FoodService Director magazine is once again co-sponsoring the Catersource Annual Conference & Tradeshow, which will be held Jan. 28-Feb. 1, 2007, at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. Non-commercial foodservice operators can take advantage of special discounts to attend the event, while FSD is coordinating several educational sessions and special events to promote and serve the non-commercial catering business.

• The Mystery Box Chef Challenge expands this year to include teams from the military and commercial caterers. FSD is working with various non-commercial associations and contract management companies to sign up team members, and so far has commitments from NACUFS, HFM, the Intl. Military Community Executives Association and other groups, for a total of nine teams.

Last year, the Challenge--the only one of its kind--pit culinary teams from Aramark, Compass Group, Sodexho, Whitson Culinary Group and Stanford University against each other, with Sodexho emerging the winner. In 2007, the Challenge will be staged as an evening event attended by 3,000 Catersource registrants.

• Educational sessions currently under development include: Non-commercial Catering: State of the Industry, an overview delivered by FSD Editor in Chief James Pond and based on the magazine's annual Catering Study; and a Top Issues Roundtable Series, which will allow attendees to gain valuable insight into key operational areas of catering.

• Non-commercial attendees using a special promotion code--FSD07--will receive $50 off the regular Catersource tuition rate of $789. Past attendees receive an additional 5% discount, while discounts are also available for multiple attendees from the same location (5% for two people, 10% for three, 25% for four or more, 30% for 10 or more ).

For more information or to register for the conference, visit www.Catersource.com.