1. Home
2. Conferences
3. 2007 National Extension Risk Management Education Conference

Addressing marketing, human resource and financial risk: decision making in the retail farm market context

John Berry

Summary

Direct-to-consumer farm marketing

On method used by local farmers to increase the likelihood of economic success is diversifying into the realm of direct-to-consumer marketing of their farm products. Developing the retail skills associated with this form of marketing is an important piece of what Cooperative Extension does in our region. A NERME grant provided significant support for the Mid Atlantic Direct Marketing Conference (MADMC) seeking to address the educational needs of the target audience. This conference consisted of four days of intensive training, socializing and planning. During February 2006, 643 participants from 13 states took part in the excellent educational programs available through workshops, concurrent sessions, bus tours and an industry specific tradeshow.

The conference started off with a day devoted to interactive, intensive workshops. We had 2 full-day workshops and 3 half-day workshops. The topics covered were "Creating a buzz in your bakery", Communication and motivation skills","Pricing strategies", "Wreaths, Swags and bouquets", "How to utilize your farm for education". Day two was the highly anticipated retail farm market bus tours. Using 4 tour buses, participants visited premiere farm markets in Berks and Lehigh County. The final piece of this conference consisted of 44 concurrent educational sessions over two days and a trade show with 47 retail farm marketing vendors.

Comments received from participants include "Many profitable ideas and information.", "Excellent presentations.", "Very informative and useful. We got several ideas we can use at our home market.", "This is an avenue we are investigating to further expand our product line.", "This is a great resource. I am glad you here. These people were great and very helpful."

Details

---