{"id":14474,"date":"2020-09-11T10:58:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T10:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/?p=14474"},"modified":"2020-09-17T08:20:13","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T08:20:13","slug":"food-force-ireland-annual-event-goes-virtual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/food-force-ireland-annual-event-goes-virtual\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Force Ireland annual event goes virtual"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A Force to be Reckoned with \u2013 <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Food Force Ireland leads the way with virtual showcase across three days.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>2020 sees a virtual first for Food Force Ireland. The annual September supplier showcase at the Culloden Hotel can\u2019t happen for the obvious COVID reasons \u2013 but Food Force Ireland won\u2019t let that stop the opportunity for vital supplier and retailer interaction.<\/p>\n<p>Going virtual is the perfect solution. For three days in September, Food Force Ireland has organised a fantastic programme of speakers and events \u2013 all taking place online.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Simple click of a link<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By the simple click of a link, retailers and suppliers can join the Food Force Ireland online platform from September 22 to 24<sup>th<\/sup>, inclusive.<\/p>\n<p>Food Force Ireland\u2019s Trading Controller Debra Johnston said \u201cIn previous years we had a one day trade event, with \u00a31 million worth of business taking place across the day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would start with a lunch for around 300 members and suppliers and would be followed by our annual \u00a0\u00a0FFI \u00a0Supplier of the Year Awards. In the afternoon there would have been up to 90 stands \u2013 an opportunity for suppliers and retailers to interact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously we couldn\u2019t do that this year so it\u2019s all taking place online and across three days\u201d explained Debra.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Difficult time<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a difficult time for local suppliers and retailers, who have all played vital roles throughout the Covid crisis. Both have done an amazing job throughout the pandemic to date, and Food Force Ireland couldn\u2019t be more proud of members and suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFFI Retailers have taken on huge responsibility for the well being of both staff and customers, and they have had phenomenal support from suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year we had to embrace technology. Food Force Ireland is working with Savilles to create a digital celebration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach day, from 22<sup>nd<\/sup> to 24<sup>th<\/sup> September, there will be a 90 minute online session. We have a fantastic array of key speakers lined up across the three days, covering everything from Covid to Brexit to Christmas trading opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe final day will see a keynote speech by our chairman Jonathan Crawford, along with the annual FFI Supplier of the Year awards \u2013 which this year will include a Special Recognition Award for the outstanding person who has gone above and beyond to help the stores during early days of lockdown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s just a brief overview of what\u2019s in store with Food Force Ireland this month.<\/p>\n<p>More news and details to follow from Neighbourhood Retailer online, and its weekly newsletter NR Insight.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Force to be Reckoned with \u2013 Food Force Ireland leads the way with virtual showcase across three days. 2020 sees a virtual first for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":14482,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[274],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/foodforce-conference.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14475,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14474\/revisions\/14475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}