Garcia said she connected with representatives for restaurants, school districts, airlines, fish processors, and even an Eagle River greenhouse, where she's in discussions to grow her hot peppers.

She also spoke with representatives from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Kenai school districts. An airline representative is thinking about snack packs with chips and salsa, and fish processors discussed using salsa for flavoring in their smoking processes.

Tonia Winkler, president of Tonia's Biscotti, spoke with owners of the Bear Creek Winery and Lodging in Homer about matching up her biscotti varieties with their wines.

"In Italy we have a custom, after dinner, to dip biscotti in a sweet wine," she said. "Biscotti is low in sugar and has no butter. We sweeten with fruits, nuts and anise."

Alaska Airlines also asked for samples, she said.

Robin Richardson, who founded Global Food Collaborative as an effort to facilitate business and investment in Alaska's food supply chain through greater transparency, said the exhibitors were engrossed in conversations on how to do business with other participants.

The major goal of the event was "to increase business for participants," she said. Professional Foods Group, the next generation, Web-based form of GFC, planned surveys in the week following the event, and then again in six months, to measure the success of the event, she said.

The first Global Food Alaska event, held in Soldotna in 2007, "generated over $2 million in business achieved, and we hope to exceed that," she said. "That's going to be tough in this economy."

Richardson said the value of the event was giving people access to meet and do business with others, for their mutual benefit.

"A lot of exhibitors who never see each other and never get to see what each other were doing, they were all wound up," she said. "They wouldn't stop talking to each other.

Harold Wilson, sales accounts manager for Taco Loco, said the event put him in contact with the right people to enhance his business in Alaska and in the Lower 48.

Wilson said representatives for Costco Wholesale, which already carries other Taco Loco products, came by his booth to sample the crispy corn chips.

"If things work out right, we can increase our business," he said.

Wilson said he also spoke with representatives of the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association, or WUSATA, whose efforts include a program that provides 50 percent matching funds for eligible marketing and promotional activities.

"WUSATA explained opportunities in different places and different countries that I wasn't aware of," Wilson said. "This was a great opportunistic endeavor for us."

For Rick McClure, president and owner of Alaska Wild Kenai Salmon, a valuable contact made was with ACE Air Cargo. McClure said he learned that ACE would be able to fly fish he purchases in Bristol Bay to Anchorage for processing by Smoke Alaska Seafoods in Wasilla.

"I'm a small buyer," he said. "ACE will haul 5,500 pounds at a time for me."

McClure said he also spoke with Bernie Karl, president of Chena Fresh and the famed Chena Hot Springs Resort in Fairbanks, who he hopes may be a wholesale customer for the winter market.

Reggie Buchanan, food resource manager in Anchorage for the Food Bank of Alaska, said food bank representatives also made a lot of contacts with potential donors.

"We have a lot of people here who support the food bank," said Buchanan. "It is always easier to call someone you've met face to face" (regarding potential donations)."

There were networking opportunities aplenty during the event, from the introductory session featuring comments by Jim Jansen, chief executive officer of Lynden Inc. and former Sen. Ted Stevens to the all-Alaska foods dinner at the Sockeye Restaurant in Kenai Landings, which featured produce, wines, beer, seafood, meat, snack foods and ice cream with birch syrup and berry toppings produced in Alaska.

A special guest at the event was Victor Vasquez, deputy under secretary for Rural Development in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Vasquez presented leadership awards for manufacturing/processing, harvesting/growing, and putting Alaska products into the marketplace.

The winners included grower/harvesters Michael and Duce East of Kahiltna Birchworks, manufacturer/processors Geoff and Marcy Larson of Alaskan Brewing Co., and Rob George, president of The Crab Broker.

The group heard presentations about their expectations on products from commercial buyers, including AmazonFresh, Alaska Airlines, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District and Orso's Restaurant.

All expressed an interest in purchasing more Alaska-grown and -produced products, and gave some details on the important of shelf-stability, traceability, carbon footprint and more.