The Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival has benefited South Florida’s tourism and hospitality industry for two decades, raising more than $24 million for Florida International University’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. Now a group of hospitality leaders in Central Florida are working to create a similar event to benefit students and young professionals in the Orlando area. The inaugural Foodstock Orlando took place March 1 to 4 under the direction of Dr. Mary Jo Ross, who has worked in the food and hospitality business for more than 30 years, including nearly two decades teaching and leading special events at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality.
“This town has become a significant foodie town. It’s no longer just about theme parks,” Ross says. “The restaurant and hospitality industry here has provided a lot of philanthropy over the years to a variety of events. So I said if I’m going to do this it has to come back to hospitality education and to support the workforce we are looking for.”
But Ross knows it takes patience to create a successful festival like South Beach Wine & Food—one that attracts not only crowds of attendees but also generous corporate sponsors. So her goal for this first year was simply to create a quality experience that would generate support in the future.
“This year was a very grassroots effort,” Ross says. “We have some angels and backers out there that believe in what we’re doing, because the big corporate sponsors will not get behind an inaugural event like this until they see it happen and make sure it will be a quality product.”
Ross put together a team of planners and vendors from around the region to produce the event, including representatives from Universal Orlando, Hilton Orlando, Main Event Entertainment, AV Media, and a variety of industry associations. Planning began more than two years ago and then ramped up in early 2016 with what Ross called monthly “town hall mixers” at restaurants and hotels around the city. “I was basically doing an infomercial about Foodstock and what we are trying to do to round up our in-kind donors,” she says.
For this first event, more than 30 restaurants, catering companies, hotels, and beverage vendors donated food and drinks, and about 650 people attended, purchasing tickets that started at $49. While that only allowed the event to break even, organizers say they are pleased with the turnout and already have sponsors and vendors expressing interest for next year. They plan to stick with the strategy of hosting the event across multiple locations, which this year included Church Street in downtown Orlando and Pointe Orlando and I-Drive 360 on International Drive. Ross says she researched several other food festivals and was inspired by Southern Living #NashvilleNOW, which took place in venues around Nashville last September.
“I thought that’s a perfect model for Orlando," she says. "We have so many different dining districts. We don’t have one area that would draw all the locals to one area. So we are building a series of parties, and hopefully next year we’ll grow into more days and more districts."
If the event is able to grow and generate revenue, that money will be distributed by the Grand Tour Foundation as scholarships and grants to hospitality, restaurant, and tourism students.
