6th International Food Innovation Conference
18 June 2026
Speakers
The list of speakers will be updated regularly.
Sean Sims is Vice President, Automation & Solutions at Tetra Pak and responsible for customer-facing automation and digital capabilities. With over 30 years of experience in industrial automation, he has worked globally to improve production safety, reliability and efficiency across industries, including energy, chemical, pharmaceutical and food & beverage.
Mar Serra leads the product applications function and its digital transformation at Nestlé. With 15+ years bridging food science, operations, and business, she has spearheaded global R&D initiatives, international product launches and startup collaboration to bring innovations to market faster. Her work focuses on increasing effectiveness and efficiency of innovation deployment into large-scale corporate structures.
James Briscione
Co-Founder and CEO, chef, best-selling author
CulinAi
USA
Website
Learn more in the trend update
James Briscione is the co-founder of CulinAi, a best-selling author and leading voice at the intersection of food, technology, and artificial intelligence. As a multiple-time Food Network champion and longtime judge and host, he is best known as the first-ever three-time champion of Chopped. As Director of Culinary Development at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, he led the landmark collaboration with IBM that created “Chef Watson”, the world’s first generative AI system for recipe creation.
Ilias Tagkopoulos
Professor and Director of the USDA AI Institute for Next-Generation Food Systems (AIFS)
USA
Website
Learn more in the trend update
Dr. Ilias Tagkopoulos is a Computer Science Professor at UC Davis, and the Director of the USDA AI Institute for Next-Generation Food Systems (AIFS), a collaboration with UC Berkeley, UIUC, Cornell, and USDA. His work bridges AI and decision-making, with applications in food, nutrition, and health. He is the founder of several companies, including PIPA LLC, an AI company, which partners with ingredient and food industries to improve human and planetary health. He holds an M.S. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.
Anirban Mukhopadhyay
Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science
Bayes Business School, City St. George’s, University of London
UK
Website
Anirban Mukhopadhyay is Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at Bayes Business School, City St. George’s, University of London, and Co-Director of the Centre of Health and Care Innovation Research. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and his research has been published widely in leading academic journals in marketing, psychology, nutrition, education, and health. He regularly engages with commercial firms, NGOs, and government organisations, as consultant, advisor, and educator.
Fabio Campanile is Global Head of Science and Technology in the Taste & Wellbeing division at Givaudan. He joined Quest International in the Netherlands as R&D manager in 2000 – a company that was acquired by Givaudan in 2007. Since then Campanile has held several roles in R&D, including leading the department of Flavour Creation and Application.
Dr. Paul Hammer is founder and CEO of BIOMES, a European deep-tech company specializing in microbiome analysis and data-driven health solutions. With a PhD in Systems Biology, he applies DNA sequencing and AI to understand how nutrition shapes human health. His work focuses on translating complex biological data into personalized dietary insights.
Philipp Müller is an entrepreneur and AI expert with over ten years’ experience in machine learning. As co-founder and CEO of Signatrix, a computer vision company, he supports brick-and-mortar retailers in using AI to analyse and utilise data. As founder and board member of the German AI Association, he also brings together stakeholders from business, research and politics.
Anne Scherer is Co-Founder and Product Lead at Delta Labs, a University of Zurich spin-off specialising in the development of AI Twins for data-driven customer intelligence. With a background as a former Assistant Professor of Quantitative Marketing with a focus on AI and as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council, she combines academic excellence with innovative approaches to simulating consumer behaviour.
Alon Chen is the CEO and co-founder of Tastewise. Through his start-up, he empowers the food and beverage industry to harness AI and big data, translating real-time consumer signals into actionable insights for product innovation. Before founding Tastewise, he was a senior executive at Google, where he built and led the Google Partners program across 27 markets and served as Google’s Chief Marketing Officer for Israel and Greece.
Lia Carlucci is a nutrition scientist, entrepreneur and author. She is the Managing Director of Food Campus Berlin and is ranked by Business Punk as one of Germany’s top food innovators. She has built startups, led foodtech investments for Jägermeister and co-founded Nutrition Hub, Germany's largest network for nutrition experts. She is also a TEDx speaker and writes the popular food business newsletter VITAMIN C.
Christine Schäfer is a researcher and speaker at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute. She analyses social, economic and technological trends, with a focus on food, consumption and retail.
Moderator
Florian Inhauser
Journalist and moderator
Switzerland
Florian Inhauser is a journalist and moderator. He presents the main newscast at Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, SRF and is also the anchor of the foreign news magazine «#SRFglobal». With a master in history and anglistics he speaks English fluently. He has also an excellent reputation as an international correspondent, covering conflicts and crises around the globe.
Date
Thursday, 18 June 2026
Venue
GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute
Langhaldenstrasse 21
8803 Rüschlikon, Schweiz
Directions
Language
German and English, with simultaneous interpretation
Programme changes
The programme is subject to change. Should an event not take place, the participation fee will be refunded. Further claims are ruled out.
Cancellation
If you are unable to attend, please cancel your registration in writing. The participation fee will be refunded up to thirty days before the event. After that and up to five full working days before the event, we will charge 75%, and for cancellations after that we will charge the full amount. A substitute participant is always welcome.
Hotel reservation
We have an allotment of rooms in the following hotels. Please mention the code IFIC2026 when booking your room.
Hotel Sedartis, Thalwil: info@sedartis.ch
Hotel Belvoir, Rüschlikon: info@hotel-belvoir.ch
Arrival
From Zurich Airport
A taxi will take you to the GDI and the partner hotels in around 45 minutes at around CHF 100, depending on traffic. The S-Bahn will take you quickly and conveniently to Zurich and Thalwil station.
From Thalwil train station
A free shuttle bus is available for transfers between Thalwil train station / Hotel Sedartis and the GDI. It waits on the lake side of the station. A member of staff will welcome you on the spot.
Thalwil train station – GDI: 08.00 – 08.45, every 15 minutes
GDI – Thalwil train station: 17.00 – 18.30, every 15 minutes
The Hotel Belvoir is within walking distance of the GDI.
Parking
The parking deck is located a five-minute walk from the GDI at Zürcherstrasse 4, 8803 Rüschlikon. You can obtain a free exit ticket at the GDI.
Image and video recording
Please note that images and video recordings will be made during the event, and may be published permanently on the Internet after the event. You consent with this procedure by participating in the event.
Network partners
Media partners
About the International Food Innovation Conference
The International Food Innovation Conference is an annual event on the future of food. It covers both technological and social changes in the food ecosystem. The aim is to place current trends in an overarching context and to develop long-term perspectives for all stakeholders involved. Under the overarching theme of "Building a sustainable food system", the all-day conference brings together thought leaders, experts and start-ups.
Participants
Participants
Speakers
Participants are decision-makers from the food industry and related sectors, entrepreneurs, academics and journalists from Swiss and European quality media.
Funktionsstufe: 41 % der Teilnehmenden sind CEOs oder VRs. 53.8% sind Senior Management oder höher.
99 % der Teilnehmer*innen bewerteten das Konferenzerlebnis mit sehr gut oder gut.
Functional level: 41% of participants are CEOs or board members. 53.8% are senior management or higher.
99 % of the participants rated the overall conference experience as excellent or good.
Impressions
Testimonials
Advisory Board
The conference benefits from the expertise of the GDI Advisory Board:
Lia Carlucci, Stephan Fetsch, Karin Frick, Simone Krah, Dominique Locher und Matthew Robin.