter expert within the food safety and third party auditing field The opportunity to share ideas, knowledge and experience with food safety professionals. Promotion in conference marketing materials Contribution to furthering education in the retail and manufacturing industry.

The majority of speakers do not receive additional remuneration or expense reimbursement beyond these benefits, however speakers may register at a reduced rate ($850 v. $950 early bird rate). TOPICS OF INTEREST We are seeking groundbreaking research, best practices, emerging trends and technologies in the following suggested areas of interest, as identified by the conference planning committee. In the online proposal process, you will be requested to state what challenge / issue is at stake and how your session will help solve it. Please remember to focus your attention on providing key takeaways and actionable solutions. Topics of interest are divided into three main areas: industry issues, soft skills and express learning, however the topics may overlap. You can submit a proposal for a full breakout session and a condensed version for the express learning sessions, but each proposal must be submitted separately.

Industry Issues •

Social Media o Awareness of the positive and negative impact on your brand/business actionable ideas to strengthen your social media presence as well as prevent damage to your brand/business.

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Food Fraud o Defining food fraud, assessing vulnerability and countermeasures to prevent it.

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Crisis Management o What constitutes a crisis? o Crisis management policy – why is it important to have one, how do you communicate it to employees and get buy in? o How do you control information? o Building a strong crisis management team

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Food Defense o Awareness of risks, assessing vulnerability and countermeasures to prevent it. o FSMA requirements o Case studies and lessons learned

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Record Keeping / Document Management o Requirements of FSMA v the SQF Code

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Sanitation o Latest sanitation techniques o Case studies – finding the “silver bullet” o Meeting sanitation challenges such as high turnover of staff and training o Root cause analysis of sanitation issues o How does sanitation apply to packaging?

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Validation and Verification o What is it? What is it not? o Common misconceptions o Case studies – what went wrong and how did it get fixed?

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Level Three o What does a level 3 plan look like?

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Packaging o Dispelling the notion that it’s “low risk” o How to apply HACCP to packaging o Case studies and best practices

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Allergens o How do allergen recalls affect retailers? o Best practices for communicating allergen recalls o Allergen rules and regulations in foreign countries

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Six Sigma (advanced level session) o How does six sigma tie in to quality and continuous improvement o What are the positive economic effects of six sigma o How can we learn from other industries? o How does six sigma apply to the food safety industry

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Information Technology o What new IT programs are available for improving processes? o How to make better use of the IT tools you already have o Driving efficiencies with IT tools o Determining process capabilities o Leveraging the data that you collect

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Corrective Actions / Preventative Actions o Identifying missteps in the CAPA process o Developing a long term approach to CAPA

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Recertification Audits o Avoiding the pitfalls when applying for a re-certification audit

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Labeling

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ROI o How do we measure it and what are we measuring? o Identifying KPIs

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Auditing as a Career o How to make a career change to become an auditor.

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A Day in the Life of an SQF Practitioner

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Environmental Monitoring o How to design an effective program

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Integrated Pest Management

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Identity Preservation

Soft Skills •

Change Management

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Management Commitment

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Conflict Management

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Stress Management

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Media Training

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Interviewing and Resume Writing Skills

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Communication and Presentation skills

Express Learning Topics The following topics have been identified as being best suited for the express learning sessions and should focus on providing 5-10 key takeaways in a fast “no fluff” session that is lively and engaging! •

Creating a HACCP plan in a distribution center or packaging plant

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Post-harvest micro risk assessment

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Microbiology 101

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Resume and interview skills

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Writing SMART food safety and quality objectives

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Creating KPIs

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RCA: 5 why's and the fishbone diagram

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Compressed air monitoring

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Food fraud overview

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Energizing your training programs

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Creating a food safety culture

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Communicating with all levels

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Training verification

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How to develop a training register

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How to keep your documents up to date

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How to get training done with seasonal workers or areas of high turnover

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Auditing as a career

Education sessions may be delivered by one presenter, co-presenters or by a panel. While SQFI welcomes presentation proposals from the vendor community, preference will be given to those that seek to provide a balanced view from both a buyer and seller perspective. Attendees will react negatively to any presentation that is viewed as a sales pitch. We encourage the use of interactive methods of teaching and learning including classroom discussion and polling.

SPEAKER RESPONSIBILITIES All speakers are required to submit their final presentation to SQFI no later than 14 days prior to conference so that the material can be reviewed, approved and uploaded to the conference mobile app (providing permission to post has been granted). Speakers will be required to log in to the online speaker management system (Conference Harvester™) to complete a series of tasks prior to the deadline. Such tasks include uploading a photo and biography, completing a speaker profile and signing a speaker policy agreement.

SQFI NON-COMMERCIAL POLICY Attendees at SQFI’s conferences are seeking quality education sessions free from commercial influence or bias and are critical of presenters or sessions that seek to advertise, promote or market products or companies. SQFI therefore mandates that presenters may not use a conference session for commercial sales pitches or selfpromotion. Speakers are not permitted to distribute promotional literature, brochures or sales materials in any form to attendees during their session. Presentations must be free from inappropriate use of brands, trademarks or logos. Proposals that do not adhere to this policy will not be considered. SQFI reserves the right to maintain control over the content of the sessions and to make modifications as appropriate.

PROPOSAL REVIEW, SELECTION AND NOTIFICATION PROCESS •

Proposals must be submitted by April 30 using the online Abstract Scorecard™ System. Proposals sent directly by email or postal mail will be rejected. Proposal must include: o Full contact details including phone and email address o Presenter(s) bio o Full information on additional presenters o 3-4 learning objectives o Selected topic, target audience and presentation method o Summary and full description of content

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Proposals will be reviewed by a selection committee consisting of SQFI stakeholders and FMI staff and will be awarded a score according the following core criteria: o Timeliness and appropriateness of subject matter o Practical application o Content that meets the advanced educational needs of attendees o Originality (cutting-edge content not previously presented) o Qualifications and expertise of presenter o Comprehensiveness and value of presentation learning objectives o Organization of presentations o Correct submission of supporting documents and information o Adherence to SQF’s non-commercialization policy SQFI reserves the right to request / make modifications of content prior to acceptance Since the actual day and time of the session cannot be provided in advance, please make sure that the speaker is available for the duration of the conference dates (November 3-5, 2015). SQF will respond to all proposals selected by the committee no later than June 15, 2015. Presenters will be notified only of their acceptance.

PROPOSAL ACCEPTANCE PROCESS •

Once a proposal is accepted, the conference program manager will contact you and provide you with: o A written confirmation including the date and time of your presentation o A set of speaker guidelines o A presentation slide template o Log in details to the Conference Harvester™, the online speaker data management system used by SQFI. You will be given a personalized task list based on your presentation with a deadline for each task. You may also use the Conference Harvester™ to update your profile and upload a photograph and biography. For more information, please contact Amanda Bond-Thorley at 202-220-0606/[email protected]