There were certainly plenty of drink choices here at SIAL. Coffee and tea, fruit juices, water, soft drinks, energy drinks, wine and spirits. Aisle after aisle — and there were hundreds of aisles — showcased bottles, cans, bags and boxes of beverages.  The trick, of course, was standing out in the crowd.

My favorites were the fruit drinks from West Africa. Unusual flavors, such as baobab, soursop and tamarind, are interesting to try. I got some samples to bring home to the lab to see how we might use them in some drinks. I’m thinking about a white chocolate hibiscus drink. I wonder how it will taste … ?

I always knew the Mont Blanc booth was popular at trade shows, but I never expected this.  I arrived this morning to set up for the final day of SIAL and discovered that, overnight, someone had stolen the blender we use to make our frozen drinks!

It is the first time in 15 years that something has been stolen stolen from our exhibit. I filed a police report, and the insurance director told me of three other reports of thefts during the five-day show. I’m one of the lucky ones; another exhibitor just down the aisle is using two of the same blenders in his booth.  Neither one was touched.

It’s a good thing that this is the last day of the show since many visitors were interested in our frozen drink mixes. Yesterday, we even set up an appointment for the director of a large Italian coffee company to come to our stand to try a frozen cappuccino. When he gets here, all I can do is serve him a mocha.

I hope he’s not disappointed.  I know that I am.

SIAL, Salon International de l’Alimentation, is the second largest food show in the world and is held biennually in Paris.  The exposition takes place in seven halls at Parc des Expositions, about a 45-minute Metro ride from Paris.  This year there are 5,500 exhibitors and 145,000 visitors are expected.

It is hard to imagine all of the different types of food and drink that are grown, produced, processed and sold in the world, and the thousands of exhibitors at SIAL will cheerfully tell you what they make and why you should try it and buy it. The products range from raw materials such as fruits, vegetables, grains and sugar to their finished counterparts such as potato chips, cookies, desserts and drinks.

Some companies exhibit by themselves in the halls while others are a part of an international pavilion. We are part of the United States pavilion, which has about 125 exhibiting companies.  Mont Blanc is surrounded by American companies showcasing such diverse products as chocolate, olives, pistachios, mints, iced tea, vitamin water, and cheese. I feel sorry for the cheese guy, because I remember  a quote by famous French general and statesman Charles De Gaulle: “How can anyone govern a nation which has 246 different kinds of cheese?”  I have to think it’s something of an uphill battle promoting cheese to the French!

I have always enjoyed visiting the international food shows because I believe it illustrates the remarkable interconnectedness in the world. Walking the aisles of this show is an experience in globalization. Yesterday I walked around the hall and saw some of the international Pavilions surrounding USA. They are randomly chosen and include Mexico, Thailand, Italy, Morocco, Syria, Greece and Iran.

All of these countries have dozens of companies featuring similar products.  Walking by Greece you see booth after booth of feta cheese and olives; Italy is chock full of red wine, prosciutto and coffee; Korea has kimchee and seafood.  One of the interesting aspects of the show is watching people sitting in booths negotiating with vendors from other countries to purchase products. Food transcends national boundaries and helps break down political, religious and social barriers.

In the American pavilion, we have people from all over the world asking about our products.

Mont Blanc Gourmet’s goal for this show is to increase the international distribution of our products.  Interesting conversations yesterday included distributors from Greece, the Middle East, Turkey and Germany. When we get back, the follow up begins. But it looks like we will return home well on the way to having met our goal.

Two of the speakers yesterday were from Dow Chemical and Clorox. The speaker from Clorox spoke about the company’s acquisition of Burt’s Bees for a billion dollars and how they were focused on growing that brand and not screwing it up in the process.

I had a conversation during the coffee break (appropriately enough) with an old friend, a well-known coffee roaster and environmental and social activist who I have known for 15 years. I asked him what he thought about the presentations. His comment was that it was all very sophisticated, whereas the types of sustainable development projects that he is used to involve some cash (twenty dollar bills), PVC tubing and a large water tank to try and provide clean water for a coffee beneficio in Guatemala.

As we stood in the hall drinking our coffee and talking about the specialty coffee industry, we both agreed that the idea of spending a billion dollars to buy a company making beeswax lipbalm and shampoo was just something that we couldn’t relate to. But we were certainly going to increase our next donation to Coffee Kids.

One speaker at this conference spoke of how the culture for a sustainable brand must begin with the company employees. He already offers many of the same benefits that I do: full medical benefits, encouraging personal development of employees, subsidizing education. But one of his comments really resonated. He said that in order to be successful, one must look at the issue of sustainability systemically. There are always tradeoffs, but one must accept those. Also, one must understand that there is a much larger picture involved with every action and decision that is made, and you have to appreciate the interconnectivity of everything.

I agree completely, and it is one reason that I have been concerned about publicizing any of our activities that are sustainable. However, the common theme of this conference is that it is better to act and at least try to effect incremental change than not to act at all. So when I return to the office I will begin having conversations with the Mont Blanc staff about all of the things that we are currently doing, as well as where I want to go to operate more sustainably and more transparently.