Dallas, TX (March 15, 2023) – Registration for the inaugural NEXUS, a transformational baking industry event, is now open. This new event will be held September 25-28, 2023 at the Omni Hotel in Dallas, Texas, and will be a central place to meet with colleagues, a primary connection point for bakers and suppliers, an opportunity for professional development, and a planned time for internal team meetings.
Hosted by two of the most-trusted baking industry associations - Baking Equipment Manufacturers and Allieds (BEMA) and American Bakers Association (ABA) - this four-day event features something for everyone, from operations to human resources.
NEXUS is designed to strengthen existing relationships between bakers and suppliers while also creating new opportunities at an event unlike any other in the industry. Attendees can enhance their experience by attending Spark Sessions, education sessions, ABA’s NextGenBaker Leadership Forum at NEXUS, and making use of the corporate meeting space.
"BEMA's focus has always been on collaboration, relationship building, and the business of baking,” says Jim Warren, BEMA chairman and Vice President, Exact Mixing Division at Reading Bakery Systems. “It should come as no surprise that an event developed along with our friends at ABA would have the same focus. NEXUS. Fresh, different, and unique. Now this is exciting."
Spark sessions, a key differentiator of this event, are bespoke team-to-team meetings, where one baker will be paired with one supplier to review challenges, discuss solutions, and identify opportunities for today and the future. Prior to NEXUS, baking company teams will complete a questionnaire to outline the specific challenges they are facing and the opportunities they would like to explore. NEXUS organizers will maintain these questionnaires in confidence; responses will not be shared with any other participants.
"ABA is proud to join forces with BEMA to power an original and affordable event that caters to all team leaders within a bakery, not just the executive suite," says Cordia Harrington, ABA chair and CEO of Crown Bakeries. "During the team-to-team Spark sessions, bakers will learn about concepts and plans proposed by supplier partners in direct response to specific challenges our companies submit to meeting organizers ahead of time. It's planned to be a ‘one stop shop.’"
Education sessions will address the most timely and relevant topics in the baking industry today. Speakers and panels of experts will provide a detailed look at the topics of most interest to the industry. Focus topics include workforce, sanitation, automation, and trends.
ABA’s NextGenBaker Leadership Forum at NEXUS will feature highly curated programming for the baking industry’s rising leaders focused on NextGenBaker's four pillars of professional development, public policy engagement, relationship building, and industry trends education. NextGenBaker Leadership Forum at NEXUS registrants will join ABA’s NextGenBaker Co-Chairs Liliana Economakis of Aspire Bakeries and Bradley Cain of Cain Food Industries as they lead this one-of-a-kind experience to cultivate leadership skills, build lifelong relationships with industry colleagues, and enrich attendee knowledge on a variety of critical business topics.
NEXUS will also place the focus squarely on industry collaboration with a corporate meeting space, an area companies can use to meet privately with their team for up to an hour at a time to discuss business strategy.
In non-IBIE years, NEXUS will be the baking industry’s essential fall gathering and the space companies can confidently send decision makers, influencers, and future leaders. Baking industry companies are urged to register the entire team for this efficient and effective event.
