The results are in. A year of tracking trends through consumer research. What’s happened in the times of coronavirus? How did consumers engage with the trends as we dipped in and out of lockdowns? What trends proved most important to consumers and are here to stay? What were the fad trends which have faded away? What were the interesting customer behavioural shifts? And what should you watch out for in 2021?

Kelly Dowson, Managing Director, Good Sense Research

Fiercely ambitious, Kelly is the driving force behind the FIS Group. FIS Group is a family of three businesses specialising in F&B innovation, research and growth acceleration. Food Innovation Solutions, Good Sense Research and CUBO, come together to provide a suite of complimentary services in food and beverage innovation, strategic support and consumer research.

With a Food Science degree Kelly has spent the last 15 years working across foodservice and hospitality as well as retail and manufacturing, in both innovation and insight functions.

Charles is a Co Founder, a fourth-generation foodie, an expert in food futures and a ‘champion of change’. Cooking at his mother's side in the kitchen is where Charles' obsession for food began!

He and his business thefoodpeople are known for shifting the future of food and drink by harnessing the power of trends. Charles has spent the past 25 years in the food industry working across all sectors including food service, fine dining, hotels, food brands and food retailing.

thefoodpeople, established for over 15 years, are a global trends business, specialising in future foresight in the food and beverage sector. A united group of trend spotters and innovators, we are a team of psychologists, chefs, marketeers, product developers, academics, flavourists, historians and anthropologists. But more than that TFP are ‘champions of change’ that bring their inherent experience, as well as an obsession for food and drink, natural curiosity, intuition and tenacity. This is underpinned by our vision ‘to shift the future of food and drink’. What drives us is our desire to shape a better future across society by harnessing the power of trends.

Charles adds “The reason that “Thefoodpeople exists is because we’ve been in your shoes. We know what it is like; we know it’s not easy identifying and activating trends. It’s a fact that consumers are moving faster than industry, so decoding your businesses place on the future horizon and designing brilliant but nimble business models, strategies, and developing deep, value-based connections with consumers are essential traits of innovators both today and tomorrow. So, do the most powerful thing a business can do – champion & harness change, don’t let it harness you.”

Host: Keterina Albanese, Content Director, Montgomery Group

Keterina is the Content Director for Montgomery Events, organisers of leading trade events for the food, drink and hospitality industries. Events include the Hotel, Restaurant & Catering Show (HRC), the Independent Hotel Show and many more.

Keterina is responsible for curating cutting-edge content programmes which are truly relevant and educational for the industry, both in terms of being representative of the current issues facing the sector and looking at future trends which are exciting and/or disrupting it.

Combining her knowledge of events and passion for the industry, she brings together thought-leaders, innovators and pioneers to deliver programmes designed to educate, engage and inspire.

Future Food: A Year In Review