In early April, more than 23,000 attendees filled Toronto’s Enercare Centre for the 80th annual RC Show—Canada's premiere foodservice and hospitality trade event. This year, they encountered something entirely new: Innovation Alley, a dynamic pavilion spotlighting Canadian foodtech innovators, presented by the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN).
Marsha Druker, CFIN’s Regional Innovation Director for Ontario, brought this groundbreaking initiative to life, leveraging her expertise in community building and event planning to create a tightly curated foodtech showcase, where early-stage Canadian startups could gain exposure, gather feedback, and build relationships with decision-makers from across the foodservice industry.
Druker’s talent for connecting people and ideas was honed through her earlier work, founding a speaker series and community that shares stories of professional failure, helping people embrace failure as a critical learning tool—and an essential part of every success story. She understands the power of creating space for purposeful connections and meaningful conversations better than anyone and recognized the opportunity to bring such a space to the RC Show, one that could help bridge the gap between groundbreaking food technologies and their adoption throughout the industry.
This initiative began by offering exclusive, subsidized floor space to CFIN member companies—high-potential innovators developing solutions for the future of foodtech. Positioned in a prime, high-traffic area of the show near the speaker stage, Innovation Alley gave these companies a platform to connect directly with foodservice operators and industry leaders. "Innovation Alley was about accelerating tech adoption in a sector that’s under constant pressure to adapt," says Druker. "We knew that making it easier for emerging companies to engage with the right audience could help operators discover solutions to their most pressing challenges.”
Those challenges include rising costs, staff shortages, unreliable supply chains, and mounting pressure to reduce waste and meet sustainability targets. Operators are actively searching for tools that could help them stay competitive while navigating those challenges. And they found them in Innovation Alley.
One of the startups that stood out was Ask JADA, an AI-powered virtual assistant designed to streamline restaurant operations by managing incoming calls and texts. Founder Lara Tiu described participating in Innovation Alley as transformative, noting the direct business outcomes that came from the event. "We actually signed a big customer thanks to the show, and have quite a few good leads lined up," she said. "We’re immensely grateful for the exposure and the chance to network with industry professionals. It was also a privilege to connect with our fellow exhibitors."
Join the Community!
Food Cycle Science also turned heads with its FC-75 food cycler—a compact, user-friendly device that rapidly converts food waste into nutrient-rich soil amendment. Developed in part through a CFIN-funded project, the FC-75 offered operators a practical and sustainable solution to managing food waste directly within their kitchens. "We were very proud to be under the CFIN banner in Innovation Alley, showcasing the FC-75 technology that our CFIN project helped bring to life,” CEO Bradley Crepeau said. “The response has been tremendous, and we’re excited to be pushing forward toward mass production."
In addition to Ask JADA and Food Cycle Science, a remarkably wide range of technologies were on display, each tackling different but equally urgent challenges in foodservice. Companies like Still Good Foods, RFINE Biomass Solutions, and New School Foods stood out for their focus on sustainability, whether through upcycling food waste or plant-based, whole cut seafood products. Others focused on improving operational efficiency, customer experience, and delivery. BUBS, a food delivery robot from Real Life Robotics, delighted crowds by autonomously navigating the event floor. Together, they reflected the broad potential for innovation throughout the industry.
Innovation Alley gave these pioneering solutions high visibility among executives, investors, restaurateurs, and other key industry players. "The companies we brought in are doing some truly exciting work," says Druker. "We wanted to put them in front of the right people. It’s one thing to have a great solution, but when you connect with someone who can help bring it to life, that’s when things really start to happen."
Innovation Alley’s debut at the RC Show reflects how the foodservice industry at large is beginning to view technology adoption not as a novelty or optional luxury, but as a necessity for staying resilient and competitive. For many attendees, it was a first encounter with foodtech solutions that can help them address immediate operational challenges and attract new customers. Druker’s community building expertise shaped the initiative into something far more than a trade show and played a critical role in facilitating connections—bridging the gap between foodtech innovators and adopters.
As the industry faces mounting pressure to do more with less, initiatives like Innovation Alley show how targeted exposure and sector-specific engagement can foodservice tech adoption and help both operators and startups thrive in an increasingly demanding and rapidly changing business landscape.
Join the Community!