Baking & Snack - March 2022 - 15

SPECIAL REPORT
Meet the IBIE Committee
Meet
michael cornelis
Mr. Cornelis believes the value of IBIE is in the connections
and knowledge attendees take home with them.
by Charlotte Atchley
M
Michael Cornelis is vice president of international sales
and development for American Pan, a Bundy Baking
Solution, and has worked in the industry since 1985.
He's attended the International Baking Exposition
(IBIE) since 1989 and served as chairman in 2016.
During your time on the IBIE committee, what
areas have you been most passionate about?
The two things that have been near and dear to my heart
from both my administration as chairman and now has
been increasing international attendance and increasing
educational offerings. Why? What's the point of all that?
The point is we study the demographics of the feedback
we get in the post-show surveys. We get into the weeds on
all that information we receive, and these are the things
our constituents want. Our attendees want an educational
experience. Our exhibitors want to see international attendees.
And with " international " in our name, we're
proud to host more than 109 countries at the show, and
roughly a quarter of IBIE's attendants are international.
What are you most excited about for IBIE 2022?
I always like to highlight the hands-on sessions or celebrity
demonstrations. Those are the things that excite me
the most about this year's education sessions. I'm really
excited about the World Bread Awards USA. The list of
judges is really impressive, and I'm so excited to see some
of these bread industry celebrities in person. And some of
the stories about the past winners are truly inspirational.
What new features should attendees check out?
We've rebranded the 20-minute TED-esque talks, formerly
known as Fresh Take Talks to QUICK BITES
(Baking Industry Trends & Educational Stories). I am
a huge fan of these talks because they take place on
the show floor, and you pop in to listen to a speaker
for a bit and still gain a lot. And then you go back to
what you were doing.
How will the educational
programming be different for IBIE
2022?
We change our programming and sessions
to serve what our attendees and exhibitors
want. In this case, we're hoping our attendees
walk away with tangible strategies and ideas and
are able to implement them right away when they
get home. In essence we'll focus on recruiting, retaining
and training employees as well as structuring businesses
for growth and success. We'll have tracks geared
to retail, medium and wholesale bakers, and these will
include hands-on demonstrations and the industry's top
instructors and influencers.
I think that's going to be a game changer in our educational
programming. In my first years of being on the
committee we only had about six classes, and in 2019 we
had more than 100. With IBIE happening on a threeyear
cycle, that's an incredible amount of growth over
three shows. We've knocked it out of the park again and
again, and I'm fully convinced we'll do it this year too.
How are you drawing in international
attendees through the educational
programming?
What we've found through our post-show surveys is
that international attendees come for the educational
sessions especially. They want to know what we're talking
about in the North American baking industry and
what they might be able to bring back to their countries.
They aren't just coming to IBIE for their own businesses,
but also the members of their local and regional bakery
associations. I think that's exciting.
As I've attended other international baking shows,
I've noticed that as IBIE has increased its educational offerings,
so have some of the others. In fact, in the past
year, we have provided sessions at iba's virtual events,
iba CONNECTING EXPERTS.
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Baking & Snack - March 2022

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