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CHEESE-A-TOPIA HOME | TOURS | TRAVEL & LODGING | PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS | SPECIAL EVENTS | WATCH THE VIDEO
Opening Keynote Address
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Closing Keynote Address
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Laurie Demeritt
COO and President of The Hartman Group
 Have you ever wondered exactly what's going on in the mind of cheese consumers? Laurie Demeritt is President and COO of The Hartman Group, a leading consulting and market research firm. The Hartman Group specializes in the analysis and interpretation of consumer lifestyles and how these lifestyles affect the purchase and use of health and wellness products and services. This firm works with a number of Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods companies and provides expertise to a multitude of national media outlets in addition to trade publications. Demeritt will share findings on big-picture food trends as they relate to cheese and will help us understand how to interpret and take advantage of them in our industry.
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Michael Pollan
Author and Professor at UC Berkeley
 If you’re a fan of The Omnivore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, then you already know where Michael Pollan’s interests lie - at the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: food, agriculture, gardens, drugs and architecture. Pollan’s writings, both as a book author and journalist, have garnered him numerous awards over the years, from the James Beard Award to the New York Times best seller list, the John Burroughs prize to the Reuters-I.U.C.N. Global Award for Environmental Journalism. He is roundly recognized as a leading voice on the plight of man as he struggles with what to eat in a world where food is not always what it seems.
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Competitions
 Once again, this year's conference will be featuring the Annual Cheese Competition and Merchandising Competition. Following the Merchanding Competition, expect hands-on workshops leading you through what the judges were looking for and answering any questions you have about the merchandising, leaving you with actionable information you can use throughout the year to build your business and make your cheese cases look their best.
For our Cheese Competition, we're combining the Award Ceremony and Festival of Cheese into one cheese extravaganza, all taking place at Seattle's Benaroya Hall. This means that as soon as we find out who the winners are, everyone will be able to go and immediately taste the cheeses, while enjoying Seattles finest wines alongside foods prepared by the talented local chefs. This will be a Festival of Cheese like no other!
The Sessions
In addition to the 2010 special events, you can expect the session program to feature past successful programs such as the Town Hall and Meet the Cheesemaker. We're also focusing our session content to be:
INTERACTIVE
The program is loaded with smaller sessions and workshops that will focus on specialized subjects and allow for us to cover a wider variety of content. In these sessions, you will be able to have in-depth discussion with peers, expert panelists, and presenters. The interactive, small-format workshops include:
- Participate in a hands-on merchandising session where you can try your hand at setting a cheese case and get immediate feedback from industry experts.
- Attend an intimate, 25-person session where seasoned cheesemakers will demonstrate live specific steps in the cheesemaking process.
INFORMATION-RICH
Whether you want to delve deep into understanding how consumers perceive the value of various cheeses, learn the ins and outs of product liability insurance, or get briefed on recent and upcoming legislation that could impact our industry, we will have exciting new content for you. We heard your cry for more from Zingerman’s and Ari Weinzweig has generously agreed to come to Seattle with two ZingTrain workshops: The Art of Giving Great Service and Fun, Flavorful Finance.
The conference also features sessions dedicated to learning through taste, whether it is by pairing cheeses from all over America with beer, wine and spirits of the Pacific Northwest or evaluating blue cheese to understand how various mold strains develop differently. For those looking to hone their tasting capabilities, there will be instructional sessions that help you become more skilled in evaluating cheese and identifying flavors.
These are but a handful of the topics that will be explored through conversation and interaction. Look forward to a full listing of sessions and speakers on the website by summer, 2010.
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