Grand Slam Events Will Serve Up New Pizza Industry Show In Orlando Next Fall
January 3, 2022
Grand Slam Events is gearing up to launch a new all-inclusive pizza industry event designed to better serve the East Coast and Southern regions of the U.S.: The Pizza Tomorrow Summit. Set to debut Nov. 9-10, 2022 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., the new trade show and conference for the growing and ever-changing pizza industry will be a full-service event bringing together pizza operators, new companies, suppliers, products and initiatives along with a cutting-edge education program.
According to show officials, attendees of the new event will be able to expect an energetic and immersive experience that will feature a robust exhibit floor with more than 300 exhibiting companies in key vertical segments including food products, foodservice equipment, pizza ovens, technology and services; exciting pizza competitions; and need-based, hot-topic educational content.
With the show’s convenient location and industry-focused events, operators will find their plates full of everything they need to help propel their business and the pizza industry into the future, according to trade show industry veteran Glenn Celentano, who along with Urban Expositions Founder Doug Miller, founded and co-owns Grand Slam Events.
“I am beyond excited to bring this new event to the great city of Orlando,” Celentano said. “The pizza industry has remained strong, despite the impact of the global pandemic on foodservice operators around the country, and we want to meet the industry’s needs.”
He continued, “We are launching The Pizza Tomorrow Summit to provide an all-encompassing experience for independent pizza operators and restaurateurs alike. Whatever their needs may be, from exhibitors showing innovative new products, to exciting pizza competitions, to hot-button educational content, operators will find everything they need to succeed in our evolving industry.”
Celentano added that so far, the response to the new show has been overwhelmingly positive.
“While we are expecting 300 hundred booths for our launch year, we have enough room to grow that to 500 if things continue to exceed expectations,” he said. “We have only been actively selling space for about a month and a half, have already secured exhibitors across key vertical segments and expect the momentum to continue after the holidays and into 2022.”
In order to ensure operators and vendors alike receive the best educational programming and competitions possible, The Pizza Tomorrow Summit will collaborate with PMQ Magazine as an official sponsor, explained Grand Slam Events Co-Owner Doug Miller.
“PMQ Magazine’s insight and guidance has been invaluable,” Miller said. “As a cornerstone of the pizza industry, PMQ Magazine has a pulse on the industry’s needs and challenges that has helped us fine-tune our programming topics, event content and more.”
Grand Slam Events is a partnership between exhibition industry veterans Doug Miller and Glenn Celentano, who have garnered nearly 60 combined years of experience running large-scale B2B and B2C events around the country. Miller previously founded Urban Expositions and has successfully launched and grown hundreds of events in a variety of industries, while Celentano has spent more than 25 years running events for global organizations such as Reed Exhibitions and Clarion Events, including 15 years dedicated to foodservice industry trade shows.
After spending so many years working on and running shows in the foodservice space, Celentano said he had been searching for the right niche to launch something new. But who would’ve thought that COVID would be the inspiring force behind a new trade show?
“When the pandemic shut everything down, restaurants were shuttered at an unprecedented rate, [and] when my wife and I found ourselves unable to go out to dinner at our favorite restaurants and ordered take-out pizza (AGAIN!), the lightbulb went off,” he explained. “[I thought] this pizza industry is surely big enough to handle an East Coast-based pizza event in addition to the established show that runs out west in Las Vegas.”
Celentano continued, “When we approached PMQ about the idea, they were instantly engaged and told us that the timing is perfect and that they would love to be involved. We next polled potential exhibitors to vet our findings, and they were confirmed. The rest, as they say, is history!”
To learn more about The Pizza Tomorrow Summit, go here or reach out to Glenn Celentano at glenn@pizzatomorrow.com.
Don’t miss any event-related news: Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter HERE and engage with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!
Partner Voices
Located in beautiful North Carolina, Harrah’s Cherokee is the perfect mountain getaway with breathtaking views of the Great Smoky Mountains and new additions to its resort and conference spaces sure to elevate any meetings or event.
Completed in 2021, Harrah’s Cherokee’s latest $330 million expansion project introduced an entirely new fourth hotel tower, The Cherokee, as well as an additional 83,000 square feet of meeting space with the Cherokee Convention Center. The Cherokee tower brings with it 725 rooms and 70 luxurious suites spread out over 19 floors for a grand total of 1,800 rooms across the entire resort. The new rooms feature a sleek design with an earth-toned color palette and modern amenities. In addition to the new rooms, the expansion also brought with it a luxurious new lobby and lobby bar, a fitness center, a coffee & pastry bar, and a second pool.
Conventions, trade shows, banquets, receptions, and even the smallest, most intimate gatherings can find the perfect arrangement at Harrah’s Cherokee with its 130,000 square feet of flexible meeting space – including the Cherokee Convention Center. The resort offers a myriad of different spaces and configuration options for events, but the largest spaces include the following:
32,000-sq-ft Cherokee Convention Center ballroom with 22 meeting spaces
11,100-sq-ft Cherokee Convention Center ballroom pre-function space
33,000-sq-ft Cherokee Exhibit Hall
6,000-sq-ft Cherokee Exhibit Hall Pre-Function
13,801-sq-ft Council Fire Ballroom able to be reconfigured into as many as four ballrooms from 3,100 to 3,529-sq-ft each
16,815-sq-ft Event Center able to be configured in six different ways to accommodate 100 to 1,500 guests and offers four VIP suites, box seating, and more than 1,100 balcony seats.
In addition to the new accommodations and meeting space, Harrah’s Cherokee has also opened several new restaurants as part of the expansion including Guy Fieri’s Cherokee Kitchen + Bar which includes the chef’s award-winning burgers and barbeque on the menu. Another celebrity chef has also made their mark on the resort with the opening of Gordon Ramsay Food Market which features eight dining concepts ranging from sushi to New York-style deli sandwiches and classic fine-dining fare. Longtime Asheville favorite, Wicked Weed Brewing Pub has also debuted a new location next to Harrah’s Cherokee Event Center creating the perfect after-event center with its bright and bold design, over thirty different beers, and live music on weekends.
An easy drive from many of the largest cities in the Southeast, Harrah’s Cherokee provides the perfect blend of majestic mountainscapes, luxurious new accommodations, and authentic Native American culture.
Add new comment