LA QUINTA, CALIF. — While celebrating the first in-person annual meeting of the American Bakers Association in three years, the importance of the upcoming 2022 IBIE also was given a central importance at this year’s gathering. “I don’t recall a more important Expo in my entire career,” said Bradley K. Alexander, the outgoing chair of the ABA and chief operating officer of Flowers Foods, Inc., Thomasville, Ga. “When I became ABA chair two years ago, it certainly wasn’t the experience I had envisioned,” he said of his term, kicking off the 2022 meeting in-person March 27 at the La Quinta… Read more →

Jorge Zarate is the global senior vice president of operations and engineering at Grupo Bimbo, Mexico City, and vice chairman of the International Baking Industry Expo (IBIE) 2022. He has been working in the baking industry for nearly 35 years, entirely with Grupo Bimbo. His first IBIE was in 2001, and he has served on the planning committee the past three show cycles. What are you looking forward to most about IBIE 2022? I’m eager to see and be reunited with my colleagues, my friends, especially from the United States. Not just the bakers, but also equipment manufacturers and suppliers.… Read more →

Dennis Gunnell is the president of Formost Fuji and the chairman of the International Baking Industry Expo (IBIE) 2022. He has worked in the baking industry for 36 years, and IBIE 2022 will be his 12th Baking Expo. What are you looking forward to most about IBIE 2022? At IBIE 2022 I’m most excited about reuniting and reconnecting with everyone in the industry in person. It’s been too long. A close second is seeing all of the new and exciting innovations. And since IBIE is a triennial show, I always look forward to seeing the revolutionary products/equipment debuting at the… Read more →

As the Western Hemisphere’s most comprehensive event for the grain-based foods industry, IBIE is the best place to find what you need to achieve your professional goals. To help you prioritize and maximize your time, we’ve put together this list of five popular objectives that IBIE can help you accomplish in just a few days. Take a look and discover smart ways to enhance your experience in Las Vegas, September 17-21, 2021.   1. SOLIDIFY SUPPLIER PARTNERSHIPS Severe commodity price increases, inflation and supply chain hurdles have impacted bakers for much of 2021. These issues aren’t likely to disappear in… Read more →

Many things have changed since the Baking Expo™ took place in September 2019. For our industry, those changes included shifting safety and sanitization best practices, grappling with multifaceted supply chain challenges, and appreciating our collective ingenuity more profoundly. Something else changed, too — perceptions about in-person gatherings, like trade shows and expos.   IBIE’s triennial cycle meant that we didn’t have another live event on the calendar until 2022. But many other events took place over the last year and a half, and they’ve produced a lot of useful data. That data proves an important point as we look to bring our community together again this September: Live events can be (and have been) held safely.   How is that possible? For starters, live events are controlled situations. Unlike grocery stores, public transit, etc., event venues only include registered… Read more →

[UPDATE: IBIEDUCATE 2021 HAS BEEN CANCELLED. PLEASE JOIN OUR LIVESTREAM SESSION AT iba.CONNECTING EXPERTS instead. IN 2022, IBIEDUCATE PROGRAMMING AT IBIE WILL CONSIST OF MORE THAN 100 LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES, WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO REGISTER HERE FOR THE BAKING EXPO™] In 2019, IBIE and iba announced a strategic alliance partnership in an effort to support the growth and advancement of the global baking industry.What we have found since then is that our world is even more connected than ever. This makes this October’s educational events even more exciting. All around the world, at the same time, our industry will produce events both in-person with IBIEducate… Read more →

In-person, interactive training has always been essential for growth in the grain-based foods industry—and even more so now, when major disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic, new technologies, and shifting consumer preferences are accelerating the pace of change across all markets. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of IBIEducate 2021, a new educational event designed to meet the immediate needs of baking professionals in a variety of roles and help our industry prepare for whatever comes next. Developed by two of the industry’s leading organizations, American Bakers Association (ABA) and Baking Equipment Manufacturers and Allieds (BEMA), with co-located sessions… Read more →

Little did we know what lay ahead as we closed out our 2019 event. Only a few months later, we entered into a global pandemic shutting down events, industries, and businesses. The baking industry has exhibited an incredible amount of strength and resiliency in this difficult time. As we look forward to IBIE 2022, we are all eager to come together as a community and get back to business. Our passionate, dedicated committee is making every effort to ensure that IBIE 2022 is one for the record books and putting plans into place, starting with the launch of space sales… Read more →

IBIE has always been dedicated to providing our community with expert advice on the topics that matter most to the grain-based foods industry—which is why we’re excited to announce that we will host three original education sessions exclusively at iba.CONNECTING EXPERTS, a new virtual event from complementary trade show and longtime IBIE partner, iba. The event was developed in order to facilitate international networking, knowledge exchange and commerce—all things that are critical to our industry’s continued success, but difficult to achieve in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “iba’s CONNECTING EXPERTS event offers exactly what our industry is craving right now—… Read more →

In this IBIE blog post, Katie Juhl, Marketing and Communications Director at American Bakers Association (ABA), announces their support of the World Bread awards by recognizing heroes in our industry. The American Bakers Association is a  co-owner of IBIE along with BEMA and in partnership with the Retail Bakers of America. The American Bakers Association will celebrate the bread community in partnership with the Tiptree World Bread Award Heroes. The 2020 awards will recognize the people behind the baked goods: the bakers, millers, farmers, and others in the industry going above and beyond to help their community. These awards shine… Read more →