This one’s coming up fast.  This Friday, September 10.  See the bottom of the post for a little info on FONDUE.

Business FONDUE’s Showcase of Opportunity–Workshop on Marketing & Branding to be held on Friday, September 10 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the First National Bank & Trust’s Community Room, 1625 10th Street, Monroe, WI.

This hands-on workshop on marketing & branding focused for the Food-based Entrepreneur will include:

• The importance of business planning, marketing planning and how branding fits in
• A panel of entrepreneurs who have brought a new food product successfully to market
• Exercises and guidance in developing a brand and using it for marketing
• Cost is $20 and includes continental breakfast & lunch

Workshop facilitators include Janet Ady, Voltedge–a market strategist and client product research specialist, Jim Gage, grant writer and business strategist and Andrea Neu, Client Services and Brand Positioning Consultant

Click here to register.  Conference brochure here.

Business FONDUE is an initiative to bring information and resources to food-based entrepreneurs and those considering a food-based business. The cornerstone is a web-site with specific resources for Green County, WI food-based businesses. In addition, workshops and networking opportunities will be held to bring entrepreneurs together for a time of learning and fun. Business Fondue was created through a partnership between Green County Development Corportation, UW Extension Green County, UW-Extension-Agricultural Innovation Center  and Thrive, with help from an EDA grant.

Two more items below that caught our attention:

Critical Challenges in Aggregating, Processing, and Distribution Local Foods

Tuesday, September 28^th, 2010; 9 -11:30 am

Best Western Inn on the Park, 22 South Carroll Street, Madison, WI 53703

Please join us on Tuesday, September 28th for a ½ day program highlighting the findings of a 2-year research project focused on the transportation and distribution needs for local and regional food.   The day will kick-off with a keynote presentation by Michael Shuman, research and public policy director with Business Alliance for Local, Livable Economies (BALLE).  Several businesses highlighted in the research publication “Scaling Up: Meeting the Demand for Local Food” will participate in the session, sharing perspective on their challenges and innovative solutions for local food distribution.

Speakers include:

Larry Alsum -Alsum Produce

Lindsey Day Farnsworth -UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems

Diana Endicott -Good Natured Family Farms

Anne Pfeiffer -UW-Extension Agricultural Innovation Center

Annaka Witkop – Organic Valley

Lori Zuidema – Coop Partners Warehouse

To register for this free event, please email Sarah Wise at sbwise@wisc.edu

Building a Business in Specialty Foods Webinar Series

The eXtension Entrepreneurship webinar series is back for the fourth season. All webinars will air monthly on the second Thursday at 2:00pm (ET), 1:00pm (CT).

On Thursday, September 9, 2010 we open with a three-month series on specialty food businesses. September’s topic will be Starting Right in Specialty Foods. Join Brian Norder, Director of the Vermont Food Venture Center for an informative session on what it takes to start and grow a specialty food business. Brian has over a decade of experience assisting entrepreneurs in all phases of food-related business development.

On October 14 the webinar will focus on the importance of branding and will feature specialty food business owners Judith Moore of the Charleston Cookie Company (http://www.charlestoncookie.com) and Robin Rhea, Slather Sauce.

The November 11 webinar will conclude this series with a look at Culinary Tourism, an emerging niche that combines agriculture, specialty food and tourism. This presentation will feature a panel of Extension specialists working on Culinary Tourism initiatives.

No pre-registration is required and there is no fee to participate. About 10 minutes prior to the start time simply go the Adobe Connect Pro meeting room at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/ecop/.

With the academic year upon us and the end of summer not too far off, we’ve been hearing about a bunch of workshops, events and assorted other items of note.  Here are some of the highlights:

Hazel Nut Field Day

Saturday, August 28 , 1 -4:00 pm

Soda Farms, N6455 Soda Road, Princeton, WI

The University of Wisconsin Extension and Kevin Soda and his family are hosting the 2010 Hazelnut Field Day scheduled for Saturday, August 28 from 1-4PM in Princeton, WI. The focus of the field day this year will be hazelnut establishment and manage-ment. Researchers with the Upper Midwest Hazelnut Development Initiative will dis-cuss the Hazelnut Improvement Program, establishment strategies, and efforts to sup-port hazelnut processing.  The field day is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required. Contact Jason Fischbach at 715-373-6104 ext 5 or jason.fischbach@ces.uwex.edu to register or with questions. Click here for the 2010 Hazelnut Field Day flyer. Or visit www.midwesthazelnuts.org for more information.

Introduction to Branding and Marketing

Friday, September 10, 9 am-4 pm

First National Bank, 1625 10th Street, Monroe, Wisconsin

In this practical, hands-on workshop, participants will learn how to bring a food product to market.  Case studies of successful WI food business will provide insight and guidance as you begin developing your own brand positioning statement.  Regional experts Janet Ady, Jim Gage, and Andrea Neu will lead this workshop and be available to work with participants as you develop these important foundational pieces for the success of your business.  This workshop includes breakfast, lunch and materials.  Registration is $20.  Advance registration required.

Register by calling Green County (SE WI) Development Corporation at (608) 328.9452 or emailing gcdc@tds.net. Registration forms are also available on the GCDC website at www.GreenCountyEDC.com and at www.BusinessFondue.com.

Wisconsin Local Foods Survey – Respond by August 31

Please take a moment to participate in this survey about the status of Wisconsin’s local and regional food system.  This data will provide important information as we continue to build local, value-added markets for WI agriculture. See below for additional background.

In order to make this data valid, it is critical that we receive a good response rate.  Please forward this survey to others that work with WI agriculture or local food. http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22B358R9BNJ

Wisconsin Acidified Canned Foods Training

UWEX continues its series of trainings on canning for small food entrepreneurs.   The next one is in Eau Claire on September 29. Others to follow throughout the state.  Click here for more info.

We will have a packed house for our next Driftless Food and Farm Convention, this FRIDAY, JULY 23 and are looking forward to a productive and insightful day of conversation and planning.  We will start at 10 AM and will conclude the formal agenda with dinner at 5 PM.  We will provide lunch and dinner.  Following dinner we have reserved the meeting space until 7 PM to allow for informal networking.

• Driftless Meeting Final Agenda 7 23 10

The agenda for the day is above.  Featured presenters include Anne Pfeiffer of the UWEX Ag Innovation Center, and CIAS’s Lindsey Day Farnsworth who will discuss the implications of their recent report on Scaling Up.  (Access that report here.)  Also, we will hear from Joan Stockinger from MN’s Cooperative Development Service and Ken Meter of Crossroad Resource Center.  Breakout groups focused on marketing and branding, matching supply and demand, and infrastructure, will work with both to identify strategies for action.

Our hosts are One Straw Farm who will provide us will locally sourced and prepared food.  Directions:

One Sun Farm
S4374 Haugrud Hollow Road
La Farge, WI 54639
(608) 637-6895

Driving Directions From Viroqua, WI
From HWY 14/61…
Turn on HWY 56 East (Decker St.). Follow to HWY 82 and turn LEFT. Follow HWY 82 for approx. 4 miles to Haugrud Hollow , turn LEFT. First farm on RIGHT.

(It appears that Haugrud Hollow is one of the first left turns after County Road S.  I am waiting for confirmation.  Google Maps doesn’t like the address.  Use Mapquest instead.)

I wanted to follow up on the directions in my email yesterday.  I spoke with Dave, our host, and he told me that Haugrud Hollow Road is poorly marked on highway 82.  The turn off for the farm is less than a mile past County Road S.  I will try to post balloons and a sign at the intersection of Haugrud Hollow and 82 and any other confusing junctions by 9:30.

1) Pricing product appropriately, an eternal challenge, is the topic of a recent brief by Driftless Food and Farm partner Mark Olsen of Renaissance Farms. Published by the Wisconsin Agricultural Innovation Center, the brief offers the insights of a local food entrepreneur who has expanded into wholesale and nationwide distribution.  Check it out here.

2) Pat Skogen of Reeson Family Farm just shared with me a publication issued by Farm Aid: Rebuilding America’s Economy with Family Farm-Centered Food Systems.  It has some useful nuggets of wisdom and features insights from our partners Ken Meter (Crossroad Resource Center) and economist Dave Swenson of ISU and the Leopold Center.   (Obligatory Willie Nelson photo below.)

Have you come across a publication or a website that would be of interest to our four-state community?  If so, let us know.

We have been working on a short document that outlines the progress we’ve made thus far and explains to potential partners and funders why we feel the time is right for this project in the Driftless Region. We need your help in two ways:

1) If you have any good farm/market/food systems photos, we would love for you to share them with us. Print quality is critical. (See below for a little more info on what constitutes print quality.) If we use your photo, we certainly will give you credit in the publication.

2) We hope to ask you to flesh out the publication with some brief but memorable quotes from project participants. To guide you, perhaps you could attempt to answer some of the following questions. Remember, all we’re looking for is something quotable, so please don’t spend more than 5 minutes on this.  Please email your replies or post them in the comments section below.

1. Why is creating a cohesive and viable regional food system in the Driftless important or valuable?

2. What kind of difference could this project make to residents and farmers?

3. Why should someone support this project?

Thanks!

Mark

driftlessfoodandfarm@gmail.com

Photo quality:  Our designer  has requested images that are 300+ pixels per in. (ideally about 1mb + , but not lower than about 600kb). Most digital cameras on the high res setting can produce pics that meet the standard.

My colleague Lisa Bauer directed my attention to localfoodsystems.org recently, a website devoted to “networking, collaborating, a building local [food] economies.”  It’s an effort emanating from the University of Ohio,  focuses primarily on food system issues for Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, and appears to mirror our efforts here in the Driftless.

What I like most about it is its discussion groups, and its directory of participants, both of which would potentially be useful to our network building activities.    However, it doesn’t appear that the site has seen much recent activity and I think it would present a logistical challenge to get a significant number of our community to sign up.

What do you think?  Should we pursue an affiliation with localfoodsystems.org to use those features?  Should we set up similar features on this site?  If so, I think it would be ideal to have it up and running to capitalize on our next meeting on Friday, July 23.  (Remember to save the date, please.)  Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

networking, collaborating, and building local economies