Background

During college, I had the opportunity to do an internship at a company called FCSI (Food Service Consultants International Society). This company offers design and management consulting services, specialized in the restaurant and hospitality industry, worldwide. At FCSI, there are divisions around the world and here in the States we are known as FCSI Las Americas (includes Canada, USA, Mexico and South America).

While doing these internships, I can be a part of the Nashville, TN conference and the Denver, CO conference. During these conferences, consulting firms come in and learn about things that are emerging for the foodservice industry. Or they learn about new resources to help their business grow. They can also enjoy networking events during the evening hours.

Conference planning design

About a year after the conference, the entire conference planning committee and staff fly to the conference destination and explore the city. During this time, all members and staff can visit off-site locations for networking events during conference nights, in addition to having an all-day meeting to decide what topics will be offered for discussion at the Conference the following year. . For this topic, we will only look at the event that took place in Denver, CO that took place from April 19-21.

The problem arises

It is no coincidence that the conference fell on April 20 and knowing that cannabis is legal in Colorado. The committee thought that since cannabis is a big topic to become legal, many consultants would need to know how to design a kitchen to expand their business. They thought that bringing someone in to talk about their kitchen design and how they prepare things would be an amazing topic for a keynote speaker.

A couple of weeks later, my boss received an email from a FCSI The Americas board member expressing concern about cannabis. She thought it was not relevant and the committee was making fun of our company because the conference is going to be held on 4/20. He also thought that the committee wanted to promote drugs and that any speaker we had would bring groceries that they would have ready in said kitchen. My boss informed the staff that this particular board member had a history with cannabis and did not want it to interfere with his life again. Regardless, she was afraid that not everyone would enjoy listening to the song for an opening session. Of all the board members, she was the only one who had a problem with this session.

Find a solution

After receiving this email from the board member, my boss arranged a conference call with the conference planning committee. During this call, he explained the email he received and asked the committee to find a solution. Since his staff were only coordinating the conference, it was up to the committee what they wanted to learn. After talking on the phone for a while, the committee came up with 2 options.

Delete the topic entirely and find a new keynote

Move the cannabis topic from a keynote speaker to a group session, so people who would be uncomfortable with the topic don’t have to attend.

All members of the conference planning committee agreed that the cannabis issue should remain, but it was simply moved to a special session. Doing this gives people the option to attend the session or not. and the speaker will only educate about kitchens and how they should be designed. Many consultants were already creating kitchens for clients. They need to incorporate this topic into the conference. They all decided that it should be part of the work sessions.

To present their choice to the board, the committee chairman wrote a letter explaining why they wanted to keep it and that it would not be geared to the idea that “drugs are good.”

Conclution

The problem was very childish, but it is necessary to address even controversial issues. They should be presented in the right way, but they should be discussed if it has to do with your line of work. The conference planning committee did a noble thing by taking the topic of cannabis out of the presentation space and sliding it into a group session.