Food Protection Trends - April 2009 - 200

“perspectives” from your president ow! What a venue and what a program! As I write this column, I have just returned from the Program Committee and Executive Board meeting held at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine, Texas, the site of this year’s Annual Meeting. In this month’s column, I hope to convey to you how outstanding the hotel, meeting space, and scientific program are for this year’s meeting. I will also describe some of the changes that the Program Committee and Executive Board have implemented that we think will enhance your 2009 IAFP experience. The Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center is a beautiful hotel with 1,511 well-appointed sleeping rooms, exceptional ser vice, and excellent restaurants all surrounding a 3.5 acre covered atrium with a yearround temperature of 72ºF, which will be greatly appreciated in July. The atrium has a stream running through it that is surrounded by plants and trees, all of which are live except for the $250,000 oak tree near the Ama Lur Restaurant. This oak tree is patterned after one of the oldest trees in Texas, the famous “Treaty Oak,” located in Austin. The Riverwalk area is designed to capture the look and feel of its namesake in San Antonio. The Riverwalk Buffet Restaurant, a 4,000-square-foot state-of-the-art workout room, and a 25,000-square-foot world class spa are located in this area. For those of you who like to dance the night away or sit on the veranda overlooking the lake, the Glass Cactus located on the Gaylord proper ty sits directly by Lake Grapevine and is only a two-minute shuttle bus ride or ten-minute walk away. The Glass Cactus, widely recognized as one of the best nightclubs in the Dallas area, has live music every evening and admission is free to anyone staying at the Gaylord Hotel. W By STAN BAILEy PRESIDENT “The Program Committee has put together another exceptional program with 28 symposia and roundtables and 438 technical presentations” I have been attending IAFP meetings for about 30 years, and I believe that the meeting space at the Gaylord Convention Center may be the best that I have seen. The convention center with registration, exhibit halls, and meeting rooms is only a short (one minute) enclosed walk from the hotel’s Lone Star Tower. The size of the exhibit hall is large enough to comfortably accommodate all vendors, poster boards, and associated lunches and receptions. Meeting rooms are “Texas” sized and should be large enough to handle the large number of attendees that we anticipate. The Sunday Professional Development Group (PDG) meeting rooms are in the same area making movement between PDG meetings easier than in some other years. The Program Committee has put together another exceptional program with 28 symposia and roundtables and 438 technical presentations. I do not have the space to mention all the symposia, but the update on recent foodborne outbreaks including the peanut butter outbreak is sure to be of high interest. Other cutting-edge symposia topics will be presented on prepared not ready-to-eat foods, viruses detection in foods, E. coli O157:H7 and other pathogenic E. coli. Special sessions on dairy, produce, poultry, risk assessment, and new detection methods will also be presented. In addition to the strong technical program, IAFP is offering three workshops prior to the Annual Meeting. The first of these, “Your Toolkit for Cleaning by Design What Can Go Right,” will be held on Friday and Saturday prior to the meeting. The “Microbiological Sampling and Testing in Food Safety Management” and “Beyond Food Safety Management–How to Create a Food Safety Culture” will be conducted on Saturday only. IAFP also provides numerous oppor tunities to network. The Committees and PDGs that meet on Sundays, in addition to planning, developing, and instituting many o f t h e A s s o c i a t i o n ’s p ro j e c t s , including workshops, publications, and educational sessions, also offer an excellent opportunity to network with colleagues in your area of expertise. Please come and share your expertise by volunteering to ser ve on committees or PDGs. 200 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | APRIL 2009

Food Protection Trends - April 2009

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