Food and drink companies are to get a unique opportunity from 27th June 2008 onwards to find out what cutting edge creative industries can do for their business, without having to leave their offices or lose a day’s work.

See www.gettingcreative.co.uk where registration is free.

A special on-line conference, Getting Creative in the Food & Drinks Industry, is bringing together specialists in the many fields of design, marketing and manufacture who have the skills to make significant differences to food and drink company profits.

Businesses will be telling delegates the secrets of their success. For example, winner of BBC 2’s Dragon’s Den, Levi Roots of the Reggae Reggae Sauce Company who used his family’s secret Caribbean recipe to create a successful business tells his story.

Andrew Keeble is director of Debbie and Andrew’s, a farm diversification enterprise that has grown from a small cottage industry to the fastest growing brand in fresh chilled sausages, with Tesco, Asda, J Sainsbury and Morrison’s as customers. In 2001 Debbie and Andrew’s won the Design Council award for Design Effectiveness

Jonathan Sands, chairman of brand identity consultancy, Elmwood will also be presenting. Elmwood’s clients include Asda (Elmwood have been their lead brand consultancy for over fifteen years), BBC, Durex, The Football Association, McCain, Royal Mail, Nestle and HBOS. The consultancy has won over 100 national and international design awards. They are in the top five for all UK awards for identity, literature and packaging design.

James Woudhuysen, Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester will highlight up and coming trends to watch out for.

The main event on 27th June is for businesses, academics and students who can watch the presentations on-line and simultaneously join online discussions with each speaker without leaving their offices and losing valuable production time. After the seminar additional information and advice will be available to view or download, giving a unique pool of information long after the conference has finished.

Giles Button of Studio 2 Online Ltd, Leicester’s largest web design agency will advise on creating an e-commerce website. James Malbon, from Easibind International, graphic and product design consultants will highlight the new opportunities of holography, Lenticular printing and electroluminescent materials to make products stand out from competitors. Search engine marketing consultants will demonstrate how to get your company higher up the search engine list. Use of TV shopping channels to increase sales may also be explored.

Getting Creative in the Food Industry is a joint event between the East Midlands New Technology Initiative (NTI) Creative Industries and Food & Drink Knowledge Exchanges in partnership with the universities of Lincoln, Leicester’s De Montfort, Derby and Nottingham Trent. Support has also been given by the Food and Drink iNet (Innovation Network). It is thought to be the first such conference, bringing together the two disciplines of food and drink and creative industries.

Getting Creative in the Food Industry is on June 27th.