Selling Your Specialty Food Product

Join us on October 5 as our industry insider will share his perspective and “know how” on achieving success with your specialty food product. The day will be packed with hard-to-find industry information that is practical, relevant and current.  It’s information you need to know in order to achieve your own brand of success. As an added bonus you will hear from the 2016 First Place winner of H-E-B’s Primo Pick contest!

Topics will include:

• Selling direct to consumer such as farmers’ markets, pop-up events, online, community supported agriculture programs, and subscription sales 
• Traditional and emerging wholesale markets such as specialty grocery, restaurants, corporate buyers, large grocery chains, and big box stores
• Perfecting your pitch, building your promotional packet, and creating your marketing materials 
• Supporting your wholesale partners once you obtain shelf space
• Identifying where to sell your product by region, how to research and identify specific partners, taking your product from local to regional, building a call list
• Running a successful farmers market booth, including signage, building your display, customer service, and pricing 
• “Defining local” game
• Guest success story – how it’s done

Lunch and refreshments included.

Please note: 

If you are registering after 4:00 pm on Tuesday, October 3rd you will receive a Turkey sandwich.

Come early! At 8:30 am we’ll have some fun networking before the event starts.  Feel free to bring samples of your specialty food to share. 

Stay late! As an added bonus our speaker will moderate an open forum roundtable discussion from 3:30 to 4:30 pm on the specialty food industry for anyone wishing to stay.

Speakers: 

Martin Butts is a food advocate, entrepreneur, writer, speaker, and the owner of Small Potatoes, a boutique consulting firm that specializes in working with food businesses of all kinds. He has previously served as the Director of Syracuse University's Community Test Kitchen, working with aspiring foodpreneurs to help them turn their product ideas into businesses, and as the Community Education and Outreach Coordinator for Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York. He has spoken all around the United States including at conferences, summits,  universities, community centers, grocery stores, private homes, city parks, and on stairways and wooden crates!

He works with and helps food producers, farmers, restaurateurs, retailers, distributors, nonprofits, colleges, and consumers.  He serves on advisory councils for fair trade standards, retail food co-ops, and currently as an advisor for Syracuse First. His work focuses on developing fair and sustainable food systems that support independent businesses and healthier communities. In 2010, he was chosen as one of Central New York's 40 Under Forty, recognizing individuals who have excelled in both the workplace and in the community.  His company, Small Potatoes was the 2013 recipient of the Snail of Approval Award by Slow Food CNY.

We are pleased to announce that our luncheon speaker will be Purav Patel.  Patel along with his wife, Aarti Garehgrat, are owners of Bagel Dots and first-place winners of H-E-B’s Primo Pick contest for 2016.  The idea of Bagel Dots came to Aarti, while she was living and working as a CPA in New York. She became accustomed to eating some of the best bagels in the country and was never able to finish an entire bagel. Aarti always wondered why there was not a donut hole version of a bagel. This is when the idea of Bagel Dots first came to her! After talking about it for several years, Aarti came up with a recipe and along with her husband, Purav, began selling Bagel Dots to her family and friends. Through organic growth, Bagel Dots evolved and is now commercially available in the frozen breakfast section at over 200 H-E-B grocery stores throughout Texas.

Please Note:

Satisfactory meeting room temperatures are difficult to maintain.  Always bring a sweater or jacket to ensure comfort.

No children under the age of 16 are allowed in the workshop.

Only service animals allowed - If you need to bring a service animal with you to a workshop please contact us ahead of time.

 
 

Pay on-line and Save $20!

Pay at the door Price:   $119.00
On-Line You Save:         $20.00
Pay On-Line Price:         $99.00