All sessions are FREE for AFMA members to attend! Click on the links in the titles to register. All sessions must be registered for separately.
Monday, March 1st, 2021
10:00 – 11:30 AGM / Awards Ceremony
Please attend to learn about exciting new projects, vote on bylaw updates, vote for new board members. Share your thoughts. Your vote counts! We are pleased to announce we will have winners in all four of our award categories!
12:00 – 1:00 Vendor Verification: Anothony Mondia, Provision Analytics
Learn more about this exciting new program!
A recent study shows the top three reasons for Albertans to shop at farmers markets:
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- Food safety
- Supporting local
- Freshness
The Alberta Farmers Market Association is addressing this public demand by rolling out a new Vender Verification Program, to validate that all vendor food is both local and safe.
AFMA’s Vendor Verification Program will be introduced with the help of Food Safety Solutions (FSS) and Provision Analytics. FSS is a consultant that helps Alberta producers and processors design and implement food safety programs for HACCP and GAP compliance. Provision is Canada’s fastest-growing food safety and quality management software, which uses simple digital forms that automate compliance and traceability.
1:30 – 2:15 Introduction to Canva Presentation: Peter Hession
Canva is a free graphic design platform that allows you to easily create invitations, business cards, flyers, Instagram and Facebook posts, Zoom backgrounds, and more using professionally designed templates. You can even upload your own photos and add them to Canva’s templates using a drag and drop interface. Tips and tricks to help you use this great tool!
Peter Hession, based in Austin, Texas, is a sales leader from Canva joining us to share useful ways we can harness the power of design. He has helped hundreds of businesses develop content creation strategies that drive revenue growth, brand recognition, and employee experience. Peter is an expert in social media strategy and looks forward to working with you to help elevate your brands.
2:30 – 3:30 Social Media 101: Evie Lavers, Rhythm Club
Evie will share with you her best practices, tips and tricks for engaging your communities. Throughout this session, she’ll gift you all the goods to get your communities excited, engaged and ready to show up, both online & in-person! In attending this session, you will receive an Instagram Cheat Sheet printable PDF to share with all your market members & vendors.
Evie Lavers is the owner of Rhythm Club, a full-service creative agency that specializes in training workshops and solutions for musicians, artists, small businesses and not-for-profit organizations. Originally from Perth, Western Australia, Evie is an innovative entrepreneur who exceeds industry expectations in delivering digital communication campaigns, community-focused content creation, cultural event facilitation and arts administration. Through her practice, both in-person and online, she holds space to create inclusive exchanges of opportunity and accessible educational engagements for her clients and their communities alike.
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021
10:00 – 11:30 Open Food Network, E-commerce Demonstration
Learn more about this exciting new project AFMA is hoping to take on!
The Open Food Network is a global network of people and organisations working together to build a new food system. Together, we develop open and shared resources, knowledge and software to support a better food system.
We believe a sustainable and resilient food system needs to reconnect producers and consumers. We aim to empower people and communities and give them the tools and knowledge to develop the food systems they need for their community.
12:00 – 1:00 Enhancing Your Customer and Vendor Connections Using a Digital Presence: Christie Pollack
1:15 – 2:15 Question and Answers portion with Christie Pollack
Connecting with your end user digitally, whether that’s business to business or business to customer, has never been more important than now. But how do you get it all done? In this session, you’re going to learn the tools to figure out where you should focus your effort and how to manage digital media channels.
Christie is a horticulturist, blogger, project lover, award winner, and dream chaser. She spend her days running her year-round greenhouse, growing plants, and writing. She has an education in horticulture and hands on experience on what it takes to grow a really good plant. Whether you want that first vegetable patch, containers on the deck, or a really nice indoor tropical plant for your desk, she’s your girl.
2:30 – 4:00 Market Manager Meetup: Fundraising and Sponsorship
Let’s share ideas on how to increase our sponsorship revenue and new fundraising ideas for our markets!
4:30 – 6:00 Market Management in COVID times: Chris Quinlan, MarketWurks
Leveraging the MarketWurks online market management program to optimize your operations, data collection and reporting. Preview the newest features about to be released to make your market manager life easier. Market manager reports, new vendor profile displays, allow vendor requests for changes to their profile and more!
Chris Quinlan spent the majority of 2020 working with markets across North America, helping them deal with COVID restrictions, from the initial shutdowns to designations as essential services. Find out how some of his clients actually had to add market dates to meet the increased demands of the local food system and how MarketWurks made the pivot quite painless.