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Behind the Scenes of the Food Safety Consortium: Curation, Speakers & 15 Years of Evolution with Rick Biros from Food Safety Tech | Episode 170
Most conferences just recycle the same speakers on the same topics every year. Food Safety Consortium is trying to do something different, and the process behind it is more rigorous than you might expect.
In this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!, Matt and Francine sit down with Rick Biros, founder of Food Safety Consortium and Food Safety Tech, to pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to build a food safety conference worth attending. From the call for abstracts to curating diverse panels to scoring speaker submissions on educational value, this is the insider scoop most attendees never get.
Spoiler alert: Great food safety conferences don’t happen by accident.
In this episode:
💩 [01:17] What makes the Food Safety Consortium stand out
💩 [04:09] 15 years of FSMA, 15 years of evolving the program
💩 [06:42] Consortium vs. Food Safety Hazards
💩 [08:29] The role of policy in food safety topics covered
💩 [10:25] How speakers are selected: calls for abstracts, numerical scoring, and curation
💩 [13:38] Diversity of speakers – beyond the “60-year-old white guys” problem
💩 [16:32] The submission numbers and what happens to submissions that don’t make the cut
💩 [18:25] Preview: a global food safety audit study coming to this year’s program
💩 [23:22] How different learning styles shape conference programming
💩 [27:19] Rick on life outside the conference world: bass guitar, fishing, and family
Disclaimer: Episode title and content do not constitute legal or health advice.
Resources from this episode
Connect with Rick Biros here.
Take a look at our previous episodes with Rick:
- Behind the Scenes at the Food Safety Consortium with Rick Biros: Conference Culture, Compliance & Community | Episode 123
- 15 Years of Food Safety Tech: Food Safety Compliance vs Reality with Rick Biros | Episode 161
Use code POOP for 25% off registration for the Food Safety Consortium.
Noteworthy quotes from this episode
“How do we go to food safety conferences with the first word food and get such awful food? […] We take great pride in serving good food.” – Rick Biros
We hope you enjoy this episode of Don’t Eat Poop!
Connect with Francine, Matt, and the “Don’t Eat Poop!” show on LinkedIn!
Check out Francine’s book Who Watches the Kitchen? on Amazon!
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