Pet Age invites all pet industry professionals, retailers and pet lovers to the inaugural Food and Treat Festival for Pets on February 6, 2018. The event is free for members of the pet industry.
Called F.A.T. Fest for short because of Mardi Gras’ Fat Tuesday being a week later, the event will take place at the New Jersey Convention & Expo Conference Center in Edison, New Jersey. It will be part informational session, part trade show and filled with information from pet industry experts and manufacturers.
First, there will be two morning keynote speakers and breakout sessions for pet industry professionals. Then, open to the public, there will be a pet-friendly food and treat trade show where manufacturers will have their products on display and will be ready to answer any questions.
The two keynote speakers will be Cathleen Enright, PhD, president and CEO of the Pet Food Institute, and Todd Maute, partner at CBX, a brand and design agency. Enright will provide an overview of pet food’s regulatory landscape to help ensure companies are aware of new requirements in place to make safe pet food products. Maute will identify the different ways all brands can survive and thrive through a private label lens, and discuss how retailers and private label manufacturers can work together to make their brands succeed.
There will then be an hour’s worth of breakout sessions on the benefits of a raw food diet for dogs and cats and how to communicate them to pet parents.
After the breakout sessions, pet industry professionals have an hour to preview the trade show floor. At 2 p.m., the trade show floor opens to the public. There is a US$10 walk-in fee to attend the trade show for all non-pet industry professionals. There are no advance ticket sales. All attendees will receive a complimentary ticket to attend Super Pet Expo on April 13-15, 2018, at the NJ Convention & Expo Center.