FireBoard at the National Restaurant Show 2024

The 2024 National Restaurant Show in Chicago was a landmark event for FireBoard this year. We sent a small delegation from our marketing team to run a booth in the Tech Pavilion of the McCormick Place Convention Center, a section of the complex dedicated to innovative technology companies transforming the food industry. While FireBoard has attended the show in previous years, 2024 was exceptional because we had the privilege to showcase our newest product – the FireBoard Beacon – which is now fully market-ready.

The FireBoard Beacon is a small, wireless device that monitors temperature and humidity inside refrigerators, coolers, freezers, and other cold storage containers. It uses sub-1GHz radio frequencies to communicate data in real-time to the FireBoard 2 base station, which uploads the information to the FireBoard Cloud over WiFi or Bluetooth.

One base station can track up to 32 Beacons simultaneously, providing businesses with a comprehensive cold storage monitoring system that prevents costly product loss due to equipment failure.

At the show, we met with hundreds of restaurant owners, warehouse managers, and leaders from cold chain logistics companies grappling with inadequate temperature monitoring or lacking any system altogether. Many were surprised to learn about the Beacon’s capabilities, especially our commitment to no software fees or subscriptions.

Unlike competitor products that charge recurring costs for data storage, number of connected devices, and more, FireBoard offers a straightforward one-time purchase model. As one executive bluntly told us, “You should really charge for the software too.” While we appreciate the concern, this approach is not something we’re interested in – we wouldn’t be here without your support and will always respect that.

The horror stories from potential customers solidified the Beacon’s value proposition. One company spoke of losing years of research and development efforts after a freezer failure went unnoticed for a weekend – a devastating outcome that the Beacon could have prevented.

Thanks to its wireless design and backup data logging, the FireBoard Beacon ensures temperature fluctuations are never missed, even during network outages. Real-time alerts also empower users to respond immediately when issues arise, protecting their product integrity and bottom line.

Of course, we also brought a demo table for the FireBoard Spark, our famous instant-read thermometer. While cold storage monitoring was a hot topic this year (excuse the pun), we spoke with a range of restaurant owners and chefs who needed solutions for their hot lines. Just like with freezers and fridges, hot lines require regular monitoring to avoid food or ingredient spoilage. So many businesses still track this information via pencil and paper logs, meaning when health inspectors come around, they have to pore over pages of handwritten scrawling from the unlucky employee whose task it is to record this often extensive, crucial data manually.

Because the FireBoard Spark has built-in NFC tag scanning, all you have to do is read a temperature for a certain product — like green beans, for example — hover the instant-read thermometer over a sticker designated for that food, and the data will automatically be uploaded to the cloud with a label and timestamp. The accuracy of the readings is a given, but think about the time saved both for the business and the health inspector who has to go through the data. Never a bad idea to get on their good side!

It was incredible to see all of the innovations in the restaurant and food safety world on display in one place, and even more amazing to be among them ourselves. FireBoard began as a humble startup funded on a Kickstarter, but it’s become clear that the application of our ever-growing IoT smart technology in commercial settings is going to be a game-changer for businesses that have struggled for years with dysfunctional temperature monitoring solutions.

We’re not exaggerating when we say at least ten different people came up to us to say verbatim, “My temp monitors are junk, so I threw them away. What’s different about yours?” It was always heartbreaking to hear, but exciting to have the opportunity to share our solutions to a problem that’s plagued the food safety industry (and beyond!) for decades.

To learn more about the FireBoard Beacon, click here and fill out the form at the bottom of the page to learn how we can help solve your temperature monitoring situation. To learn more about the FireBoard Spark, click here. We’re always happy to discuss unique problems companies face, so for any other inquiries, just give us a call!

Overall, the 2024 National Restaurant Show was a resounding success for FireBoard Labs. We’re excited to get the Beacon into more businesses’ hands and continue developing innovative solutions that solve critical operational challenges.