Industry Stories

Washington, D.C. (June 08, 2021) — The baking industry’s leading organizations are coming together to create a new kind of educational event. As a part of the International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE), the American Bakers Association (ABA) and Baking Equipment Manufacturers and Allieds (BEMA) today announced the formation of a joint educational conference: IBIEducate 2021. The new gathering will be held October 26-28, 2021, in Kansas City, MO.

If 2020 was a year of introspection, why can’t 2021 be the year for connectivity and looking beyond? Over the past year or so, we’ve seen countless examples of just how interconnected our industry is, from collaborations between customers and suppliers to navigating the log-jams of supply chain logistics holding up shipments coming from Asia and closer to home.

Last year around this time, we made the incredibly difficult decision to cancel our in-person Convention. While this was disappointing, the action quickly catapulted BEMA into a new mindset as we looked for innovative ways to overcome pandemic-related restrictions in order to provide meaningful engagement and education when our members needed it most.

The new frontier of bakery manufacturing is now, and the clock is ticking for implementing technology through robotics and automation.

Back in January, BEMA introduced its 2021-2023 Strategic Plan. Our Alliances and Partnerships focus, the third of our four-pillar strategic plan, offers a collective opportunity to define industry needs as well as provide our baker partners and supplier members with a platform to refine what the baking industry could look like in the future.

On March 16, Karl Thorson, Global Food Safety & Sanitation Manager, General Mills, offered iba Connecting Experts attendees best practices to minimize the impact of sanitation.

On March 15, members of BEMA and IBIE gathered on the first day of the iba Connecting Experts event to talk about robotics in food production facilities.

On March 15, Robb MacKie, President and CEO, American Bakers Association (ABA) and Kerwin Brown, President and CEO, Baking Equipment Manufacturing Association (BEMA) shared the impacts of COVID-19 on consumers, bakers and suppliers and their predictions for a thriving U.S. commercial baking industry in 2021.

The baking industry has exhibited an incredible amount of strength and resiliency in this difficult time. As we look forward to IBIE 2022, we are all eager to come together as a community and get back to business.

BEMA's CEO, Kerwin Brown, sat down with Rick Hoskins, BEMA's 2020-2021 Chairman of the Board, to talk about his experiences as a leader and learner as well as the benefits of developing relationships throughout the baking industry.