Keynotes
Creating a Positive and Mindful Workplace Culture
The growth and overall success of an organization is defined by its culture and leadership. A positive workplace culture enhances teamwork, collaboration and morale. As a result it boosts employee engagement, efficiency and retention.
Becoming an Idea Factory: How to Turn Yourself (and Your Organization) into an Innovation Machine
If there’s one belief that is holding you back from getting the most out of your team, it’s this one: some people are creative, and some people aren’t. That belief is based on outdated ideas about what creativity means, where it comes from, and who gets to harness it. The truth is, creativity is a skill like any other: it can be learned.
Learning Sessions
Creating Effective Student Focus Groups
Student focus groups can be one of the most valuable engagement tools for your program. It can also quickly turn into a cacophony of noise with lack of focus and direction. What groups do I engage? How many people should I invite? How do I keep control of the meeting? In this session, you will learn how to systematically create focus groups, lead them, and determine viable courses of action for your program. Once the framework is created, you will be prepared to create effective student focus groups.
Developing Meal Plans for Today's Customers
As we look towards the future of campus dining, we must ask ourselves if our meal plan structure is meeting our customers' needs. We will look at a variety of meal plan options that better fit our customers needs in an ever-changing environment, as well as how to properly price and evaluate your meal plans successfully.
Dining Olympics: Let the Team Building Games Begin!
In the world of team building, Dining Olympics stands as a unique and engaging experience that brings individuals together to celebrate diversity, enhance communication, and foster collaboration in an unconventional and exciting way. This presentation delves into the heart of Dining Olympics, a series of thrilling challenges and obstacles. Through this event, participants develop critical teamwork and problem-solving skills, discover the art of delegation, and learn to appreciate the strengths each team member brings to the table.
Global Kitchen-How to Create an International Cuisine Program for Your Campus
With the on campus interest & popularity in authentic international foods how do you develop a program to get student interest and participation? In this session we will discuss engaging your international students, scaling recipes for large quantity production and incorporating them into your menu rotation.
How to Implement a Successful Reuse Program on Campus
Learn how to overcome the challenges of implementing a reusable program to save money, achieve your sustainability goals, meet any regulatory requirements, and promote your environmental impact. The University of California-San Diego implemented their Triton2Go reusable container program to eliminate their single-use disposables as part of their campus-wide zero waste program. The program launched on November 10, 2020, and within five months UC San Diego had diverted over 250,000 single-use disposables from the landfill.
NACUFS Benchmarking Survey Creating Short- and Long-Term Success
Since 2001, the NACUFS Customer Satisfaction Benchmarking Survey is a tool Texas Tech University utilizes to build upon our successes, turn our failures into learning opportunities, and innovate the future to better campus dining for Red Raiders. TTU analyzes 14 locations, from one dining hall to 13 retail units. Learn about ways to increase survey participation, use data metrics, and share with location operators, as well as the improvements made over the last three years. Unlock another avenue to show how valuable campus dining is to the student experience.
Next Generation of Campus and Community Partnership
Entering summer 2023, WashU Dining was faced with a need and an opportunity to think about campus dining differently. Come with us and learn about our journey to embracing the university's Here and Next initiatives and creating a campus dining experience that embraces the local St. Louis community and food scene.
Optimizing Student Dining Experience: The Marketing Impact of Feedback Programs
In the competitive landscape of university dining, robust feedback programs are paramount. Kent State University has harnessed these programs to swiftly address issues and actively engage with their student community. By allowing students to voice their opinions, Kent State fosters a sense of belonging. This feedback-driven approach has also revitalized marketing efforts, helping to identify and fill gaps in the university's story and programs. These programs have led to improvements in menu items, training, and staff-student relationships. Kent State's commitment to customer experience has strengthened the university's reputation. Future plans include expanding feedback initiatives to further enrich the student dining experience.
Product Development & Innovation in Food Service
Ever wonder how a new foodservice item gets brought to market and becomes available for you to try? Follow a product developer through their innovation process and timeline to bring a new foodservice product to life.
Student Food Insecurity and Campus Pantries
Food insecurity on some higher education campuses is reported to be more than three times the national household average. College student food insecurity affects their ability to persist, negatively impacting retention and graduation rates. Providing food resources for food-insecure students leads to an increase in their self-efficacy to participate in activities that enhance their academic performance, and their intent to graduate. The study also uncovered perceived obstacles to obtaining food by food-insecure students. Understanding and solving the obstacles perceived by food-insecure students may lead to increased retention and graduation on college and university campuses.
The Water Sensory and Nutritional Experience
The Vivreau Water Sensory & Nutritional Experience: A Guided Tasting. An intimate and interactive education session that guides the attendee through a water tasting journey
Turning ideas into Income: Creating Student-Driven Dining Program Improvement
Participants will hear about the vendor show that was created for testing plant-based and gluten-free items on Kent State’s campus each spring. Discussing how successful the show is due to students being able to give feedback, bringing in items that students want to see as a result, and how these items impact our departmental goal of making items more sustainable. Discussion on how to utilize the vendors you find at the show at NACUFS can be brought into your own vendor show for student feedback before bringing the items in with your prime vendor.
The Learning Sessions for the NACUFS 2024 Spring Conference Series will focus on delivering content in the domains aligned with the .
Business Administration Domain
Sessions in this domain focus on planning, systems, and business functions required to operate, enhance, and fund a campus-valued dining program
Talent Management Domain
Sessions in this domain focus on recruitment and selection, development, and engagement of personnel (including student employees) in order to operate a successful collegiate dining operation.
Guest Experience Domain
Sessions in this domain focus on providing an exceptional collegiate dining guest experience.
Campus & Community Engagement Domain
Sessions in this domain focus on collaborative alignment with campus culture, mission, and strategies (including student engagement) as well as developing successful brand recognition through effective marketing.
Professional Intelligence Domain
Sessions in this domain focus on driving an ethical, organized environment that promotes high standards of integrity and inclusivity, effectively modeling responsible stewardship of campus resources, and leading and promoting organization initiatives and change.