We recently visited the NAFEM and FS-TEC trade shows at the George World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA – we were able to attend the show on the second and third days. What an amazing experience!
Two of the GWCC halls were packed with non-stop food-service innovations and people who wanted to get their hands on all of the new innovations! Everything from kitchen appliances and walk-in freezers to wireless temperature monitoring devices and energy saving kitchen dish washers.
Although there was a lot of software being showcased in the FS-TEC tradeshow, our experience was that the show was very slow for both attendees and exhibitors. On the second day of the show, there were only a handful of attendees walking through FS-TEC, and on day three we found it hard to find attendees other than ourselves. A number of employee / labor management and scheduling companies were exhibiting at the show, including:
Standard Disclaimer: Why do we showcase other companies and products that perform similar functionality to TimeForge.com? Because we believe
TimeForge.com is a superior scheduling product. Check them out yourself! Go review their products – Come back when you’re ready to make scheduling simple!
As we wandered the much larger NAFEM show, we began to notice that much of the new technology was not at FS-TEC. It was at NAFEM. We found new products in many different booths that do all kinds of things, like:
- Stoves that monitor their own energy usage
- Dishwashers that reduce waste water when washing dishes
- All-in-one food cooking centers that use less energy to cook food
- Microwaves that can cook food in metal containers
- Walk-in rotisseries that turn off when food is cooked thoroughly
- Electronic controls to automatically turn equipment off and on
- HACCP automation technologies
- Wireless temperature monitoring systems for monitoring refrigerators, freezers, and holding areas
The coolest technology at the show? One of the most interesting pieces of technology being sold at the NAFEM show was the JeneSys product line from LynxSpring, a Kansas based company. The JeneSys is an Internet enabled facility monitoring and control management platform – a neat mini-computer that can monitor and control lighting, walk-ins, HVAC, security systems, and much more. The system is relatively affordable, and the graphical interface for monitoring the system is very intuitive.
The neatest booth at the show? The neatest booth had to be the Hobart booth, which was enormous. Hobart had several sample kitchens laid out in their booth, which was easily 250 feet long and 100 feet wide. I don’t know how much the booth cost, but it wasn’t less than $250,000. Impressive!
How long does it take to make your labor schedules? It should take less than 5 minutes! Did you know that TimeForge can streamline and minimize labor costs through effective employee scheduling at your restaurant, bar, club, or business.
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