New England Agricultural Marketing Conference & Trade Show
February 25 and 26 in Sturbridge, MA
The Harvest New England Agricultural Marketing Conference & Trade Show is once again coming to Sturbridge, MA in February 2015. This is the 5thth biennial New England conference and it draws hundreds of farmers and farm industry members to idea-laden workshops and to hear motivational speakers. Mark your calendars now for February 25 & 26 2015 and join your fellow regional agriculturists for a jam-packed program!
The theme of the 2015 conference is Direct Marketing to Diversified Wholesale, Finding What Works. Attendees will experience nearly 30 workshops on topics such as retail and wholesale marketing, agri-tourism, business planning and more. An all day workshop for New England Farmers’ Market Managers will be held on Wednesday, February 25th. Don’t forget the trade show with a large variety of agricultural suppliers and vendors!
New for 2015 will be the concurrent meeting of the Massachusetts Association of Agricultural Commissions, sponsoring a series of workshops targeted for Agricultural Commission members in the region. Also new is the SNAP Resource Center-one stop shopping where farmers and market managers can complete their USDA application to accept SNAP benefits and obtain low cost wireless equipment to process SNAP payments.
Wednesday’s keynote speaker will feature Food and Merchandising expert Jonathan Raduns from Merchandise Food. Raduns leads food retailers through a reinvention process to improve displays, marketing collateral tools, signage, culinary imagery, fixtures, and retail environments to drive profitability. Raduns talk, entitled Overcoming the Five Dangerous Trends Limiting New England Farm Profits will offer inspirational and practical knowledge to empower farmers to break through the patterns and challenges which limit farm success. Two additional workshops will also be led by Raduns: Power-Branding and Professional Sales Secrets of Dynamic Farm Marketers and Visual Merchandising 101: Display Strategies and Techniques to Drive Food and Farm Sales.
Providing a keynote address on Thursday is Nancy Clark, owner and president of Drive Brand Studio, a marketing agency in North Conway, New Hampshire. Clark will engage attendees with her talk on The Power of Millennial Thinking. Millennials, those born between 1980 and 1995, are 80 million strong today, and will account for 50% of the U. S. workforce in 2020 and 75% of the global workforce by 2030.This fast paced session will explain why and how the power of millennial thinking can have a positive impact on a farm’s business. Clark will also lead a workshop entitled The Art of Fearless Storytelling.
Early Bird registration is now open. Click here or go to www.harvestnewengland.org for more information. Program details and lodging options are also available at this site. Register early for the best rate!
Harvest New England (HNE) is a cooperative marketing program created by New England’s state departments of agriculture in 1992. It has sponsored this regional conference since 2007.
###
