Thrive! Meetings & Events

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Thrive! Meetings & Events thrive! meetings & events helps organizations understand how to serve safe, healthy and inclusive fo WHY THRIVE MEETINGS & EVENTS? At thrive! Tracy started Thrive!

meetings & events is a full-service event and conference management firm based in North Carolina. We know that planning a meeting or event is more than the logistics of booking hotels and ordering food. It’s a strategic process that integrates every detail into a flawless, seamless occasion that supports marketing objectives, instills a corporate philosophy, and strengthens a brand. meetings & events, we go a step further. We believe delicious, healthy food and environmentally friendly meeting practices should be a part of every event and work in unison to deliver the biggest return on your investment. We are guided by three principles when planning any event:

Whether business or pleasure, our innovative planners can help develop the vision for your event and execute it with precision, style, and success. We provide more than just chicken and PowerPoints…we’re about making the world healthier - and more sustainable - one event at a time. Our team is led by Tracy Stuckrath, CSEP, CMM, CHC, a certified event planner, meetings manager and health coach, with more than 30 years experience in the meeting and event planning industry. Meetings & Events in 2010, combining her expertise in producing events with her personal mission to educate and empower the hospitality industry and her clients to incorporate sustainable practices and serve more nutritious, health-enhancing foods. Tracy views meetings and events as a form of live marketing and skillfully manages brands through the development, management, and ex*****on of trade shows, conferences, meetings, and special events.

10/14/2026

Can an event menu be sustainable, safe for every guest, and still come in on budget?

F&B prices haven't come back down. Guests arrive with more dietary needs than ever, sustainability goals keep showing up in RFPs, and the budget didn't grow to match.

So I'm bringing Emily Thibodeau back to this week's Eating at a Meeting LIVE, and this time she's bringing her Maritz colleague Morgan McCracken.

Emily is Vice President of Event Management at Maritz, where she and her team plan and execute more than 2,000 events a year. When she joined me at IMEX last year, she told me that when you help clients prioritize their F&B spend, sustainability can actually save them money. This time, I want the specifics.

Morgan is a Senior Meeting Event Manager at Maritz Global Events, and before that she ran events on Google's campuses for three years. She manages a large program that has put some great sustainability initiatives in place, and she's going to show us what that looks like on the ground.

We'll talk about:

♻️ What it took to get the client, venue and culinary team on board
♻️ The waste-reduction moves that make the biggest difference
♻️ Where the real cost savings are, without cutting inclusion
♻️ How Maritz keeps dietary restrictions safe and accurate across thousands of events
♻️ The one sustainability practice every event should adopt, no matter the size

Planners, you'll leave with sharper questions for your venue and caterer. Hotels, venues and caterers, you'll hear what Emily and Morgan need from their culinary partners to make this work.

Come watch LIVE and bring your questions. What's one change that cut F&B costs or waste at your event, and nobody missed a thing? Tell me in the comments and I'll put it to Emily and Morgan.

10/13/2026

"Why aren't you drinking?"

At your next reception, one of your guests will probably hear that question. Jen Veralle has built a movement around what it really says to a guest: you're not quite part of this unless there's alcohol in your glass.

Jen is an event strategist, TEDx speaker, founder of the Mindful Drinking Movement and a third-time guest on the show. Her TEDx talk, Why We Should Rethink Drinking Culture, asks us to stop treating alcohol as the way in to networking, celebrating and belonging. She's joining me for a special Eating at a Meeting LIVE from the IMEX America show floor with Juanita Unger, founder of The NA Sommelier in Seattle. Juanita spent 12 years at a Seattle w**e bar and now designs NA beverage programs for restaurants, festivals and events. She's out to close what she calls the "sophistication gap" in NA drinks.

Two weeks ago, Derek Brown and Laura Silverman told us which alcohol-free drinks are worth pouring. This time we're looking at the room around them: the bar layout, the glassware, the words on the invitation, and how your bartender talks about what's being served.

It's Sober October, so plenty of your attendees are sitting this month out. Others don't drink for reasons they'll never share with you, and they shouldn't have to.

Planners, we'll talk about designing receptions and networking so nobody's participation depends on a drink. Hotels, caterers and venues, Juanita will get into menu design, staff training and how to price NA drinks so they earn their spot in your bar packages.

The next day, they lead an IMEX session and tasting. You get the preview.

Come watch LIVE and bring your questions. What's the best thing you've been handed at an event when you weren't drinking?

Every meal matters, and so does every toast.

10/12/2026

Ignored by the serving staff for an entire meal. In preparation for this episode, I asked Dr. Ferron Gray about a dining experience that stuck with him; that's the one he shared. The food was disappointing too, but he said even if it had been excellent, he wouldn't have gone back.

Not the food. How he was treated. We put so much work into menus and so much less into how people feel while they're eating.

Ferron is a forensic psychologist and President of the Grae Matta Foundation, which holds Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council. He advises governments, embassies and business leaders on mental health policy, and he's leading development of an International Mental Health Standard for the Events Industry, built through consultations at IMEX America and IMEX Frankfurt.

His view: wellbeing at an event comes down to operational decisions, and a lot of them involve food and drink.

I'm sitting down with him for a special Eating at a Meeting LIVE from IMEX America on SMARTMonday.

Planners, we'll talk about asking for dietary, cultural, and accessibility needs so guests don’t feel like they’re being difficult, and how noise, crowding, seating, and pressure to drink affect who joins in at your receptions.

Hotels, venues and caterers, we'll talk about your people. Ferron wants the standard to cover the folks delivering the experience, with proper breaks and access to meals on long event days.

And we'll talk about building all of it into budgets, contracts, and responsibilities, so it doesn't depend on one thoughtful server or planner remembering.

At IMEX? Come find us on SMARTMonday. Everyone else, watch LIVE and bring your questions.

When has the way you were treated at an event meal mattered more than the food?

Every meal matters. Every guest matters.

IMEXcited to be here! And yes, I completely match this year’s color scheme. Or did they match me? Either way, pink is th...
10/12/2026

IMEXcited to be here! And yes, I completely match this year’s color scheme. Or did they match me? Either way, pink is the way to go. 💗

Breaking news: I’m teaching a brand-new session tomorrow at SMARTMonday, 12:45 PM, at the CampFire station (right of the stairs by Border Grill). It’s only 20 minutes.

SMART F&B — Your F&B minimum is a smart-spend opportunity, not just a line item. I’ll cover how to use guest data, simple tech, and better allergen processes to cut waste, reduce risk, and make everyone feel fed and included.

Stop by and say hi!

10/09/2026

Chicken is not vegetarian. 🐔🚫🥬

A friend who’s vegetarian sent me this buffet label from a conference she’s at right now. Green “Vegetarian” icon on the card. “Chicken” hiding in the Lucite holder.

An icon on a card is a promise. If the ingredients say chicken, that promise is broken.

This is food safety and risk. If a label gets chicken wrong, it can get an allergen wrong. And those teeny dairy and gluten icons? Nobody can read them! Just write the words.

Thankfully, my friend read the card and did not rely on the icons alone.

Asking about dietary needs is step one. Step two is checking that the labels match what’s in the pan. Then walk the buffet before doors open and read every card.

Planners and hoteliers, if you want your labels to match your food and your staff knowledgeable about what they’re serving, DM me. 🍽️

10/07/2026

IMEXcited to be heading to IMEX America next week in Las Vegas. Tune it to find out about what’s going on and where you can find me.

09/30/2026

Picture your opening reception. One guest is pregnant. Another is in recovery, another is training for a race, and another just doesn't want to drink tonight. What are you handing them?

Too often it's still a soda, a bottle of water, or a sugary "mocktail" nobody planned and nobody wants to drink (yuck!)

That's why I'm so glad Derek Brown and Laura Silverman are joining me on this week's Eating at a Meeting LIVE. They just judged The Daily Pour's 2026 Zero Proof Choice Awards, blind-tasting hundreds of alcohol-free spirits, w**es, b**rs, mixers, ready-to-drink cocktails, and functional drinks from coded glasses.

Derek was head judge. He ran Columbia Room in DC, once named Best American Cocktail Bar, wrote “Mindful Mixology,” and has been championing mindful drinking for years. Laura founded Zero Proof Nation, a global resource that maps alcohol-free bars and bottle shops, and she's been pushing restaurants, workplaces and events to give non-drinkers real choices.

Planners, a medal list gives you something concrete to take to your catering manager when the banquet bar offers one NA b**r and a Diet Coke. Hotels, caterers, and venues: guests will pay for a well-made zero-proof drink. I want to know if your bar packages are built and priced for that.

There's a safety side too. "Non-alcoholic" and "alcohol-free" don't mean the same thing on a label. Hemp-infused and THC drinks even have their own awards category now. Does your bar team know the difference?

Come watch LIVE and bring your questions. What's the best alcohol-free drink you've been served at an event? The worst?

Every meal matters. So does every glass.

When in Turin, Italy, you MUST eat at Freedom Senza Glutine this dedicated gluten-free lounge and bakery has sustained m...
09/26/2026

When in Turin, Italy, you MUST eat at Freedom Senza Glutine this dedicated gluten-free lounge and bakery has sustained me the entire trip for Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2026 .

From quiche to focaccia, pastries to cookies and the beautiful cakes I did not eat, it is all delicious.

The staff have worked here for years and they were generous in offering other suggestions for dinner.

A must for any visitor to Turin.

09/16/2026

We ask a lot of the food at our events. We want it sustainable, inclusive, local, good for the planet and fair to the people who grew it — and then we hand the caterer a headcount and a budget and hope it all shows up on the plate.

So what would it take to build an event where the experience itself actually lives out those values, instead of just claiming them on the website?

One event has been answering that for almost 40 years — and every two years it shows the whole world how, at Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy. More than 600 producers from over 100 countries, spread across the city's historic squares, all organized around one idea: good, clean and fair food for everyone.

My guest this week on Eating at a Meeting LIVE is Elisa Demichelis, International Networks Director for Slow Food International, based at the movement's headquarters in Bra, Italy. Her whole job is connection — linking producers, cooks, Indigenous leaders and food communities across the globe, then turning all of that into one of the most complex food gatherings on earth.

We're talking about how Slow Food grew from "the opposite of fast food" into a full food-system movement, and what that means for those of us who plan and supply events. How do you source with real transparency? How do you feature small producers without expecting them to work for exposure? And how do you make sustainability something guests actually enjoy — not something they feel lectured about?

Whether you plan events or supply them — hotels, venues, caterers, DMCs, destinations — this one's for you.

Join us for Eating at a Meeting LIVE and bring your questions.

Every meal matters. So does every producer behind it.

09/09/2026

Salmonella in jalapeños. Cyclospora in lettuce. E. coli in blueberries. This year has been one long drumbeat of food recalls and outbreaks — and any one of those ingredients could be sitting in your event's walk-in right now.

Every meal at your event passes through a lot of hands before it reaches a guest's plate — received, stored, prepped, plated, labeled, served. Any one of those handoffs can keep a guest safe… or put them at risk.

That's what I want to talk about on this week's Eating at a Meeting LIVE with Doug Davis.

Doug spent 39 years at Marriott, including more than 17 as Global Senior Director of Food Safety — responsible for food safety standards across 33 brands, 8,700+ hotels in 139 countries, and 10,000+ restaurants. He led Marriott's COVID-19 task force, authored the hotel industry's first norovirus protocol, and was named the National Restaurant Association's 2023 Food Safety Professional of the Year. Now, through his firm Socium Consultants, he helps the rest of us learn what it takes to keep guests safe at scale.

I've spent years telling planners that food safety goes way beyond cooking temps and handwashing signs. What I want from Doug is the view from the top — how you build a food safety culture across thousands of hotels so that when something does go wrong, it stays contained.

We'll get practical for planners and suppliers alike:
� What to ask a hotel, venue, or caterer BEFORE you sign — so "we follow food safety" becomes something you can actually verify
� How a venue traces a recalled ingredient (this year's lettuce, jalapeños, blueberries) across kitchens and banquet service
� Why allergen safety and food safety are the same operational promise
� The three non-negotiables Doug wants every event team to put in place

This touches your F&B budget, your risk, your reputation — and every guest trusting you with their plate.

Come watch LIVE and bring your questions.

What's the food safety moment that still keeps you up at night? Drop it in the comments, and I'll work it into our conversation.

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Atlanta, GA

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