FSU Hosts a Food and Beverage Entrepreneurship Summit

FRAMINGHAM – In the spirit of Alumnae Ruth Wakefield, inventor of the Chocolate Chip Cookie, the Entrepreneur Innovation Center (EIC) at Framingham State University (FSU) will host FSU’s first Food Entrepreneurship Summit to be held at the EIC’s building at 860 Worcester Road on Thursday, Nov. 14th.

The event will feature food industry experts and entrepreneurs for a series of workshops and lectures for aspiring food entrepreneurs in the MetroWest region, and interested students from FSU and other local universities.

The EIC is a Center within Framingham State’s College of Business, and is partnering with FSU’s Department of Nutrition and Health Studies on this special summit.

“The mission of the event is to catalyze a local food entrepreneurship community here in Framingham and the MetroWest region, where knowledge can be shared, inspiration found, and connections made,” says Michael Clouser, Director of the EIC. “On one level, food innovation is related to quality of life, and thus an economic force in and of itself. Take for example Lima, Peru, which is globally recognized as a city with great food. This innovation was driven by the various immigrant populations that settled there and started businesses, including restaurants, and the result was fusion of cultural food traditions that created something of new value to the population of residents and visitors to the city.”

Clouser says that FSU’s highly regarded nutrition and food programs provide a unique opportunity to leverage expertise to benefit students and local entrepreneurs interested in the food industry.

“The components of a food entrepreneurship ecosystem are all here in the greater MetroWest region, they just need to be brought together, and a community built that welcomes people of all sorts, and entrepreneurs at all stages to get involved,” Clouser says.

Speakers and workshop leaders will include FSU faculty, local food entrepreneurs from Boston, Worcester, and Framingham, including:

• Vinay Mannam, Associate Professor, FSU will talk on ““Food Product Development: Common Challenges and Practical Solutions.”
• Heather Santoro of Cane’s Framingham will provide insights into the Raising Canes entry and growth in the wider region. “The Story of Cane’s Brand, and Expansion into the Northeast”
• Evan Reseka from the Boston Honey Company will speak about his experiences and growth of the brand and operation.
• Framingham local Marina Andreazi will hold a workshop on her experience at Xua, a Brazilian energy beverage product.
• Former EIC member and local franchisee Guy Trembley of Kona Ice will lead a seminar on franchising food concepts. Kona Ice is a national foodtruck brand with over 40 franchisees and 1800 shaved ice trucks.
• Neelu Mohaghegh of Worcester’s Fuel America Coffee House & Grove Village Market will share her experience and knowledge of starting and growing a community-embedded coffee house and food market.

More workshop leaders and panelists are expected to attend as the schedule develops. Organizers and marketers of the event include EIC student employee interns Kenzy Bakr El Sayed and Paulina Guerra Pazmino.

Join us for a day of learning, community building and skills development. The event is free and open to the public in addition to Framingham University students and students from surrounding universities including Suffolk, WPI and others.  Limited space is available, however, so be sure to register:  https://innovation-fsu.org/event/food-entrepreneurship-summit/

About the Entrepreneurship Innovation Center at Framingham State University

The Entrepreneurship Innovation Center was founded a decade ago to build community and support entrepreneurship and innovation within the Framingham State University body of students and faculty, and beyond. The Innovation Center building is located at 860 Worcester Road (Rt) and has 15,000 square feet of space, which houses 10 growing companies, and 10 coworking members. The space also has three meeting rooms, a small conference room, a podcasting studio and photography studio. Programming for students and the community is also available at the EIC. Accelerator programs and hackathons are planned for the Spring. In addition, the EIC currently has 9 interns placed with its member companies and beyond in the wider community, with a couple of students starting their own new companies in the EIC too.