Welcome back, caterers! Here’s hoping you had a marvelous time at the Mirage and the LVCC and took away many trends, ideas and connections that can help make your business better. We picked up many ideas that we’ll use throughout the magazine and on Catersource.com during the year. Here are five trends that we heard on the Tradeshow floor and in our sessions.

The winning entry from the AFR Design Challenge demonstrates elegance with splashes of cool color.

Dan Smith’s designs from the Harmony Party bring thematic elements to floral designs and cool colors.

1. Colors and Design: Cool glam. Perhaps inspired by green light and cool blues of The Great Gatsby or strictly rooted in the predictions of the wizards at Pantone, we spotted greens, blues and purples all over the Tradeshow floor. Color expert Kate Kovalick Patay at Creative Coverings showed off a glamorous mannequin dressed in elegant cool colors on the Tradeshow floor and talked about combining simplicity and luxury; the furnishings at the AFR Design Challenge reflected her predictions.

2. Trendy New Ingredients: In the session Haute Food Trends for 2013, Karen O’Connor predicted sweet and savory oats would burst onto the scene. Gluten-free, versatile and delicious, O’Connor’s been experimenting with oats at the trendsetting as the executive chef at Daniel et Daniel in Montreal, QC, maintaining that they’re usable in more than just oatmeal and cookies. (We’ll start compiling some recipes in Catersource, but in the meantime, stay tuned!)

3. Hybridizing a Tablescape: Get prepared to combine hard, mechanical elements of your design into more natural elements. In many of the tabletop competition entries, as well as in some on-stage designs, the hardness of metal and ersatz human creations was nestled into an abundance of flowers. Wires and glossy metals flowed into overabundant florals. Call it Steampunk or Natural Hybrid, it’s an aesthetic that I can get behind.

An entry from the Tabletop Competition

4. Demanding Your Worth: This is always a theme at Catersource, but many sessions and speakers at the Conference focused on keeping the clients that you want– while charging them what you’re worth. With the past few years in hindsight, our speakers discouraged discounts and encouraged businesses to go after healthy profits. We know you love what you do, but it’s the going after what you love that makes it all worthwhile.

5. Slow and Low Cooking Styles: Whether it was Sous Vide or Smoking, caterers espoused styles that could keep food tastier, juicier and well preserved for longer. Get ready for an article on Barbecue and Smoking in the March/April issue of Catersource magazine for more information.

Good morning! It’s the last day of Catersource.
NACE Facility Tours depart from the Registration Rotunda beginning at 8:00am.

The Tradeshow opens at 9:00am and runs until 2:00pm.

Meet the Catersource Magazine team in the Catersource Lounge from 9:30am to 11:00am.

Meet the Event Solutions Advisory Board in the Event Solutions lounge from 9:30am to 11:00am.

Remember to visit the Design and Culinary Exhibition Stages on the Tradeshow floor to learn even more, plus take your shot at winning prizes and free samples.

Day Two of the Tradeshow begins!

Vote for Tabletop and AFR Design Challenge winners by the Event Solutions Lounge.
Then, join us for the closing session at 5:00pm in the Grand Ballroom and find out the winners of the Buffet, Boxed Lunch and Tabletop awards and cap off your Conference & Tradeshow with Colin Cowie.
Thanks to all attendees, sponsors and exhibitors for making this such a great show!

Monday at Catersource is always a busy day. In addition to lunches and the Monday night party, we host the general session and hours of education. As an editor, it’s a little exhausting, but I can imagine what it must feel like as an attendee.

Mike Roman and Meryl Snow hosted the general session, where they presented the ACE awards to our awesome winners. Congratulations to all winners and finalists; the awards and nominations are much deserved! You will be hearing more from all of these talented companies on this blog, on Catersource.com and in Catersource magazine.

Scott Conant onstage at Catersource.

We heard Scott Conant talk about his past as a young chef who slept on the floor so he could work in the restaurants he wanted to work in and rose to the top on his own convictions. Conant was refreshing, calm and so inspiring. Is it ok if I say “like a cool drink of water?” Is that weird? In any case, after that speech I have even more admiration for Mr. Conant.

I stopped by the Xperience Stages and checked out the Servewise collection from FOH, who sponsored yesterday’s awesome collection of 30-minute sessions. I learned new branding tricks from The Knot’s Laura Cave and popped in to hear how Adam Gooch thinks it’s about time canapes had a resurgence.

Fifteen plated dinners were served up in the Grand Ballroom from chefs like Jamie Keating and our own culinary columnist, Stewart Lane. Steph Zilli outlined his picnic strategy (soon to come in Catersource magazine!) and top caterers packed the house for a discussion about cost-saving strategies in a time of rising food prices.

Fifteen Plated Dinners, featuring Salmon! Onstage at Catersource.

And then the Boxed/Buffet Lunches and Harmony Party? Oh gosh, I can’t even begin to talk about all the amazing things we saw yesterday right now. Read this blog, our Get Fresh newsletter and Catersource magazine in the coming months to find more ideas, recaps, images and more from the Conference and all our events.

The Harmony Hot Wall, made possible by Cambro and American Metalcraft. “You can tell they’re hot because they’re moving,” said Bill Pannhoff gleefully last night.

All in all it was an amazing day… and there’s still more to come! See you on the Tradeshow floor, I guess, and at the Spotlight/CATIES, and perhaps while I’m on the Featured Speaker stage interviewing David Tutera. I’m definitely nail-bitingly nervous right now, but I’ll see you around the show!

Join us this morning for education at the Conference, then hop on the bus to the Tradeshow.

The Tradeshow opens at 11:00am at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Check out some show floor specials below and watch for cool events like the AFR Design Challenge, the Spectacular Sweets Pastry Showcase, live ice carving and Exhibition Culinary and Design/Media stages, our 30-minute counterpart to Xperience stages.

Cones, Risers, Lights and more from the Harmony Party will be available at American Metalcraft, booth 1549.

This morning at the Mirage, crews will be filming for a national television show. If you would like to attend the Conference but would prefer to remain anonymous on camera, please visit the Information Booth.

Tonight are the Event Solutions Spotlight/ICA CATIE Awards. The show begins at 7:00pm and is open to all attendees.

Did you attend Harmony last night? Send me your photos at editor@catersource.com to be included in the wrap-up, which will be published online next week.

Facility tours will begin tomorrow at 8:00 am, departing from the Registration Rotunda.

Please check your Show Guide or the Catersource app for the full Tradeshow schedule.

Shop til you drop today! Let us know what you like on the Tradeshow floor through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at #cses2013 #catersource