North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Convention
v. (grÖ west) a direct marketing journey of innovation and inspiration through Alberta's historic Cowboy Trail
| REGISTRATION |
Moderator Bios
Darlene Cavanaugh, Alberta Farmers' Market Association
Executive Director of Alberta Farmers' Market Association which represents over 80 Alberta Approved Farmers' Markets in the province and almost 200 individual vendor members.Dorene Collins, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
Founding board members of Farmers' Markets Canada
Over 15 years of association work
Board member with the MS Sociey since 1998
Cindy Cuthbert, Alberta Agriculture
Cindy Cuthbert is a Project Coordinator with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in Grande Prairie, Alberta. A key member of the provincial Farm Direct Marketing Protein Team, Regional Cuisine Initiative and the Peace Country's Learn Agri-Food Network, Cindy is enthusiastic about the future of agriculture. She contributes to the growth of rural Alberta by linking rural entrepreneurs to programs, information and resources to add value to their agri-business. Her special skills and interest in computer technology, communication and planning, adding value to each project.
Bert Dening, Alberta Agriculture
Bert has spent most of the last 20 years as a Pork production and business specialist with the Provincial Department of Agriculture. For the last couple of years Bert has focused more on the direct marketing of meat as well as organics. Bert along with his wife and 10 children also run a mixed farm were they raise Cattle, Bison, Hogs and have a layer flock. They direct market eggs and meat.
Karen Goad, Alberta Agriculture, Food & Rural Development
Karen Goad is a farm direct marketing specialist with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in Grande Prairie, AB. As an integral member of the provincial Farm Direct Marketing Initiative and the Peace Country's Learn Agrifood Network, Karen connects progressive rural agripreneurs with innovative ideas, timely information and current resources and consults with rural ag producers and food processors on their farm direct marketing and agrifood value added initiatives. She is a founding partner of several well-known Alberta farm direct initiatives such as the Alberta Agri-Preneur newsletter, Explore Direct provincial conference and E-News. Karen has special interests in food safety, on farm retailing and new market development.
Don Gregorwich, Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association
Don Gregorwich shares administration of Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association with his wife Joan. Together they assemble and distribute the "Come To Our Farms" guide (40,000 distributed provincially), market the association in newspapers and on radio, assist consumers and handle daily association business.
Don's background includes teaching, operating a hog, cattle and grain operation, being a heavy equipment operator, an underground coal miner and at present being a Facilator for the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company and a Councillor for Camrose County.
One of his most satisfying experiences has been being deeply involved in a successsful amateur theatre in his home town (population 11) which sells out (1,200 seats) each year in a matter of hours and is located in the heart of rural Alberta.
Joan Gregorwich, Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association
Joan Gregorwich shares administration of Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association with her husband Don. Together they assemble and distribute the "Come To Our Farms" guide (40,000 distributed provincially), market the association in newspapers and on radio, assist consumers and handle daily association business.Anne Holcomb, Apple Annie's Orchard
Joan's business background includes journalism, advertising sales and the overall knowledge of running a daily newspaper. She has lived in Canada since 2001, when she married Don. She worked for 28 years at The Times, Ottawa, Illinois, taking an early retirement from her position as assistant general manager and director of advertising. In Canada, along with her position with AFFPA, she runs a small desktop publishing company and designs web sites. Her interests include photography, landscape design, flower gardening and artistic painting.
My husband and I, along with our two adult children, own and operate Apple Annie’s Orchard and Apple Annie’s Produce & Pumpkins in southeastern Arizona. We grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables on our farms, and have been direct marketing our crops since 1986.
Sharing our farms with the public is a unique opportunity that allows us to put a “face to farming.” I can’t imagine having a better job and love sharing the farms and our lifestyle with our customers. I feel that I have found my purpose in farm direct marketing.
I have been a NAFDMA member since 1997 and have gained so much practical knowledge and lasting friendships from NAFDMA members. Our business would not be the exciting, expanding business that it is today without the ideas and encouragement that fellow members have shared with us. It is a privilege to serve on the board of this wonderful organization.
Eileen Kotowich, Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
Eileen Kotowich works with the Alberta Approved Farmers' Market Program run by Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in Alberta, Canada. Since 1999, she worked on special projects for the provincial Farm Direct Marketing and Ag Tourism Initiatives. Prior to joining the provincial government, Eileen worked for a large grain handling and crop input cooperative in Alberta. Eileen grew up on a grain farm in southern Alberta.
Rob Leeds, Leeds Farm
Randii MacNear, Davis Farmers' Market
BIO: RANDII MACNEAR, Davis Farmers Market Association, Inc.
MARKET MANAGER, 1978-80 & 1984 - Present (25 years of service)
Originally a New Yorker, I moved to California in 1975. I graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1975 with a B.A. in Art. I became manager in 1978 of a young (4-year-old) Davis Farmers Market and returned to the position in 1984, after having two children. I have functioned as the Market Manager for a total of 25 years.
During the last thirty years of operation, the twice weekly year-round Davis Farmers Market has expanded to become one of the largest certified farmers market in California and one with a national reputation, being featured in Sunset magazine, Country America magazine, National Public Radio, featured on MTV and in dozens of published cookbooks.
In the Davis community I served as President of the Davis Chamber of Commerce in 1996 and participate on several Davis Downtown Business Association committees. Most recently, I have been awarded the "2002 Farmers Market Manager of the Year" by the North American Farm Direct Marketing Association.
Patty Milligan, Lola Canola Natural Honey
Patty Milligan is a small-scale beekeeper near Bon Accord, Alberta. She has direct marketed her honey for the past seven years at farmers' markets in the Edmonton area. She is a member of the board that successfully carried out the revitalization of Alberta's oldest farmers' market, City Market, in downtown Edmonton. She has also served as a director on the Alberta Farmers' Market Association for three years, two of them as president.
Debbie Pifer, White House Fruit Farm, Inc.
Third generation fruit/vegetable grower/marketer. Year-round farm market with full line produce, deli, bakery, specialty foods, craft show, fall events, gift baskets, school tours. Graduate of The Ohio State University with BA in Ag Econ. Serve on Board of Directors of NAFDMA, past president of Salem Fruit Growers Coop, serve on Ohio Apple Marketing Committee.
Bill Reynolds, Alberta Agriculture, Food & Rural Development
Bill is a self-professed pack rat of information and semi-voracious reader of tourism, marketing and business best practice literature. He is presently the leader of the Ag-tourism Initiative with Alberta Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development where he plays a catalyst role in the formation of partnerships by bringing ideas, people and resources together.
His 30-year professional life has included a range of positions from Director of tourism product development with Alberta Economic Development, heritage facility site analyst with Alberta Tourism , visitor services supervisor for Edmonton's Capital City Park, continuing education program director with the John Janzen Nature Centre and park interpreter with Banff National Park.
Sue Roba, Roba Family Farms
Al Rose, Red Apple Farm
Al Rose was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He lived in both Mexico and the United States throughout his early childhood. He is bilingual and bicultural. In 1982, at the age of 11, Al moved to his family’s farm, Red Apple Farm, in Phillipston, Massachusetts.
In 1993, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations, with minors in History and Geography, from Boston University. In 1997, Al received a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. His thesis is titled, “The Family Farm and Direct Marketing: Adapting to an Urbanizing Environment.”
From 1997 to 2001 Al worked for Frito-Lay as the Sr. Field Manager in Strategic Sourcing and Material Planning. He was responsible for managing potato procurement for 17 manufacturing facilities throughout the Eastern half’s of the United States and Canada.
In 2001, Al returned with his wife, Nancy, three boys (and more recently a daughter) to his family’s now diversified and exclusively retail farm operation. They represent the 4th and 5th generation to work at the farm. In 2005, Red Apple Farm received “Small Business of the Year” from the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce. In 2006, the farm received “Editor’s Choice” from Yankee Magazine Travel Guide to New England. Al currently serves on the boards of the North American Farmer’s Direct Marketing Association, the Worcester County Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the North Quabbin Chamber of Commerce.
Mary Vollmer, Vollmer Farm
Brent Warner, BC Ministry Of Agriculture
Brent Warner is the Industry Agritourism Specialist with the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands and the past secretary of the North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association (NAFDMA), in Massachusetts. His career spans over 25 years of working with farm families across North America including:
• 1982 began trial vineyard work in Duncan which has since grown into over 25 commercial wineries in the region
• 1985/86, spent time in New Zealand and California studying kiwifruit production and successfully established an industry of over 50 acres on Southern Vancouver Island
• 1985 created the South Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, and the Okanagan Direct Farm Marketing organizations
• 1994 he was awarded the Agrologist of the year by the British Columbia Institute of Professional Agrologists
• 1999 he helped to launch the BC Association of Farmers’ Markets which in 2005 represents approximately 70% (over 95 markets) in the Province
• longest serving member on the Executive Board of the NAFDMA (15 years) and the board liaison to the North American Farmers’ Market Coalition.
• 2000 recipient NAFDMA, “Outstanding Leadership Award”.
• 2002 he co-authored a marketing guide for progressive farmers, “Marketing on the Edge” which is available across North America
• 2004 created the BC Agritourism Alliance (www.agritourismbc.org), the first Association of operators in North America that offers an inspection of facilities and a comprehensive liability insurance program for members.
• 2005, BC Ministry of Agriculture lead on the new BC School Fruit and Vegetable Snack program to put fresh fruit and vegetables back into the elementary school system
• 2006, assisted the creation of “Experience Colorado,” the state agritourism industry alliance.
Due to the rapid change affecting agriculture world wide, he has been invited to share his insights and energies on family farm survival from Hawaii to Prince Edward Island and stretching across North America from California and Boston, to the North West Territories.
In January of 2006 he was the keynote speaker with Dr. Ed Mahoney from Michigan State University at the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Conference in Austin, Texas where they detailed the trends and evolving opportunities in agriculture and agritourism, based on their survey results in 2006 of 1,200 operators across North America.
Penny Wilkes, Alberta Agriculture, Food & Rural Development
Penny Wilkes heads the Alberta Approved Farmers Market program of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. She oversees the approval and monitoring of farmers’ markets in the program and offers ongoing support to over 110 markets. She has been influential in the growth of the Alberta Farmers’ Market Association and is currently developing a 3-level management training program with them. Penny is a member of the Alberta Farm Direct Team and the Alberta Team that assisted in the planning of Grow West.
Marian Williams, Alberta Agriculture, Food & Rural Development
Marian Williams is a farm direct marketing specialist with Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in Camrose, AB. She connects progressive rural entrepreneurs with innovative ideas, timely information and current resources and consults with rural ag producers on their farm direct marketing initiatives. As an ex officio board member of Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association, she links the association with the provincial Farm Direct Marketing Initiative. She leads the successful Agri-preneur Scholarship program that sponsors farm direct marketers and ag tourism operators to attend learning events such as the NAFDMA convention. Marian is passionate about traveling and supporting local foods so she enjoys “sleuthing out” local producers on her trips.
Join us for all or any part of our convention.
Each component is priced separately.
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Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
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Feb. 12, 2007 |
Feb. 13, 2007 |
Feb. 14, 2007 |
Feb. 15, 2007 |
Feb. 16, 2007 |
Feb. 17, 2007 |
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Bus Tour |
All-Day Workshops |
Conference Sessions | |||
Copyright 2006 North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association.
62 White Loaf Road
Southampton, MA 01073
62 White Loaf Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Phone: 413-529-0386
Fax: 413-529-2471
E-Mail: info@nafdma.com
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