GCCF COLD CHAIN INSTITUTES

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GCCF Cold Chain Institutes
The World’s Best Cold Chain Logistics Training Program.

This year marks the 59th anniversary of the first World Food Logistics Organization’s (WFLO) Institute held in Norman, Oklahoma – the home of The University of Oklahoma. The three-year, industry-specific training program put on by WFLO, the foundation arm of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), is for professionals engaged in temperature-controlled logistics, and offers more than 40 classes taught by leading experts in the industry. The curriculum takes students through cold chain management, customer service, employee safety, food safety, warehouse operations, transportation operations and professional development.

By 2009, the Institute had outgrown Norman and moved to a new home at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia. This new facility allowed for more students to participate in the Institute and offered a connection to Georgia Tech’s renowned Logistics and Supply Chain Program. Over the years, it has provided opportunities for Georgia Tech students to participate in the Institute as way to generate broader interest in a career in the cold chain.

In 2014, due to strong interest from members in the region, the first Latin America Institute was held in Costa Rica. The Institute Latin America is now held each year in Mexico City, and while the 2020 Year 1 and Year 2 programs had to be postponed to 2021, WFLO was able to run the Year 3 program virtually and graduate 12 individuals from the program.

Over the years the growth of the program in the United States continued and by 2017, the Institute had grown so much that the foundation Board made the decision to hold two Institutes in the United States to allow for a valuable onsite experience while allowing for more participation.

Thus was born the East and West Institutes. The Institute East is continuing at Georgia Tech and the West Coast Institute is held at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel and Conference Center adjacent to the campus of Arizona State University where the top ranked W. P. Carey School of Business in located. The East and West Institutes now host well over 500 students each year. In 2019, the first Australian Institute was held in Melbourne, with more than 35 students participating in Year 1 courses. The Institute returned in May 2023 and held courses for both Year 1 and Year 2 students. It will return in May 2024 to host all three years with the first ever Institute Australia graduates.

In 2023, the foundation changed its name from WFLO to the Global Cold Chain Foundation (GCCF) and the name of the Institute program changed from WFLO Institutes to GCCF Cold Chain Institutes. GCCF is expanding the classroom experience by launching two new Institutes in 2024, one in Sao Paulo, Brazil in August 2024 and one in Amsterdam, Netherlands in September 2024. It is fast becoming the world’s best cold chain logistics training program to develop your company’s most important asset – talent.

GCCF Cold Chain Institutes East and West

When the challenges are steep and the competition fierce, Robyn Benincasa, this year’s Institute East and West Keynote Speaker, provides individuals and organizations the tools they need to inspire themselves and one another to their greatest heights and to cross their most challenging finish lines.

For the last 20 years, she and her teammates have been competing at the front of the pack in the most unique and compelling classrooms on earth: the jungles of Borneo, the Himalayan peaks of Tibet, the rivers of Fiji, the rainforests of Ecuador and the deserts of Namibia, studying the good, the bad, and the not-so-pretty of extreme teamwork. It is through these harrowing, life affirming and often hilarious experiences in the world’s most grueling challenges that she has emerged with her truly unique perspective on what it takes to build the kind of world class teams that succeed against all odds, triumph in the face of adversity and win as one in times of great challenge and change. Robyn accepts full blame for inspiring people to do insane things like climb Mount Kilimanjaro, run their first triathlon, start their own adventure racing teams, hike across the Grand Canyon with a group of Survivors, or start their own businesses. This is, after all, who she is and what she does: Robyn Benincasa inspires people to grab life with one hand, grab their teammates with the other, and to create that special magic that makes all of us better TOGETHER than we ever would have been alone!

Robyn has made an art form of extreme performance by competing and winning at the highest levels of sport and business; her keynotes are powerful, impactful, and packed with practical, real-world takeaways that inspire peak performance and exceptional leadership. As a plus-20 year veteran San Diego firefighter, a World Champion Adventure Racer, a 2014 CNN Hero, a Guinness World Record Endurance Kayaker, a best-selling author, and founder of The Project Athena Foundation, Robyn Benincasa definitely knows a thing or two about creating human synergy, or as Robyn puts it, “That magic that allows groups of ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things together”.

Robyn’s multi-faceted experience inspires people to grab life with one hand, grab their teammates with the other, and to achieve audacious goals that they could never accomplish alone. She is the expert that companies call on to build world class teams, inspire peak performance and create a culture of champions.

Year 1 Courses

• Ammonia Safety
• Business Communications
• Carrier Relationships
• Conflict Resolution
• Customer Service Essentials
• Emergency Response Planning
• Finance 101
• Food Safety: HACCP, STF, GFSI
• Forklift Safety
• Fundamentals of Food Storage & Preservation
• Job Safety Analysis • Leadership Development
• Risk Management: Warehouse Exposures
• Supply Chain Basics
• Transportation & Warehousing
• Transportation Basics
• Warehouse Operations Essentials

Year 2 Courses

• Behavioral Interviewing
• Budgeting and Financial Controls
• Customer Recall Simulation
• “Cyber Security (Technology and Information Systems)”
• Dataflow and Freight Documentation
• Effective Presentations
• Employee Training for Safety
• Feedback and Coaching
• “Food Safety in the Modern Warehouse (FSMA and Sanitation Auditing)”
• International Business and the Cold Chain
• Intro to Warehouse Law
• Managing and Motivating Human Performance
• Refrigeration & Energy
• Sanitary Transportation of Food

Year 3 Courses

• Analyzing Refrigeration Systems
• Best Practices in Food Tempering, Chilling and Freezing
• Business Development
• Business Planning & Financial Decision Making
• Case Studies in Warehouse Law
• Change Management • Crisis Management
• Employment Best Practices and Liabilities
• Managing Labor Relations
• Preparing for OSHA Inspections
• Regulations and Your Job
• Trends in Technology in Warehouse Management
• Warehouse/Transportation Security