Editor's Note: Creating a spark

Becky Schilling, Food Management Editor-in-Chief

Innovation. It’s often a word that gets thrown around without any real meat behind it. But for Food Management in 2016, real innovation will be our standard, and that’s why we created this issue to revolve around industry game-changers and disruptors.  

In this issue you’ll find the four world-class operations that make up our 2016 class of Innovators of the Year; tips to elevate your grab-and-go offerings; and ways senior dining is starting to look more like programs found on college campuses. The whole idea is that these operations’ innovations may spark a change in yours as well, because as we’re all aware, industries change and your success often depends on how well you adapt.

This holds true for any industry, and it’s something Food Management is striving for in the year ahead. Ten years ago I attended grad school for journalism, and each student had to select an area of concentration: print, broadcast or “new media,” as online and digital production was then called. There was not a single person who selected new media. Within the last 10 years the media landscape has drastically changed. Consumers’ consumption of information online is standard, with mobile access booming, and words like “engagement” have become the daily metrics by which journalists communicate.

Food Management has seen this change in reader preferences as well, and to that end, we’re making some changes to meet you where you are—which is increasingly online and at in-person events. The FM audience no longer wants simply a print magazine; they want continual communication and a community bond with a brand and its products.

To meet these changing patterns, FM is strengthening its resources and investments behind digital and event offerings.

The frequency of our flagship e-newsletter, FM Today, will increase to three times per week, so keep an eye on your inbox. Online-only special reports will be showcased on Food-Management.com on both a weekly and monthly basis. And we’re expanding FM Live, our networking and celebratory event that has, up until this point, been only at NACUFS. Following the standout success of FM Live in 2015, we’re expanding the opportunities to meet and learn to all market segments. We will also be honoring, for the first time at a live event, our 2016 Innovators of the Year. The event is Friday, May 20, at the start of the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago. We hope to see you all there.

The magazine is and will continue to be a focus for FM, just in a slightly different format. You’ll now receive six issues in 2016, which will contain a curation of the best content from our online products.

We’re excited about all the dynamic and different avenues we have to share the innovations you create on a daily basis. And we look forward to seeing you at the expanded FM Live in May. As always, we love to hear about the cool things going on with you, so feel free to send me a note bragging about your operation. Who knows, you just might find yourself on the pages of this magazine, in our newsletters, on our website or celebrated at our events.

Contact Becky Schilling at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter: @bschilling_FM