Food & Drink /
The judging panel for the innovative FoodTalk Awards 2018
We are only a few weeks away from the entry deadline for this year’s FoodTalk Awards competition. We’re also proud to reveal for the first time the full list of judges – we thought you’d appreciate being first to know who’s on our stellar panel.
There are seven major categories dedicated to recognising the best new innovators in food, drink, technology and packaging. The awards night will take place at the glamorous Banking Hall in the City on 15 June 2018 as part of the London Tech Week programme. This year’s bash follows the runaway success of the inaugural FoodTalk Awards event last year.
Inspired by the foodie heroes who appear on The FoodTalk Show every week, the team behind the radio show launched this one-of-a-kind celebration to honour the best of UK food-tech innovation. If you’re doing something fresh, fabulous and not-half tasty in food, drink, technology or packaging, you really need to shout about it by entering these awards.
And now for the judges. The FoodTalk Show’s founder and presenter Sue Nelson launched the awards last year to recognise the very best of today’s food-tech heroes. Joining her on the panel is serial entrepreneur Sian Sutherland who co-founded Plastic Planet, the grass-roots organisation campaigning to reduce the amount of plastics in supermarkets and elsewhere.
John Stapleton is a trailblazing business leader with over 25 years’ experience in creating and building consumer brands in the FMCG sector. Best known as co-founder of New Covent Garden Soup Co, more recently he launched Little Dish, which supplies fresh, natural foods for children.
Carly Wood is editor of market-leading Food & Drink Technology magazine and one of the sector’s best talent spotters. Russ Shaw is a venture investor, non-executive director of several high-growth businesses and founder of Tech London Advocates. This coalition of over 4,000 experts champions London’s potential as a world-class hub for tech businesses.
Also on the judging panel is the author, TED Talk speaker and ‘food urbanist’ Carolyn Steel who explores how food networks can help define how cities evolve. Suki Fuller is founder of the strategic intelligence company Miribure, while rounding off the panel of judges is Paul Jenkins, managing director of The PackHub, experts in packaging innovation.
“Innovators and ideas people, these judges represent the cream of British technology in this hugely demanding digital age,” says Sue Nelson. “These are the people who have brought both creativity and intellectual rigour to business life in the 21st century. Entrants to this year’s FoodTalk Awards competition will be carrying forward their collective torch of creativity, and it’s a tall order that not everyone will be up to. But this is the perfect place to prove you’re one of the leaders.”
Entries close at midnight on 16 February, if you haven’t yet completed an application, why not get started right now by clicking on this link – http://www.foodtalkawards.com/.
You’ll find all you need – application form, category information and everything else. It’s free and easy to enter and, along with a shiny trophy for the mantelpiece, Gold Award winners will join The FoodTalk Show team to share their big idea with an audience whose hunger for great food is matched only by that for the very best in UK innovation.
