This fall the place to be is Cleveland–the original home of the Snack Food Association (SFA)! The association’s 2004 Management Workshop will take place in the city where the Potato Chip Institute (SFA’s predecessor) was founded in 1937. Cleveland is also home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and boasts first-class museums, trendy restaurants, stylish shopping, famed sports teams and sizzling nightlife.

Cleveland is the manufacturing and business center for Northern Ohio. Ohio is second only to Pennsylvania for being home to the most SFA business members.

The president and CEO of a prominent Ohio snack food company, SFA First Vice Chairman Bob Shearer, will be the kick-off speaker at SFA’s Management Workshop. He will speak on, “Changing the Culture for Growth in a Regional Snack Food Company.”

Workshop attendees will have the opportunity to hear the latest on the low-carb phenomenon from John Stanton, professor of marketing at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Another phenomenon will be discussed in a session on the success of duct tape and lessons that can be learned for the snack industry. John Kahl, CEO of Henkel Consumer Adhesives, distributor of LOCTITE and Duct Tape Products, will provide intriguing details about this product’s soaring sales.

SFA’s Management Workshop will again offer concurrent educational sessions for sales and marketing and manufacturing professionals in the snack food industry. Manufacturing and technical professionals will learn about total quality management, ergonomics, employee coaching and retention and food safety/allergens. Meanwhile, sales and marketing professionals will learn about package design, snack industry sales trends, time management and the retailer’s perspective.

At the end of the workshop, attendees whose companies offer reciprocal tours are invited to tour Shearer’s Foods, Inc., in Brewster, Ohio. Situated on 77 acres, this more than 136,000-sq.-ft., state-of-the art facility processes 480,000 lbs. of potatoes into 125,000 lbs. of potato chips in addition to producing 32,000 pounds of tortilla chips and 8,500 lbs. of extruded products daily. The company recently completed a $2.6 million wastewater treatment facility in March.

Shearer Foods is celebrating 30 years of business this year. The company manufactures and distributes Shearer’s award-winning snacks, and produces private label products for select customers throughout the retail snack food industry.

Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame offers high-impact, multi-media productions that bring to life the sights, sound and stories of inducted rock-and-roll legends. Visitors can view original films, participate in interactive displays and view the world’s most extensive collection of rock-and-roll memorabilia.

In a September 2003 article, USA Today listed Cleveland as one of the ten cities with a notable parks system. The city is also home to the Great Lakes Science Center; the Steamship William G. Mather Museum and the U.S.S. Cod World War II submarine; the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center with eight exhibit galleries about space travel and communications; the Cleveland Museum of Art with more than 40,000 pieces of art; and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Ohio’s largest museum devoted to the natural sciences.

Located on the southern shore of Lake Erie, the greater Cleveland area is the 14th largest metro area and the 15th largest consumer market in the United States. General Moses Cleaveland of the Connecticut Land Co. founded the city in 1796. The name changed to its current spelling in 1831 when the “a” was dropped in order to fit the city’s name on a newspaper masthead.