What is Gather?
We are Gather - a movement, a summit, and a community united by a shared passion for the South West's vibrant food and drink sector.
We believe in the power of collaboration, creativity, and resilience to shape a thriving future for our regions's producers, retailers, hospitality leaders, and innovators.
Gather 2025, the South West’s inaugural Food & Drink Summit, was brought to life by a passionate coalition of regional leaders and innovators. Spearheaded by Food Drink Devon in collaboration with the University of Exeter, the event united stakeholders from academia, local government, business, and the creative sector.
We achieved our aim of building a collaborative forum and shared commitment to strengthening the South West’s food and drink sector, fostering growth through knowledge exchange and community engagement.
Supporting partners included Devon Food Partnership, Bishop Fleming, Maia Growth, Buddy Creative, and Clockwork Marketing, each contributing expertise to shape a day of insight, innovation, and empowerment. The summit was curated to address key challenges in sustainability, branding, market access, and resilience, with workshops and panels led by industry professionals and academics.
Greg Parsons –
Chairman of Food Drink Devon
Owner & Managing Director of Sharpham Cheese
Fostering a food system that provides high quality, healthy, affordable food while underpinning a vibrant regional economy and having a positive impact on the natural environment takes engagement from an extraordinarily wide range of stakeholders.
Gather brings together food producers, processors and retailers, people in catering, hospitality and tourism, folks in marketing and journalism, and policymakers, researchers and consultants to reflect on and improve their contributions to this collaborative objective.
The University of Exeter is proud to be part of the Gather team, with fantastic partners in a region known for good food. Providing a venue to exchange information, share inspiring ideas, and explore opportunities to work together, Gather will allow us to build a better food future for the South West of England, and to share our vision with those in other parts of the United Kingdom and beyond.
Harry G West –
Professor of Anthropology
Co-Director of the Centre for Rural Policy Research
Lead of Exeter Food (University Research Network)
Convenor of the Masters in Food Studies
University of Exeter