By: Carol Abel, Vice President of Education Program Development, FMI

The Annual Meat Conference, hosted by FMI and the North American Meat Institute, will this year shine a light on workforce diversity, women in the industry and leaders of tomorrow.

Diversity as A Competitive Advantage

McKinsey & Company, Inc. will facilitate a pre-conference workshop on strategies to embrace workforce diversity that includes:

• Background information on the competitive advantage of emphasizing diversity and inclusion.
• Examples of best practices used in two retail organizations today.
• An opportunity for participants to assess their own companies’ programs and how the techniques presented could be applied to their situations.

Encouraging Diversity in the Workforce

Diversity and inclusion will also be covered as part of the core conference curriculum. Three business leaders in the meat and retail industries, Albertsons Companies, Heinen's Grocery Stores and Tyson Foods, Inc., will share stories on how diversity has played a positive role in their careers and how they use those experiences to provide leadership today. The session will dive into ways to remove barriers and improve all types of diversity in your workforce.

Celebrating Leaders in the Meat Industry

For a third year, women in the historically male-dominated meat industry will have an opportunity to connect and network through a special session, the Women in Meat Reception.

For the second year, young industry leaders will be honored through the Leaders of Tomorrow program. Ten leaders under the age of 35 from retailer and supplier communities of the meat industry were selected to be honored based on their commitment to advancing the retail meat business, their track record of success and demonstrated leadership ability. These leaders include:

• James Buddig, Carl Buddig and Company
• Savannah Hawkins, Sealed Air Corporation
• Caroline Stevick, Stop and Shop
• Connor Spelic, Schnuck Markets
• Chris Geiger, Tyson Foods, Inc.
• Garret Dietz, Cargill Protein
• Catie Cantrell, Heinen's Grocery Store
• Bailey Morrell, Certified Angus Beef
• Liang Hou Bennett, Chicago Meat Authority
• Nathan Marion, Target

I’m excited for these discussions at the Annual Meat Conference and for the meat industry of the future they will help form.