World Confectionery Conference early bird offer and call for awards entries

Early bird rates for our 2026 edition of the World Confectionery Conference are very much open, as the event makes a move to a new venue, The View, in London, this September.

As we speak, plans are progressing strongly for the event, which now takes place in its fifth live iteration, including its awards, placing industry sustainability, innovation across the market, and sector resilience in the spotlight for our key annual gathering on 10th September.

For those who may have attended our last meeting in Brussels, the event saw a number of ingredients, finished product and technology developments on our packed-programme, which drew an eclectic audience representing companies from around the world.

We will be aiming to further that engaging spirit of discussion, debate and evaluation of our combined industries, which has continued to offer a strong networking platform for all strands of our sector within the value chain.

So thanks are due once more to those who have committed to participating in the event for 2026, which has already attracted key contributors including Cargill, Ferrero and Caobisco European trade association, alongside a wide additional range of speakers from across the sector.

Among our highlights of this year’s event will be its returning centrepiece QandA examining sustainability within the confectionery sector, with particular note to its cocoa supply chains – which have been much under threat in recent times. We’ll also look at how companies are continuing to adapt to wider market challenges as we move into ever-more digitally dominated times.

In addition, we also keenly anticipate entries for this year’s World Confectionery Awards, which will be presented at our event this year in London, so please don’t be shy in coming forward to place your entries across our six categories, from equipment, ingredients, finished product, team of the year, emerging enterprise of the year and sustainability initiative of the year categories.

Andy Baxendale, of Sweetdreams Confectionery picking up the Team of the Year Award at our 2024 World Confectionery Conference. Pic: Dafos photography

From speaking to many winners over the past five years, the event has offered a key platform for enterprises and individuals at all stages of their respective careers, so please do get in touch with me personally at [email protected] with any questions regarding the awards – which can be placed for free, via our dedicated event website, confectioneryconference.com 

We would welcome early entry for the awards, which significantly eases the planning of our event, though we will be accepting entries until the end of July for our respected accolades. So here’s hoping to see as many of you again this time around in September, as we move to our new venue in central London.

Neill Barston, editor, Confectionery Production magazine

keep in touch at nbarston@bellpublishing,com or via our social media @confectionprod or our Linkedin pages