Innovative Food for an Innovative Crowd

On Wednesday, January 18^th the Raleigh Innovation Summit met here to discuss creating an innovation center in Raleigh, branding our city as one of innovation, building partnerships, and bring more revenue into the region. The partnership between NCSU, the City of Raleigh, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, Raleigh and Wake County Economic Development teams, created this Innovation Summit kick-off event to create a unified vision and action plan for Raleigh’s innovation and entrepreneurship.

The day began over boxed lunches as the creative minds began collaborating and the finale of the day was the Suits + Geeks Mixer, pushing for community networking. With such an inventive crowd, the typical reception food was out of the question. But our Centerplate team here took the challenge with ease, worked with the summit masterminds, and made sure the food served was up to par for the “suits and geeks.”

After a four hour investment to the innovative cause, all those in attendance were rewarded with Chef Action stations, special NCSU donated brews, and a DJ keeping the party alive as the sun set on a successful day for Raleigh. As the innovators walked out from the last session of the day they were greeted with red and white Chinese takeout boxes, bamboo cones, and martini glasses.

The takeout boxes, accompanied with chop sticks, were filled with Sautéed Thai Chicken on a bed of Sesame Peanut Noodles. The bamboo cones held the Hot and Crunchy Tortilla Chicken with Mango-Jalapeno Slaw and Ancho Paint. Martini glasses held Buttered Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes and Southern Style Sweet Potatoes instead of the normal libations. Then the potatoes could be topped with anything from wild mushroom ragout, creamy blue crab, roasted garlic cloves, to chopped applewood smoked bacon, or your standard sour cream, cheddar cheese, scallions, or cracked black pepper toppings. The reception also offered Rosemary Scented Goat Cheese Truffles dusted with Almonds and desserts. The average desserts were also out of the question, so in place the “suits and geeks” could find Cheesecake Lollipops and Apple Pie Pops.

Sponsors for this one day event include Rex Healthcare, Poyner Spruill, Gensler, Wells Fargo, Progress Energy, and Red Hat.

More innovative events are sure to occur around the Raleigh area after the success of this one day summit. We hope we’ll get to see more of you innovative thinkers here at the Convention Center!