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- Karen Bremer, Josh Brass, Archna Becker, Mark Haidet, Stephanie Everett and David Audrain
David Audrain/Exposition Development Company Inc.
President & CEO
David Audrain is President & Co-owner of Exposition Development Company, Inc. (ExpoDevCo), a privately held business producing trade shows and conferences in North America that include owned events, licensed shows, and show management contracts. Previously, Audrain was President & CEO of Messe Frankfurt North America, where for more than six years he led a team of 40 staff spread across the USA, Mexico and Canada. This team was responsible for the production of nine exhibitions, including six launches, as well as exhibitor sales and attendee promotion to the North American markets of more than 100 worldwide shows. In 2010, Tradeshow Executive recognized four of the Messe Frankfurt shows as Fastest 50 events. Over his more than 20 year career in the exhibition industry Audrain has managed international shows, in multiple industries, including eight of the Top-200 shows in North America, such as the annual SEMA Show. Audrain was COO of private show management firm ConvExx from 2001 through 2005, having come from his position as General Manager for the Men’s Apparel Division of MAGIC, part of Advanstar Communications. As Vice President at Hanley-Wood Exhibitions Audrain directed the Surfaces and NACE trade show teams, and at Miller Freeman he was Vice President responsible for the Sewn Products / Decorated Apparel Group, which included nine trade shows and four monthly trade publications. Audrain joined Miller Freeman in 1997 after seven years with the Texas Restaurant Association, where under his direction the Southwest Foodservice Expo grew more than 75%. Audrain is a Past Chairman of the Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO), a Past Chairman of the International Association for Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), and serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR). He earned his Certified in Exhibition Management (CEM) designation in 1995.
AtlantaFoodserviceExpo.com Linkedin Twitter Twitter /David Facebook
Stephanie Everett/Exposition Development Company Inc
EVP & COO
Stephanie Everett is COO & Co-owner of Exposition Development Company, Inc. (ExpoDevCo), a privately held business producing trade shows and conferences in North America that include owned events, licensed shows, and show management contracts. She has more than 12 years of experience in the tradeshow industry including all areas of operational, marketing and sales functions which has involved the management of over 30 tradeshows with 8 of those being new show launches. Stephanie now leads the ExpoDevCo show teams, which include the Atlanta Foodservice Expo.
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Karen Bremer/Georgia Restaurant Association
Executive Director
Karen I. Bremer Executive Director, Georgia Restaurant Association With over 35 years in the hospitality industry, Bremer is the Executive Director of the Georgia Restaurant Association, representing one of the largest industries in the state. The GRA serves as the unified voice for over 16,000 foodservice and drinking places in the state of Georgia with total sales in excess of $16.5 billion which provides more than 405,800 jobs. Bremer is a founding member of the GRA, Past President of the GRA Board and has served on the board of directors for the National Restaurant Association, Atlanta Convention & Visitor’s Bureau (ACVB) and Team Georgia. Currently, Bremer serves on the Industry Board of Georgia State University’s Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality, Board of Directors of DeKalb CVB, Atlanta Community Food Bank, Council of State Restaurant Associations and the Arby’s Foundation. She has also been inducted to Les Dames d’escoffier International and the International Women’s Forum. Bremer was the former owner of Dailey’s and City Grill restaurants and was a top executive with the Peasant Restaurant Group, starting out as a manager and ultimately being named its President. Bremer has garnered numerous awards including the ACVB Member of the Year Award in 2002 for her role in founding Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week. In 2009, Bremer received the Lifetime Achievement GRACE (Georgia Restaurant Association Crystal of Excellence) Award for her outstanding contributions to Georgia’s restaurant industry. Recently, Bremer has also been listed as a notable Georgia by Georgia Trend Magazine for back to back years in 2012 and 2013.
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Josh Brass/US Foods
Director of Sales Support
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Mark Haidet/Siftit and Takorea
Founder & CEO / Co-Owner
Executive leader and entrepreneur with broad experience including technology, restaurant operations, operations management, acquisitions, transaction structuring and execution, sales and account management, finance, strategic planning, IT strategy and implementation. Specialties: Technology Start Up, Restaurant Start Up, Mergers and Acquisitions, Negotiation, Operational Management, Deal Structure, Finance, Investor Relations, Technology Implementation. Siftit: Siftit provides a mobile technology platform for restaurants and suppliers to connect more efficiently in the ordering process. The Siftit mobile ordering platform provides a drastic difference in the way independent restaurants manage their food and supplies; reducing time, saving on food cost, and providing valuable data insights. TaKorea: Takorea is fusion of Korean and Mexican flavors in a fun and energetic atmosphere. Chef Tomas Lee developed Hankook Taqueria which has evolved to Takorea with the idea of making Korean flavors available to everyone in a familiar format of Mexican food. Takorea offers the best of Asian fusion flavors with fresh ideas and fresh ingredients with a location in Midtown and one in Dunwoody.
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Archna Becker/Bhojanic Restaurant
Owner
As the creative force behind the tantalizing food of Bhojanic, one of the most awarded and popular Indian food restaurants in the greater Atlanta area, Archna Becker has earned an amazing amount of accolades in her 20 year restaurateur career. She has garnered “Best” Indian restaurant awards from countless prestigious magazines, blogs and other publications including Creative Loafing, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta Cuisine, City Search and Atlanta Magazine, which named Bhojanic one of Atlanta’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2011. Archna (pronounced “urch-na”) is on the board of the Georgia Restaurant Association (GRA). She has been a regular guest host on a local radio talk show for foodies and has taught private and public cooking lessons in association with a national cooking equipment retailer. In 2013, she was nominated for Restaurateur of the Year by the GRA. Growing up in India Archna was the little one in the kitchen, always asking questions and helping her grandmother cook the food she loved. “In our family, everyone ends up in the kitchen, cooking, eating and listening to music,” said Archna. She was 11 when her parents brought the family to America. In the early 1990s Archna convinced her parents to co-found with her a catering business. Atlanta North Indian Cuisine (ANIC) would bring to Atlanta the authentic tastes that made up their Indian food heritage. ANIC won ongoing catering arrangements from Grammy-winning musicians that perform frequently in the Southeast, and became a popular caterer for major events at the Atlanta Convention Center, Emory and other large Atlanta area businesses. After her catering success, Archna opened Bhojanic, a full service restaurant that offers authentic home-style Indian menu items that can be ordered as full meals or as individual tapas-style small plates. The concept is so popular that Bhojanic has quadrupled its size in 10 years. Both her parents continue to ensure the authenticity of the food. The family works well together, and has built a business concept that is capable of tremendous growth. Bhojanic has won Creative Loafing’s Reader’s Choice “Best Indian Restaurant – 2013”, making them a winner now in each of the past six years. They recently opened to much fanfare a second, 120-seat Bhojanic location in the upscale Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta. Through the ANIC catering and Bhojanic restaurant operations, Archna Becker is quickly becoming one of the most recognized Indian food purveyors in Atlanta.
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