Elements of a Successful Chocolate Festival | #PodSaveChocolate Ep 105
After attending and/or participating in well over 100 chocolate/food festivals and conferences between 1998-2025 (and a similar number between 1983 – 1998 during my high-tech career), Episode 105 of PodSaveChocolate takes a look at what makes a festival successful and why some fail. [ Updated ]
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Clay Gordon
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Episode 105 Overview
I went to my first chocolate show – the inaugural NY Chocolate Show – toward the end of November 1998. It was at the Puck Building at the corner of Lafayette and Houston St (so SoHo).
The first NY Chocolate Show was four-and-a-half years into my ChocolateLife while I was still in the early stages of researching what being a professional chocolate critic meant and demanded.
I remember a few details about my days at that first show. I remember standing in line in the rain on at least one of the days. I remember meeting founders Sylvie Douce and François Jeantet. I think it was my first time meeting Jacques Torres, and I know there were dozens of other chocolatiers (no craft/bean-to-bar chocolate makers ... yet) but I can’t remember any of them. There were cooking demonstrations and I can’t recall if there was a défilé (or fashion show).
Other critical events (for me) in 1998 were the time I spent in Voiron (during France’s hosting of the FIFA World Cup) visiting Stéphane Bonnat, whose chocolate inspired me to follow my ChocolateLife in 1994; and the holiday season of 1998 was when I discovered Cluizel. I got my first job in chocolate early in 1999 for the importer/distributor of Cluizel and Domori (Pierrick Chouard of Vintage Chocolates).
Clay Gordon
In the intervening twenty-six-plus years I have attended uncounted chocolate festivals, food industry trade shows, conferences, and educational events in North, South, and Central America, the Caribbean, the UK, and Europe as a member of the press, as a speaker/panelist, as an exhibitor, as a judge, as an advisor/consultant to the organizers, or as a staff member of the organizer.
I have been both FOH (front of house) and worked BOH (back of house). I have seen events become very popular and fade away, events that never find their footing and shut down, and events that find a mix of elements that lead to long-term success.
And that’s the focus of this episode of PodSaveChocolate – what are the elements of a successful chocolate festival?
⁉️ Show & Festival Experiences I Will Draw From
SIGGRAPH (1984 – 1998)
Basel Watch Fair (1996)
World Pastry Forum (Las Vegas, Nashville, Scottsdale 2003–2011)
World/National Pastry Team Championships (2003–2011)
Salon du Chocolat (Paris – pre 2018; New York, London)
Chicago Fine Chocolate Festival (Chicago 2012, 2013)
FCIA twice-yearly gatherings
Chocoa / Origin Chocolate event (Amsterdam)
Festival del Chocolate (Villahernosa, Tabasco, Mexico 2015, 2017-2019)
The Big Chocolate Show (NYC)
Chocolat Festivals (Brazil, 2017-2022; Porto 2022)
Craft Chocolate Experience (CCE)
The Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival (Rushville, IN)
⁉️ Location and Venue
1️⃣ The Big Chocolate Show (A nightclub, a hotel, a resort/casino in Queens)
2️⃣ The Northwest Chocolate Festival
3️⃣ Chocoa, Origin Chocolate Event
4️⃣ CCE – the Palace of Fine Arts
⁉️ Know Yourself, Know Your Markets, Know your Audience
1️⃣ Everything you do/plan/program must be contextually relevant, tailored to your market. New York is not Seatte or Dallas or San Francisco. Paris is not Tokyo is not London is not Amsterdam is not Lima. What works in one location probably will not work anywhere else.
2️⃣ Is your audience large enough to support you on an ongoing basis?
⁉️ Differentiation
1️⃣ Is anything you are offering different from what others are doing?
2️⃣ There is LOTS of competition.
3️⃣ Continuous improvement – embrace changing the format.
4️⃣ What do other festivals do well?
5️⃣ Something different: The Big Chocolate Show’s Legends of Chocolate
Clay Gordon
My list of SOME chocolate events around the world. There is LOTS of competition.
⁉️ Focus on Delivering Value to Your Constituencies
Your event is NOT about you or your organization.
If you don’t deliver value for exhibitors and sponsors and participants they will not support you next year. This perspective has to inform every decision.
The YouTube channel for the Midwest Craft Chocolate Festival includes videos of 9 of 14 sessions. These drive interest year-round in the people/companies giving them.
⁉️ Build and Build On Goodwill
1️⃣ The lesson of Sylvie & François in Paris, London, and New York.
2️⃣ The perils of postponing and canceling.
⁉️ Outsource your PR. Have a Good CRM.
1️⃣ You might think you can do your own press relations. You can’t.
2️⃣ Court the press. Do what you need to do.
3️⃣ Spreadsheets can’t hack it.
⁉️ To Show App or Not to Show App?
1️⃣ Are consumers really going to download an app and enter in personal information for a one-day experience?
2️⃣ Unforeseen limitations can doom you – my Whova debacle.
⁉️ Collectable Swag/Merch
SIGGRAPH pins
⁉️ The Biggest Mistake?
Not to involve real life cocoa farmers.
Questions?
If you have questions or want to comment, you can do so during the episode or, if you are a ChocolateLife member, you can add them in the Comments below at any time.
More Episode Hashtags and Social Media Links
#cocoa #cacao #cacau
#chocolate #chocolat #craftchocolate
#PodSaveChoc #PSC
#LaVidaCocoa #TheChocolateLife
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March News & AMA
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