OVERLAND PARK, KS — BEMA has been a pioneer through much of the baking industry’s history. With the mission of connecting, educating and providing resources to its members, the association celebrates another year of successful milestones.
As a membership organization, BEMA is dedicated to fostering relationships with people. By constructing programs and events around that central mission, BEMA engages the workforce and unifies the baking industry as a whole.
One of the ways BEMA successfully executes member engagement is through its Regional Dinners. By gathering a smaller portion of members around dinner tables in various cities, BEMA spurs industry connections and encourages meaningful conversations.
“The value of those smaller meetups has proven itself to be so high that now we have people traveling to each regional dinner because they love the concept,” said Emily Bowers, VP of education and operations at BEMA. “As we strive to raise membership engagement, we are finding multiple ways to connect people outside of our annual convention.”
Understanding the value of small-group interactions is also a defining characteristic of BEMA’s Baking Industry Forum (BIF), a cohort of bakers and suppliers who meet to discuss issues facing the commercial baking landscape.
This group works to identify new resources as well as research-based expertise to tackle industry challenges and develop open lines of communication between bakers and suppliers.
“BIF is focused on the future,” said Kerwin Brown, president and CEO of BEMA. “The group comes together and works on solutions to bring back to the industry — to bakers, to our members — and that ultimately raises the value of BEMA membership.”
To engage the industry and meet people on platforms they are already using, BEMA also hosts two podcasts: On a Roll with Kerwin Brown and In the Kitchen with Kelly & Emily.
Bowers, along with Kelly Allen, BEMA’s senior manager of events and engagement, whip up themed cocktails and a baked treat while discussing BEMA event topics and important details surrounding them. The goal is to inform attendees about what to expect and opportunities to network and connect, as well as answer common questions pertaining to the event that each episode focuses on.
In his podcast, Brown interviews colleagues and industry veterans, discussing the various ways their careers in the commercial baking industry took shape and how to embrace business traditions as the industry evolves.
While the baking industry has no shortage of notable veterans, BEMA understands the importance of aspiring professionals. The association has ignited passion in the emerging workforce through its BEMA Ascend Scholarship.
The program supports BEMA’s mission by offering recipients the opportunity to attend important industry events that connect all facets of the baking industry and expose them to timely education and resources.
“BEMA has its finger on the pulse of IBIE — we try to be the bridge that provides attendees and BEMA members with the wealth of resources the trade show offers.” — Kerwin Brown | president and CEO | BEMA
“The idea behind the scholarship is to involve the younger people that haven’t attended any of our events in the past,” Brown said. “Then we give them an opportunity to get into the industry and start networking. We want to open the doors for those aspiring leaders.”
The scholarship is a key component of getting new faces involved in the organization, helping them find a seat at the table. The 2024 scholarship granted two recipients the chance to attend NEXUS — powered by the American Bakers Association (ABA) and BEMA — and participate in its educational programs.
The primary pillars of NEXUS focus on connecting bakers and suppliers, educating attendees and creating opportunities for industry collaboration. At the event, the two Ascend Scholarship recipients gained first-hand experience in business interactions, trends and networking with key stakeholders.
“The two recipients took full advantage of the scholarship, and I couldn’t have been prouder of the program,” Brown said. “It was worth every dollar and every minute we spent to see those individuals have a launch into the industry at NEXUS.”
Connecting commercial bakers and suppliers, NEXUS provides attendees with professional development opportunities and creates avenues of collaboration. NEXUS 2024, which followed a successful inaugural year in Dallas, took place in Washington, DC, and enabled deeper team-to-team interactions between those two segments of the supply chain.
The educational sessions available for NEXUS participants included the new sales and marketing mosaic, valuable skills gleaned from professional mentorship, hygienic equipment design practices, the future of food science, and legislative and regulatory issues impacting the commercial baking industry.
“We focused NEXUS’ educational programming on bringing new things to the industry or highlighting things that we know deserved a spotlight,” Bowers said. “In the education space, we strove for a diverse profile of offerings in 2024.”
To keep connections strong through the gaps in events, NEXUS takes place in the off years of the
triennial International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE) to intentionally curate new networking opportunities.
Of course, a large segment of BEMA’s event programs includes IBIE, where all elements of the
supply chain and professional community are brought together to support the global baking ecosystem.
“IBIE is crucial for the industry because more than 90 percent of our membership will be in attendance,” Brown said. “BEMA has its finger on the pulse of IBIE — we try to be the bridge that provides attendees and BEMA members with the wealth of resources the trade show offers.”
As the largest event for the grain-based foods industry in the Western Hemisphere, BEMA
jointly owns and produces IBIE with ABA to fuel the next generation of bakers and advance the
future of the industry’s economic growth. The association actionably bolsters the commercial baking landscape by investing all proceeds from the non-profit event back into the industry, which greatly benefits from in-person interactions between buyers and suppliers. To achieve that, IBIE showcases the latest innovations and fresh products from equipment manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and service providers, all with the goal of serving bakers and securing the industry’s future.
Overall, BEMA has found the sweet spot of balancing tradition with the innovation needed to lead the baking industry into its next generation.
This has been adapted from the 2024 Innovations Annual of Commercial Baking. Read the digital edition here.
