Las Vegas

What does the Thomas Caterers of Distinction team + 6 days away from the office+ Las Vegas + very little sleep equal?If you said a week of debauchery, then shame on you!!  Perhaps I forgot to mention the two most important words in this equation - Catersource Conference! www.catersource.com/conference The TCOD team packed their bags, entrusted our amazing staff with weekend events while we were away and got to experience an amazing week of learning, networking, teaching, researching and surrounding ourselves with the best of the best in the catering industry!  

TCOD wins a CATIE award for Best Dessert!

Meet & Greet with Preston Bailey

The drink wall at Hard Rock Cafe Harmony Event

Our Monte Cristo waffle on the Catersource Conference sign!

This was my first time going to this conference and what an experience for this lover of all food and event industry related!  A brief recap of just a handful of the amazing event people I got to meet, attend their classes, sit at a small round table discussion with and sit in awe of their creative genius...Preston Bailey, THE Michael Roman - Catering guru (holy cow...I only follow him like everyday in any form I can find) www.cateringguru.com, Meryl Snow, Peter Callahan, Ronnie Davis, Scott Conant, Alan Berg, David Tutera, Colin Cowie...the list goes on and on!  I could very likely writ ea blog post about every single one of them and what I learned but I have to recap this entire experience in ONE post!  Needless to say...I learned a ton and stay tuned to all things TCOD related to see how our entire team takes what we learned and uses those ideas at YOUR next event!  

Moving on...did I mention that our very own Vince and Kelly Early taught their own session?  More on that in just a few.  Our very own Vince and Rach (with a Dee cameo) knocked it out of the park on one of the experience stages talking about all of our food stations!  And the Trade Show floor - it's a good thing I had a brief idea what a Trade Show floor was after attending The Special Event but the Catersource Trade Show floor is that times 50!  Booth after booth with inspiration everywhere on new ideas we can use to create food, display food, design food, you name it and it was there!  Such a cool experience to walk the Trade Show floor with my team! And back to that session that Vince and Kelly taught - with the oh so appropriate title of "What Happens in Vegas Shouldn't Always Stay in Vegas" - the reason we attend the conference - to get new ideas and make us better!  Between the education sessions, Trade 

  Show Floor, Catersource events and the amazing meals we had while in Vegas - we had a ton of new ideas and inspiration!  Well we have taken all of those ideas and inspiration and poured them in to our annual tasting!  Vegas and the Catersource Conference was everything I thought it would be - inspiring, thought provoking, educational, exciting and definitely exhausting!  But what I am most excited about...is taking everything that inspired us while in Vegas and bringing it home, giving it the "Thomas Caterers" spin and presenting our ideas to all of our clients on Thursday night! Stay tuned...