If you want to be of service to the food industry, I suggest you keep on reading. Each fall, the editorial staff at Food Engineering begins recruiting speakers for the Food Automation and Manufacturing Conference. We are now looking for engineering, operations and IT leaders at food and beverage companies to take the stage and share their best practices, as well as their war stories, at our annual event, scheduled for April 9-12 in Fort Myers, FL.

If you turn to pages 30 to 31 in this issue, you will see the program for the 2006 conference. We are looking for processor-executives to make brief presentations on topics ranging from innovation in manufacturing and automation implementation projects to energy issues, maintenance strategies and food safety technologies. If your area of expertise lies in one of these areas, I hope you will contact me about being a presenter.

At Food Automation and Manufacturing 2006, you can expect to find more than 300 food and beverage industry professionals coming together under one roof to discuss the industry's challenges in a very relaxed and open atmosphere that encourages problem-solving and networking.

Whether it is through the educational sessions, the expo of 50 product and services suppliers or networking with others in the industry, the Food Automation and Manufacturing Conference and Expo is about finding solutions.

Speakers will be selected based on their experience relevant to the program topics on a first-come, first-served basis. Please take a look at the topics on pages 30-31 and send me a brief email about why you think your experiences and current or past projects may be of interest to our audience.

Complete conference registration information is available on page 32 or at www.foodengineeringmag.com.

One final note: Speaking of service to the industry, I'd like to welcome four new members of the Food Engineering Advisory Board and welcome back four others for their second year of service. The new board listed below was established at ProcessTechnologyXchange (see www.pt-xchange.com for information on this annual event) this past August. Our board members support events such as PTX and advise Food Engineering on editorial and conference content, as well as industry research projects. Thank you for your service to the industry!

Food Engineering Editorial Advisory Board

David Watson
Vice President, Engineering
Pepperidge Farm, Inc.

Mike Shulman
Manager, Process Engineering
ConAgra Foods

Ron Yockey
President
Beef Products, Inc.

Scott Butler
Vice President Engineering and Technical Services
Del Monte Foods

Dave Gemellaro
Director, Sector Engineering
Kraft Foods

Peter Migchels
Director of Engineering, Fresh Bakeries
Maple Leaf Foods

Tom Wolters
Senior Manager Technology
Pepsico Beverages & Food

Sam Casey
Director of Engineering
H.J. Heinz