Last week we hosted our first in-person Smart Kitchen Summit (SKS) since 2019.
It's hard to believe so much time has passed. In some ways, we've lost all sense of time given what's happened in the last five years, including the pandemic, but five years is still a long time.
Bringing back this event is something we've wanted to do for a few years now, both because we ourselves miss the event and because we've heard from the community that they want SKS to return. But before we do it, we wanted to make sure the timing was right. For a variety of reasons (more on that later), when we announced SKS 2024 last December, we felt the time was finally right.
We didn’t realize it when we hosted our last event, but in some ways, the first chapter of the smart kitchen was coming to an end. Many of the first attempts by appliance manufacturers, food brands, and startups building enabling technologies had either already been successful or had not, so it was a good time to reevaluate.
The first wave of smart kitchens was focused on leveraging smart home technology, voice interfaces, and app platforms to digitize the knowledge around cooking and meal planning. Many interesting startups emerged during this time, either getting acquired or building sustainable and interesting businesses of their own. Many more eventually went out of business.
That's why as we built our program for our first year back, we wanted to take a realistic look at how our industry has progressed, evaluate lessons learned, understand the current state of innovation, and have honest conversations to come away with a clear picture of what we did right and what we did wrong so we can better navigate the next decade of building products for the kitchens of the future.
Many of these lessons were articulated over the two days. Scott Heimendinger, who has been developing products to leverage technology to improve culinary skills for over a decade, summarized many of the problems of the first wave (and warned about the problems of this one) during the opening panel.
“Whenever a new technology comes out, the temptation to impose it on our work is particularly prevalent in our industry, but also in other industries,” Heimendinger said.
Scott and others warned that the same mistakes must be avoided, especially as the industry adopts new technologies such as generative AI.
Another key takeaway from the two days was how important it is to understand the needs of consumers in the kitchen. With growing home affordability challenges, rising inflation, global warming and resource scarcity, we need to understand that the nature of modern life is changing and develop products that enhance consumers' ability to prepare delicious food and make their lives easier.
The two speakers who spoke about consumer motivation were Susan Schwallie and Barb Stuckey.
“They are equipped with practical, versatile kitchens and they need appliances that work hard for them,” Schwalli said during the presentation. Leveraging consumer trends to design tomorrow's kitchens. “Gone are the days of single-use tools like avocado slicers and artisanal coffee makers, which required time and skill. Multi-purpose tools like air fryers are gaining popularity.”
One key thing to consider about millennials is their strong sense of what the cost of living will be in 2024. This, combined with their desire for a “grown-up” kitchen, underscores the importance of durability in their purchasing decisions, according to Schwalli. They want products that will stand the test of time, and the fear of planned obsolescence is a real concern for them. Many live in “permanent apartments” with limited storage and countertop space, “so practicality and flexibility are key.”
Barb Stuckey delved into the changing housing landscape and how it's impacting millennials' and Gen Z's mindset when it comes to kitchen purchasing decisions. According to Barb, only 40% of renters want to own a home someday, and this perpetual renting mindset is reflected in this technology-driven generation, who are looking to practical, multi-function appliances that often sit on the countertop.
Looking further into the future, SKS also explored scenarios that could potentially be made possible through the application of new technologies. One scenario that Mike Lee, author of Mise, described during his talk was a society in which a large portion of the population relies on AI-powered personalized nutrition platforms to guide every action. Mike expressed his belief in the great potential of personalized nutrition, but also stressed that as an industry, we need to recognize that “when we eat in silos, something gets lost.”
Another conversation focused on how robotics and automation will be used in consumers' kitchens. It's a particularly interesting time for this conversation, as we're seeing more talk of companies like Apple, Tesla, and Bot Company eyeing the home robotics market. Moderator Wilson Rothman asked people developing high-end, expensive robots about the key needs they're trying to solve and what it's like for consumers to adopt these products in their homes. Robin Liss, who is developing a countertop robot called Suvie, spoke about the importance of a “continuous feedback loop” of usage data to make products easier to use and more affordable.
This is just a small part of what we heard. We'll be releasing videos and recordings of the sessions in the coming weeks to validate and explore the insights we gained from the stage. But for now, we wanted to take a moment to reflect and thank those who helped make SKS 2024 a reality.
When we hosted the first SKS in 2015, we were on the brink of a new wave of innovation in culinary and food tech. Looking back, we've documented many of those stories here at The Spoon, and in recent years, we've started to hear from others who have set out to build new products and platforms for consumers' kitchens. As we've listened over the past 12 months, it's become clear that there's a new wave of innovation building, where innovators are leveraging advances in AI, synthetic biology, heating, robotics, electrification, and more to build the companies of the future and the kitchens of tomorrow.
We hope to continue chronicling these stories through The Spoon, podcasts and events over the next decade, and we hope you'll join us.
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Now, we want to say thank you! We'd like to extend a special thank you to our SKS sponsors: Whirlpool, Current Backyard, Fresco, Schott, Chefman, Suvie, Else Labs, Pot Robotics, and Cibotica. You all helped make SKS possible.
A huge thank you to my good friend and event consultant Surj Patel for his masterful hosting over the two days. Thanks to Sandie Markle and Louis Leboa for helping coordinate speakers during SKS. Thanks to my good friend Carlos Rodela and amazing videographer Luca Nilon-Volpentesta for the interviews and the amazing video.
Thanks to longtime friend (and doll enthusiast) Heather Moore for capturing these amazing photos of all the action at SKS.
We'd also like to thank other volunteers, including Hamid Ali (congratulations on a great career at Google!), Cormac Wolf, and Andrew Miller.
The meals were provided by Renton Technical College, and we strongly support RTC's mission of educating young people and preparing them for careers in the food service industry.
Thank you to the team at Kind and Co for being such amazing event ninjas and making sure we did all the little things (and the big things) that went into producing our event.
Thank you to all the speakers at SKS 2024 who took time out of their busy business-building schedules to book a flight and come to Seattle to share their knowledge.
Thank you to our event partners for spreading the word about SKS, helping fill seats, and leveraging their networks.
We would like to thank all the participants whose energy and insight during the show made SKS 2024 a truly amazing event.
We would like to thank the media for coming and writing about SKS.
I would like to thank the SKS Advisory Board for helping shape my thoughts about this year’s program and for making connections when I needed them.
Finally, a huge thank you to Tiffany McClurg who did so much to make SKS 2024 a huge success. Not only did she make SKS even more amazing and keep the trains running on time throughout the show, but she also got to be out there on opening day and watch her (and my) son graduate from the University of Washington.
See you again next year!
