FCSI AT 70 COVER STORY


Tis year, FCSI turns 70 ‒ more diverse, open and global than ever before. With a little help from both long-standing members and some newer voices, Elly Earls looks back on the journey so far ‒ and considers what the future might hold


A 28


t the first FCSI meeting current EAME chair Frank Wagner FCSI attended in 2007, he wasn’t instantly won over. “We were sitting in a basement in Prague and I didn’t think I was going to stay very long,” he


recalls. Tings started looking up when the itinerary took them to the park, and on a boat trip, and Wagner started chatting to the other attendees. “Te location of the conference wasn’t great, but it was the first time I’d met consultants from all over the world and we could just talk things through,” says the managing partner


of German consultancy KDREI. It’s a sentiment echoed by every FCSI member that you ever speak to about what the Society means to them. Te professional opportunities are exceptional ‒ one Australian colleague Wagner met at his first event became a long-term collaborator on projects in Germany. Te educational opportunities are also


an increasing draw. But it’s the sense of belonging that really matters. For those who rise to the ranks of leadership, that’s what inspires them to dedicate hours of voluntary work every week to sustain a society rooted in 70 years of history and ensure it’s ready to lead its members into the future.


THE FORMATION OF THE MODERN- DAY FCSI: KEEPING THE THINGS THAT MATTERED MOST


Te official birth of FCSI goes back to 1955, when 13 consultants decided to form the Food Facilities Engineering Society (FFES) to promote research and improve the design of public food facilities. But it wasn’t until 1979 that the modern-day FCSI was formed ‒ through an amalgamation of the FFES and the International Society of Food Service Consultants, a competing professional organization that had launched in 1958. Bill Caruso FFCSI, founding partner of


WC & Partners and the only person to be elected twice as president of both FCSI Te Americas and FCSI Worldwide Board of Directors, has been with FCSI since before the merger and at the time he was skeptical it would ever happen, given the diversity of opinions between the two bodies. “One


AT THE FCSI MEETING, FOR THE FIRST TIME I HAD MET CONSULTANTS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD AND WE COULD JUST TALK THINGS THROUGH”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100