Pizza Expo 2017

April 23rd, 2017

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My <3 For Pizza Expo in this Acrostic Poem

Chef Tony Gemignani showing off his grandma pie. #drool

Party with 6400 Friends
Informative seminars
Zero unhappy attendees
Za for days… every style, every way
Acrobatic competitions @World Pizza Games
Exchanging ideas with fellow pizzeria owners
eXcellent pizzas sampled @ Intl. Pizza Challenge
Products galore for all pizzeria needs!!
Only place to learn more and get better

Pizza Expo 2017 was a blast…

I recently returned from my sixth #pizzaexpo in Las Vegas. This expo is a consortium for all independent pizzeria owners to do one or more of the following:
A. Refine their craft to make better pizzas
B. Attend seminars to improve operations and increase bottom line
C. Join competitions to earn #pizza fame and good PR
D. Meet exhibitors to learn about new products, ingredients, & equipment
E. Network with fellow pizzeria owners and exchange ideas

Here are some of my key takeaways!

Charity: I was honored to support a pizza-focused charity called Slice Out Hunger. I worked the booth, answered questions about the charity, and got pizzerias to support the “SLICE OUT SPECIAL” campaign which goes through the month of MAY! FYI: $1 from each pie sold goes to No Kid Hungry.

Gluten-Free: “Gluten free” is bigger and better. With the amount of consumers having gluten-intolerance across the world, it’s a no-brainer to add some gluten-free/gluten-free friendly items to your menu. (If you don’t cook these items in a separate oven/area, it’s important to include a disclaimer). The pizza expo has had a gluten free division of their International Pizza Challenge to highlight the fact that gluten-free can be done quite well… Trust me it’s good. Also loved newcomer Caulipower, which sells shells & dough to pizzerias but has retail frozen pies in grocers and on amazon.com. Quite yum! Returning favorite is always Kiki’s Gluten Free, who improve every year by expanding their product line!

Online Ordering: This has been around for a while now, but I was intrigued by the pizza-specific ordering site SLICE, and they had some awesome swag… There are so many online ordering options for pizzeria customers but the ideal wishlist feature is to have the site integrate with the pizzeria point-of-sale system, which is the hardest!

Sporting Slice Online ordering company’s gear!

Press: There were cameras flying around, and it wasn’t just the Pizza Today people. The food network was filming a lot of the compeititive events! Hope that some of our friends get famous!

Big Names:Pizza celebs were all over the expo show floor… working exhibitor booths, giving demos, judging competitions. And they’re typically open and friendly to new pizzeria business owners and happy to share tips and tricks. #pizza stardom is real, but the #pizza stars are real people, and they’re supportive of newbies.

Community: The #pizza community gets stronger every year. Coming to the #pizza expo is a good reminder that although you may be competing with a pizzeria on the same block (or around the corner), there is a whole world of pizzeria owners who want to learn from each other. If those within the community support each other more, we can do a lot more as a community and bring in higher sales across the board!