Western New York IFT Annual Suppliers' Day
Guest Speakers
Keynote Speaker
Maureen Ballatori
Maureen Ballatori (she/her) is the Founder and CEO of Agency 29, where she helps food, beverage, and agriculture brands discover their unique voice through smart, effective brand strategy. A frequent industry speaker and host of the Spilled Salt podcast, Maureen brings together innovators from across the food and agriculture landscape. She also serves on national and global boards, combining strategic thinking and creative problem-solving to help build brands and communities that drive lasting change.
Agency 29 partners with food, beverage, and agriculture organizations to build brand strategies and marketing systems that support growth.
Featured Panelist
Tracy Luckow, PhD
Tracy is the Co-founder and President of Whipnotic. In that role, she works to connect Whipnotic with consumers, anticipate future trends, manage the company's product development and daily operations and promote the brand. Prior to founding Whipnotic with her sister Lori, Tracy spent more than two decades working in the food industry for companies such as PepsiCo, Danone, and Sabra. She holds several advanced degrees including a Master’s degree in Food Science and a PhD in Sensory Science and Nutrition.
With a patented nozzle technology, Whipnotic creates whipped creams infused with all-natural fruit juices and flavor essences in flavors like Strawberry Swirl, Peach Mango, Brownie Batter, and Vanilla Salted Caramel. It's known for being keto-friendly, gluten-free, made with real cream, and free from artificial colors/flavors, offering a healthier, more exciting dessert experience for coffee, parfaits, or just eating straight from the can.
Featured Panelist
Matthew Pataki
Matthew Pataki is an aspiring voice for the future of dairy and a graduate research student in Cornell University’s Tako Lab, where he studies mineral metabolism and how dietary ingredients impact gut health. Driven by the idea of food as medicine, he founded Smooth Culture to transform milk—one of the world’s most accessible staples—into clean, thoughtfully formulated products that are enjoyable without added sugar, easier to digest for those with dairy sensitivities, and supportive of metabolic health through clinically studied probiotics.
Smooth Culture is a cultured dairy company working to position cultured milk as a daily dietary staple, beginning with delicious, accessible consumer products and extending toward the development of yogurt and cultured milk bases tailored for public school breakfast programs. Rooted in the belief that public schools serve as a critical dietary safety net for millions of children across the United States, the company is committed to improving school breakfast offerings through products that support metabolic and digestive health, while strengthening local production, manufacturing, and dairy farmers.
