This year’s Today’s Dietitian Spring Symposium took place at the end of May in Bonita Springs, Florida. It is an educational event for health care professionals like registered dietitians and nutritionists.
After a COVID scare and not sure if I would make it to the Today’s Dietitian Spring Symposium – things worked out. I was representing BENEO-Institute with a tabletop at the symposium showcasing our prebiotic chicory root fiber. I was also taking care of the BENEO-Institute sponsored speaker, Dr. Hannah Holscher, Associate Professor of Nutrition, University of Illinois, U.S.A. whom we invited to give an accredited speech titled “A guide to prebiotics and the gut microbiome: Harnessing the power of microbes to support health”. I had prepared this show to the tiniest detail with resources at our tabletop, support for Hannah’s speech that would be recorded for a follow up webinar, a Q&A session and interview. So, needless to say – I had enough work to do and needed help at the booth.
I reached out to Amie Marie Ibarra who is in the BENEO U.S. team for Customer Technical Support to come join me at the show in Florida. I thought it would be great to get Amie Marie involved in our health care professional outreach so that she would get a feeling for the different conversations that happen there compared to our regular trade shows. She was blown away by the show and just how many people came to ask questions and engage in conversations with us! Her expertise on applications was highly appreciated by the dietitians because of course they want to know how to practically apply BENEO’s chicory root fiber in final recipes! The combined expertise of nutrition and food application was the perfect combo to address the questions of the audience! Unexpected synergies are right in front of our eyes and sometimes daring to work cross-functionally can be really rewarding.
During our trip to Florida, I also found out that Amie Marie and I were probably twins in a previous life! So, besides a great professional collaboration, I think I made a new friend.
