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The first event to arrive will be the Flight Attendant Symposium in Geneva Switzerland on Monday, May 21 held at the Palexpo Convention Center just prior to the grand opening of this year’s EBACE conference. The second event, replete with more industry experts in training safety and culinary skills, will take place at this year’s NBAA Flight Attendant/Flight Tech Conference in the great city of Washington, DC for two packed days beginning Friday, June 21 and ending Saturday June 23. I am so excited to be able to invite you to participate in both of these. Let me begin by telling you what we have planned for you at the EBACE Symposium . . . Imagine a full day filled with experts there for just you! We are planning to start early with coffee and a few morning breads and then jump right in to the program. Now, what I am listing is the proposed agenda; however, as time draws near, we are locked in with most if not all of these speakers. With the support of a new European Flight Attendant Committee, a stellar program has been planned for the 3rd annual European Flight Attendant Symposium. The experience of this team has yielded a well-rounded event that will pack a full day and I am delighted to be speaking on Catering Safety Management Systems and way the flight attendant/ flight technician can mitigate risks along the food chain while traveling from country to country. There is also a very valuable program planned on UK CAA Cabin Crew Inspections presented by an inspectorate, emergency and response planning presentation tied directly to an actual past incident, and how to effectively work with a fixed base operator. In addition the attendee with get information and details on catering and cultural issues when flying to the Far East and a bit of Professional Life coaching. All in all, an incredible day of great information. Can you imagine getting this much valuable information and having this many experts present to address the topics they have selected or were asked to present? Since you know I am all about the food, I am looking for caterers and others to help share the cost of providing a light lunch and a small wine and cheese gathering at the conclusion of the day. I would like to call all European individuals involved in aviation catering to gather at this event to get acquainted and for us as, a catering group, to share ideas and information with each other as well. We, as aviation caterers share the same clients as they travel the globe, so why shouldn’t we get to know each other to better serve our clients? Currently there is a minimal $25.00USD reservation fee to book your seat for the symposium. The annual June event held in our nation’s capitol is one of the highlights for exemplary training programs for the flight attendant/flight tech community held anywhere. We are fortunate enough to have training companies present to teach what they normally charge a fee for attendance. You will be getting it for the cost of admission to the conference. You will attend safety training programs put on by two of the largest safety training companies- Flight Safety and FACTS Training. Med Air and FAA will also be presenting programs. Look at the agenda shown below and take a gander at the programs and presenters you can learn from . . . all in one place at one time. Here also the caterers come together as a team and sponsor an opening night gala event with dinner and loads of networking. It is the perfect chance to spread you wings, and to get to know others like you in the industry. Others that will no longer be strangers . . . but friends after the conference. They will be friends who understand the industry you love so much, friends that you can bounce ideas off, share stories of travel and destinations, and also share valuable safety information you have learned. It is a definite must attend! Just to highlight a few of the great presentations at this year’s conference will be a program on Critical Incidence management and response planning, a cabin crew survival factors program presented by the NTSB, a flight attendant/ flight technician career essential workshop and catering programs which include food customs, regional foods, ordering challenges, and other nuisances associated with travel into Russia, China, India and Brazil. In addition there will be a program by a wine expert discussing and sampling the variables of food and wine tastes at altitude. To top off these programs are two additional presentations that will astound all of the attendees. Mimi Tompkins a pilot on the ill-fated Hawaiian Airlines flight where to the aircraft top peeled away and caused rapid decompression will speak about the incident, and two awesome men, George Dom and Ron Mumm, will engage us in a program about leadership. I have been fortunate enough to be an attendee at a conference in the past where they spoke about the making of a leader as they both commanded the Air Force Blue Angles team and the Navy’s Thunderbirds team of precision flying. In one word this conference will be amazing. I personally have a mission to educate and share information with others in the industry. Why would you not plan to attend one or both of these sessions? With your support and attendance, these events have become annual must attends on most flight department’s agendas. If you are an independent flight crew member working to hone your skills in the cabin experience, why would you not also attend to increase your safety and culinary skills? Our speakers are the finest in the world on their specific topics. These events are planned in coordination with and under the watchful guiding hand of the National Business Aviation Association and also the European Business Association for EBACE. I hope to see you there! Geneva and Washington, DC. Here we come!
Let me introduce myself . . . My name is Paula Kraft and I am founder and President of Tastefully Yours Catering, an aviation specific caterer, located in Atlanta, Georgia for 35 years.
Currently I am an active member of the NBAA Flight Attendant Committee Advisory Board and the NBAA International Flight Attendant Committee, Women in Corporate Aviation, Women in Aviation International, National Association of Catering Executives, International Flight Catering Association, the International Food Service Association and the International Caterer’s Association. I have coordinated training programs and clinics for NBAA, EBAA and BA-Meetup conference attendees for over 10 years, created mentoring programs for caterers and flight attendants to broaden their aviation culinary skills, and to assist them in adapting to the unique challenges and constraints found in catering for general aviation. I recognize the need for training and have worked closely with flight departments, flight crews, schedulers and customer service reps at the FBOs to ensure that catering specific training provides information and skills necessary to reduce risk while assisting them in their job duties that include safe food handling, catering security, accurate transmission of food orders, and safe food production, packaging and delivery. I fell into aviation catering quite by accident. I was the in-house caterer and bakery supplier for Macy’s department stores in Atlanta when catering was ordered for a Macy’s customer which was soon to change my life. After the client enjoyed the catering provided, I was summoned to the client’s corporate office to provide several of the items delivered through Macy’s to the executive dining room. Within a week, I was providing food for the flight department and my first order was for the President of a foreign country (as I was too be told soon after). So, here I am, some 35 years later, still loving every minute of every day in aviation catering.
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