Food & Beverage Innovation Forum
The best and brightest in the food & beverage industry gather on an annual basis at the Food & Beverage Innovation Forum (FBIF). Since its founding in 2014, the event has been considered one the most influential food-industry events in Asia. The function aims to support and develop its industry leaders by facilitating an environment of shared ideas, experience and innovation. In 2019, nearly 4500 individuals from more than 1000 organizations attended the event.
Aside from the education and networking appeal, many brand executives are motivated to make an appearance due to the annual product competitions. Each year from October to April, newly launched or branded products are submitted for awards in one of two categories. Products being assessed primarily by their sensory evaluation (taste, texture, odor, etc.) are submitted for Wow Food Awards. Other products are submitted into a separate competition held by Marking Awards, focused on food & beverage packaging design. These products are evaluated by their design, communication, foresight, functionality, commercial value and sustainability.
Go Mix Recognition
At Go Mix, we are preparing to experience our first taste of the FBIF this year as an extension of our largest account, Herbalife China. We finalized our partnership with Herbalife in 2020, bringing our Go Mix patented delivery system to Asia by way of the nutrition giant. Herbalife reintroduced their popular Red Bean Protein to their consumers in our on the go packaging in late 2020 and was an immediate success. Since then, Herbalife has expanded the use of the packaging to their Mango flavor and is exploring other opportunities within their product line.
The recent success has motivated Herbalife to submit both the Red Bean and Mango pouch to this year’s Marking Awards competition at the FBIF. The two awards Herbalife hopes to claim are for “Best Product Design” and “Best Structure & Material Design”. The competition is expected to see submissions from as many as 6,800 food & beverage enterprises, including industry giants like Coca-Cola and Nestle.
Herbalife believes the functionality and forward-thinking design contributed by our packaging engineers elevates their already innovative formula and provides an excellent opportunity to claim a title. Our CEO and Co-founder, Joe Hansley, is thrilled by the recent entry. “Our technology was designed to eliminate nutritional limitations and provide unparalleled convenience for consumers” Hansley said. “It’s incredibly uplifting just to be considered for these awards and we’re honored to compete alongside the biggest and best the industry has to offer.”
The submissions made by Herbalife and our organization will be analyzed by the Marking Awards Resident Jury. This group of 23 judges is hand-picked each year and made up of elite level executives from across the industry. Their cumulative experience includes everything from enterprise founders to research & development directors. The juries winning selections will be displayed in the Marking Awards Gallery Exhibition and published in the Official Media of the FBIF.
The exposition and proceeding events will take place this June, in Hangzhou, China at the International Expo Center. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the FBIF has decided to limit this year’s attendance to domestic enterprises only. Although this prevents the Go Mix team from attending, we will be eagerly supporting our partners at Herbalife from afar.