FNCE Boston
This week, approximately 10,000 registered dietitians descended upon my hometown of Boston for the 2010 Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo – or the convention otherwise known as FNCE (pronounced FENCE-eee). This was my second time working FNCE for NuVal – and what a difference a year makes!
Rachel and I at our NuVal booth (photo credit, Dianne Fagan, RD, CDN)
If I could sum up the difference in one word, I would say, “Publicity.”
Last year, we were just getting the NuVal name out there. Now almost all of the dietitians knew who we were. It was very cool! Last year, I would say, “we’re in three supermarket chains around the country.” This year, I said, “we’re in over 900 stores throughout the country in 23 states and we’ll be in more in the next couple of months.” This year I said, “You’ve probably seen us on Good Morning America or on CNN.” And, they actually had seen us there!
Rachel and Annette at the NuVal Booth
Rachel Rodek, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD, and Manager of Nutrition Communications for NuVal and Annette Maggi, MS, RD, LD, FADA, and Senior Director of Nutrition for NuVal worked hard to pull everything together for this show.
It is a HUGE show.
Expo Hall (photo credit, Christina Molinski)
This photo, thanks to our summer intern, Christina Molinksi, who writes the blog FoodFunFabulous.com, shows just s portion of the Expo Hall.
Last year, in Denver, we were busy at our booth. But this year, we were really busy at our booth.
Thank goodness, the RDs from our retailer partners, Price Chopper and Meijer, came and worked at our booth too.
Ellie Wilson and Dianne Fagan from Price Chopper
Ellie Wilson, MS, RD, CDN, Senior Nutritionist for Price Chopper and Dianne Fagan, RD, CDN were a huge help.
I love listening to Ellie explain NuVal!
Ellie
So many New York State dietitians stopped by because Ellie has done such a great job educating New York RDs about NuVal. Way to go Ellie!
We all talked about NuVal – a lot!
Me, explaining NuVal to a conference attendee
Rachel talks NuVal with an RD
And I love to talk about NuVal – so I loved that. What I do not love is sore feet. And conventions are a recipe for sore feet – no matter what! Something about those cement floors with carpeting over them. The smart guys over at the Target booth across from us brought in extra padding and put it in under their carpeting. I’m seriously considering it for next year!
Fortunately for me, when the convention ended, I did not have to fly home since I was already in Boston. Instead, after Rachel and I broke down our booth and hauled it into our cars, I drove myself back to my suburb and made a very important stop before picking the kids up at their After-School program: my favorite nail salon, where I treated myself to a much-deserved spa pedicure! Ahhhhhhhh!
Looking forward to FNCE 2011: San Diego, CA!
Posted by: Melissa 5 comments
on Nov 11th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
A lot of lovely ladies worked the NuVal booth!
on Nov 11th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
900 stores! Quite the increase from last year. Kudos to everyone at Nuval. Changing nutrtion one store at a time.
Happy Veterans Day! Thank you to all the men and women that serve.
on Nov 11th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
So cool knowing all your hard work paid off!
on Nov 11th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
I am so delighted to hear all your great accomplishments! CONGRATULATIONS to all of you….and YYEAAAH for the much deserved pedicure!!!!
on Nov 17th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Wonderful job NuVal !!!!!!!