After closely monitoring COVID-19, Dot Foods officially canceled its annual food show, Innovations, on the evening of Thursday, March 12. The cancelation came after the City of St. Louis announced an indefinite ban on events for 1,000 or more attendees to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Innovations was expected to draw over 3,000 people to downtown St. Louis on April 15-17.
"Dot Foods, along with the rest of the St. Louis community, are concerned about the spread of COVID-19 as well as the health and safety of our employees, customers, suppliers, and event partners," said Dot Foods Trade Show Manager Christine Iovaldi. "We are devastated to cancel this year's Innovations but excited to welcome everyone to St. Louis for Innovations 2021."
Innovations is designed to bring together Dot suppliers, customers, and national account operators for three days of networking opportunities, product tasting, and educational seminars. This year, seminars were scheduled from luminaries such as Chef Roy Choi from Netflix's "The Chef Show," Datassential's Jack Li, and former Southwest Airlines executive Ginger Hardage. Rascal Flatts was also slated to perform an exclusive concert.
While this year's event is unfortunately canceled, next year's Innovations has been scheduled for April 7-9, 2021, in St. Louis. Dot is canceling any hotel reservations made through their Innovations registration process and sending out additional details to attendees and exhibitors via email.
In addition to canceling Innovations, Dot is continuing to monitor the coronavirus situation in order to meet the needs of business partners and provide transparency. They are promoting flexibility throughout their operations to meet demand changes.
"The spread of COVID-19 across the globe is certainly unlike anything we've seen in Dot's 60 years in business," said Dot Foods CEO Joe Tracy. "Two priorities are guiding us. First, the health and wellbeing of our employees, our customers, and our business partners is paramount. Second, we are working around the clock to provide the best possible service during this unprecedented time."