Sector
Public Spaces
Client
PlantFWD
The future of food, served
A market inside a conference
For Plant FWD, the leading conference on plant-forward food, we designed The Market: the exhibition and networking heart of the two-day event. The brief called for a hybrid that doesn't normally exist — part trade show, part startup innovation fair, part tasting marketplace — integrated into the conference itself rather than running as a separate exhibition. We approached it as we would a retail floor: a curated marketplace where food companies, ingredient suppliers, startups, technology providers and investors present the latest in plant-forward and alternative protein innovation.
Designed for encounters
The Market doubles as the conference's main networking hub, so the layout is built around meeting moments rather than booth rows. Coffee breaks, lunches and networking drinks are deliberately staged inside the space, pulling every attendee through the exhibition between sessions. Early-stage startups exhibit alongside established brands, with a pitching stage connecting selected founders directly to buyers and investors, adjacencies designed to spark conversations that wouldn't happen on a traditional trade floor.
Taste as the shortest pitch
Everything in The Market can be tasted. Product discovery is hands-on: visitors sample new plant-based foods, ingredients, beverages and food technologies where they stand. For brands, a taste is the fastest route to a listing; for retailers and foodservice operators, The Market offers a concentrated preview of what will reach mainstream shelves next — packaging, merchandising and shopper experience trends of the protein transition, gathered in one room.
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