The co-located Florida Restaurant Show and Pizza Tomorrow Summit are growing, expanding to three days in 2025
By Sara Perez Webber
Pineapple on pizza—yea or nay? If you were one of the nearly 4,500 industry professionals who attended the co-located Pizza Tomorrow Summit and Florida Restaurant Show in Orlando on Nov. 6-7, 2024, which kicked off the day after the presidential election, you could vote on this burning question. (Just for the record, the “nays” had it.)
After having their say in this playful contest at the show’s entrance in the Orange County Convention Center, attendees could visit the booths of 325 exhibiting companies on the sold-out show floor; hear from a packed lineup of educational speakers; watch competitions in fruit and vegetable carving, cake decorating and rapid-fire cooking; root on competitors in the third annual Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup Competition; and interact with top chefs—including the Food Network’s Maneet Chauhan—as they performed live culinary demonstrations.
The event was so successful that it is being expanded to three days in 2025. “The number-one reason people come to these shows now is to learn,” says Glenn Celentano, partner and CEO of Restaurant Events LLC, owner of the events. “Every restaurant operator has something that’s keeping them up at night, and the education is what really drives people to come. With two days, there’s not enough time to sit down and take in all the education and see the whole exhibit floor. Expanding to three days gives [attendees] that opportunity.”
Educational sessions at this year’s show included a sold-out food and wine pairing event, featuring Sommelier Brian Connors; a pizza dough workshop; and sessions devoted to AI marketing, creating an exceptional guest experience, enhancing QSR efficiency, keys to effective and fun leadership, and much more. A new feature on the show floor was the Operator’s Choice Award, with attendees voting on the show’s best new product. Lilly’s Fresh Pasta won the competition with its Jalapeño Fettucine, Birria Fettucine and Birria-Jalapeño Fettucine.
Restaurant owners and their staff took advantage of the Restaurant Management 201 Workshop led by Darren Denington and Alison Anne, who guided management teams through the process of becoming a cohesive team with strong leadership. In addition, Rev Ciancio from Yeah! Management and Chip Klose from Restaurant Strategy led a new half-day Restaurant Marketing Playbook workshop, which focused on best marketing strategies.
The largest trade show dedicated to the pizza industry on the East Coast, the Pizza Tomorrow Summit was founded by Celentano in 2022. Restaurant Events LLC purchased the Florida Restaurant Show—along with the New York Restaurant Show and the California Restaurant Show—in 2023.
Co-locating the Florida show with the Pizza Tomorrow Summit has been a boon for both events, says Celentano: “Foodservice is foodservice. So whether you’re a pizzeria, a diner or a McDonald’s, you’re using the same straws, forks, knives, plates…. So it works. The people that attend Pizza Tomorrow Summit find plenty of stuff that they need on the Florida Restaurant side and vice versa.”
In fact, the Pizza Tomorrow Summit was named one of the 50 fastest-growing trade shows of 2024 by Trade Show Executive magazine. For its part, the Florida Restaurant Show—sponsored by the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association and the Southeast’s leading trade event for restaurant and hospitality professionals—“has been reborn,” says Celentano. “And we’re not done yet.”
The 2025 shows will have an expanded exhibit floor, as well as “more workshops, more competitions and more learning,” says Celentano. Expect to see more celebrity chefs as well; Chauhan’s appearance at the Florida Restaurant Show—which included a meet-and-greet—attracted a large crowd, as did the culinary demo by Rocco DiSpirito at the California Restaurant Show. “We will continue to do that because it’s fun,” says Celentano. “People think it’s cool to be in the presence of someone who’s so successful.”
Restaurant Events taps into its advisory boards to make sure that its educational lineup is addressing customers’ concerns, notes Celentano: “We uncover what their challenges are so that we can have the content here to address it.”
The next Florida Restaurant Show and Pizza Tomorrow Summit take place Nov. 11-13, 2025, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. For more information, visit flrestaurantandlodgingshow.com and pizzatomorrow.com.
