This coming June, CAFÉ, the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education, will again present the 2015 CAFÉ Leadership Conference with an exciting program focusing on Best Practices in Education on Friday and Industry Outreach on Saturday.  This year the conference theme will be "Energizing our Classrooms," and we are writing to invite you to submit a proposal for a workshop, lecture, or round table discussion for the Friday sessions on Best Practices in Education.  The Leadership Conference will take place June 18-20, in Niagara Falls, New York, and you can make a contribution by sharing something special you are doing in education.

Last year, the program began with a large group presentation on "Ten Insights about Students, Social Media, and Student Retention" which produced a lot of discussion and buzz during breaks.  During the day, there was a wide range of fascinating and creative Best Practices in Education breakout sessions, including

• "Blended Learning"
• "The Flipped Classroom in Hospitality Education: Practices and Pitfalls"
• "Teaching Your Students About Food Allergies"
• "Throw Out the Recipes: Teaching Culinary Arts Through Ratios"
• "Teaching Culinary Math"
• "One Potato, Two Potato: Introducing Sensory Science to Culinary Students with a Potato Lab"
• "Teaching Techniques Using Collaborative Approaches"
•  "Encouraging Creativity Among Students"
• "Backward by Design: Curriculum Innovation" - 

This year, we are looking for your ideas about presentations and thinking that it would be great to share new ideas and practices about teaching specific culinary skills or methods, menu development, evaluation and assessment, and unusual topics in culinary classrooms.  If any of you are using social media in new ways, please consider sharing that experience in a workshop as well.  If you have another idea, the CAFÉ Leadership Conference Planning Committee for Best Practices in Education is also open to your ideas.  If you have an idea or a proposal, please send it to me atMayoconsulting@aol.com by November 3rd.  The Committee will review your proposal and get back to you by late November so that you have plenty of time to plan.

Each proposal should contain the following information:

• Your name
• Your current title or position
• Your institutional affiliation
• The title of your presentation
• A description (approximately two paragraphs) of what you will present and reasons it is a significant presentation for the audience of culinary teachers and administrators
• Your audiovisual, computer or demonstration needs
• Any supporting information you want the Committee to review 

Each session will be approximately 60 to 90 minutes in length although that may change depending on the number and type of proposals we receive.

The day will begin with a short plenary session - like last year - we will have roundtables at lunch, and we will end with a large group sharing and review session, also like last year.  Most of the morning and afternoon will be filled with simultaneous presentations.  Thanks for thinking of one.

On behalf of the Planning Committee, I look forward to hearing from you in the next month and seeing you in Niagara Falls - a brand new location and an exciting revitalized tourist destination - in June 2015.

If you have any questions, please send me an email note at  Mayoconsulting@aol.com or call me at 845/258-8363.

Fred Mayo

Chair, CAFÉ Leadership Conference Planning Committee for Best Practices in Education

Clinical Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism

New York University School of Professional Studies

Principal

Mayo Consulting Services, Inc.