CHICAGO — For the first time in its 40-plus-year history, the Purchasing Seminar will convene in Chicago, rather than in Kansas City.

The 2019 Purchasing Seminar will be held in Chicago June 9-11 at the historic Palmer House hotel. A major annual food processing event, the Purchasing Seminar brings together more than 850 purchasing executives and suppliers each June.

For 40 years, the seminar has been held in Kansas City, the home of Milling & Baking News and Sosland Publishing Company, the event’s principal sponsor.

“Kansas City has been an excellent and extremely popular venue for the seminar for decades, nearly always during the first week of June,” said L. Joshua Sosland, president, Sosland Publishing Company. “Unfortunately, two major industry events will be held that week in 2019 — annual events sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists and by the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association. While conflicts invariably arise each year, we are committed to accommodating the schedules of as many seminar attendees as possible and opted to change the date in 2019 to June 9-11. Because we could find no suitable Kansas City hotels available for those dates, we decided the seminar will be held in Chicago next year.”

Mr. Sosland noted that Illinois, a hub of food processing and ingredient companies, ranks first each year at the Purchasing Seminar as the state with the most registrations.

The Purchasing Seminar in 2020 will be held once again in Kansas City. Plans for 2021 and beyond have yet to be finalized.