GUIDEPOSTS
They’re standing-room only, virtually every time. Whether you’re in Alberta or maybe in Ontario, wherever local-food organizers put on speed-dating events, they’re jam-packed.
Even better, the mix of “girls and boys” is exactly what farmers want, with eager food buyers outnumbering the farmers often by three to one, and sometimes more.
Marlene Abrams of Alberta Agriculture hosted a speed-dating meeting in Edmonton last year that amazed her by attracting a crowd of 70 farmers and chefs. By the time she got to Calgary last winter, the electricity had spread and the crowd had swollen to 115, with the farmers surrounded by a crowd of chefs plus food buyers from major caterers and convention centres.
Read Also
Encouraging people from outside agriculture to come on in
In part three of our Making the Future series, Country Guide spoke with Emily McGovern from South Surrey, B.C. (Read…
Also this winter but half a continent to the east, Kate Vsetula at the Guelph Wellington Local Food Initiative in Ontario held her first local-food speed dating event and was swarmed with a crowd of 100, far beyond what she had anticipated.
“It was really buzzing,” Vsetula says of the restaurant where they met. “I could hardly believe it. It was a raging success.”
In a world where farmers have trouble capturing the attention of non-farmers, how can you explain speed dating venues that are attracting almost more non-farmers than they can handle?
“If you need proof that local food is more than a trend, this is it,” Vsetula says. “Local food is now. This is a huge opportunity.”
Nicola Irving attended Abrams’ speed-dating event at Edmonton and walked away with several local-food connections that have led to sales, including a contact that is now seeing her supply the Shaw Convention Centre in the city.
“It works,” says Irving, who runs Irving Farm Fresh Meats with husband Alan at nearby Round Hills. “It takes a certain kind of person — you have to be willing to lead the dance — but you can be highly successful.”
“There’s more opportunity than we can even think about meeting,” Irving says.
In Ontario, Ryan and Romy Schill thought they were through with the dating scene when they married in the summer of 2008, but since taking over their family farm they’ve focused on finding alternative markets for their beef, lamb and chicken.
The Schills own Circle R Livestock in Wallenstein, Ont. and attended Vsetula’s inaugural “Speed dating for farmers” food networking event in Guelph.
As in Alberta, the objective of the event was to create more marketing opportunities that would put local food to consumers. Vsetula and Abrams agree that the greatest challenge facing the local food market is the lack of a defined distribution network.
So Vsetula encouraged farmers to bring brochures, price lists and business cards to display on their allotted table. The Schills went one better, building an additional marketing tool for the event by creating a photo album of their farm and livestock.
Ryan believes the photo album helped initiate con-
A Checklist For Your Speed-Dating Event
Speed dating works, say Alberta’s Marlene Abrams and Ontario’s Kate Vsetula, but the two organizers agree that the events work even better when organizers get the details right. Here are their top tips.
Get the word out. Talk to food writers with local media and find angles that will encourage them to write about your event. Chefs will start calling
Allow five minutes for producers and chefs to connect. That’s enough time to decide if they should meet again, but not so long that they’ll feel they’re wasting their time if they find there isn’t a good fit
Consider starting the session with lunch and a speaker or two who can help the daters find ways to build bridges
Provide enough space. Some farmers will bring food samples, and some will bring hand-outs or displays
Be prepared to float among the sessions and help start conversations that seem to be lagging. Don’t assume farmers and chefs will always be able to get on the same wavelength without a bit of help, but don’t hover
Push farmers to be the “pusher” in the relationship — they should do the follow-up calls or arrange future meetings. Also push them to bring support materials, such as sell sheets, price lists and photographs of the farm
Be aware of timing. Monday is often the best day for chefs, farming has seasonal highs and lows and tours should be ideally scheduled when the product is in season
Do an exit survey. Have attendees fill out a feedback survey so you can continue improving
versation while offering potential customers a glimpse of their operation. In practice, the album turned into a valuable visual aid too, helping him tell their farm story.
“We wanted to get our foot in the door — any-one’s door — to offer our products,” says Schill. “Without the local-food event we wouldn’t have known where to start.”
The Schills plan to follow up the sales leads they developed through the event. They will also be added to the 2009 edition of the Buy Local, Buy Fresh map and are looking forward to opening their barn doors for the 2009 Rural Romp Food Tour.
For farmers, the motivation to speed date is the same as it is for the lovelorn in the city. It’s how do you meet the people who might be looking for you.
Sitting back and waiting for someone to call doesn’t cut it, Abrams says. “It doesn’t matter how good your product is if nobody knows you’re producing it.”
Also inadequate is getting your name on the kind of list of potential local-food suppliers that many regions and government groups put together. They help, Abrams says. But they aren’t nearly enough, given the tough realities of the restaurant, catering and food preparation businesses.
Abrams’ events are typical. Often, the session starts with a feature speaker who helps get farmers and buyers thinking about how to build bridges. Then, participants basically take numbers.
“The farmers sat in a circle around the outside, and every five minutes a bell would ring,” recalls Irving. “Then the next buyer would come and sit in front of you, and you’d have another five minutes to explain what you do, and figure out whether you might be a good match.”
Abrams says the challenge for farmers is to start thinking like a food buyer. A few minutes in a speed-dating event is often all it takes.
Chefs and food buyers not only want to know what product you produce, they need to know how the farm will deliver it, Abrams says.
The best farm speed daters tackle supply questions head on, Abrams says. They’ve learned that chefs need assurance they’ll be able to bank on consistent quality and quantity, because the one thing that chefs and caterers cannot do is change their menu at the last instant, especially if they put the farm’s name on the menu.
Chefs are also fantastically busy, Abrams says. “I remember one chef telling a farmer, ‘Hey, I work 24 hours just like you do.’”
Also critical, Abrams says, is that farmers need to know that chefs and food buyers will only buy exactly what they want. “They aren’t going to buy the whole animal,” Abrams says. “You need to show them that you understand that, and you need to work out a pricing and delivery system that makes sense for you and for them.”
Irving is hoping that distribution networks will quickly evolve, perhaps with several producers coming together to set up their own system. She also sees busi-
ness opportunities for entrepreneurs to set up distribution systems. “I tell everyone I meet that there’s this huge opportunity,” she says.
The Irvings started with just five acres and a belief that they could make traditional English-style sausages that would be clearly different in quality from the Canadian links that seemed to be the only choice for Edmonton consumers.
A couple years later, the Irvings are on 80 acres, have a small six-sow farrow-to-finish operation with heritage Berkshire pigs, and are buying pork from area producers to process into a series of sausage products (see
The Irvings are also converting a former store on their property into a 1,500-square foot processing facility, and they’re grappling with strategic decisions, such as whether they want to primarily be farmers or processors.
“There’s no way we’d ever want to be large-scale commercial pig producers,” Irving says. “We’re enjoying what we’re doing and we’re making money — not a lot of money, but we’re doing okay, and how many people in the commercial end of the pig business can say that?”
Irving sees more opportunity for others. “Even in our business, if we wanted to big enough to supply some of these buyers year-round, the business would be there waiting for us to take it on,” Irving says. “That’s how fast things are moving in local food.”
The key though, is to be able to make connections with buyers, Irving says. “You can be highly successful, but it does take a certain kind of person.”
Making the connections is equally important for chefs and food buyers who have wanted to get into local food, but haven’t known how to get started.
“Chefs were coming to us and asking where they could source locally produced products,” says Abrams, who is team lead for Dine Alberta with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.
Dine Alberta began in 2003 as a month-long celebration focused on marketing local food to consumers, although it has since evolved to become a year-round integrated marketing initiative linking farmers and chefs in the Calgary and Edmonton areas.
Speed dating has been one of the best ways for farmers and chefs to connect, Abrams says. With only five minutes to become familiar with each other, each “potential couple” must distinguish what foods can be offered and what foods might be needed.
Throughout her match-making efforts, Abrams makes it very clear that it’s the farmers’ responsibility to “lead” the dating game and follow up with potential customers.
Like Abrams, Vsetula expects speed-dating events to get even more popular, so it will make sense for farmers to refine their pitches, learning the buzzwords that will show chefs and food buyers that they understand the pressures that they work under.
“Food businesses want to be in the forefront,” Vsetula says. “Speed dating helps both of you get there.” CG
ness opportunities for entrepreneurs to set up distribution systems. “I tell everyone I meet that there’s this huge opportunity,” she says.
The Irvings started with just five acres and a belief that they could make traditional English-style sausages that would be clearly different in quality from the Canadian links that seemed to be the only choice for Edmonton consumers.
A couple years later, the Irvings are on 80 acres, have a small six-sow farrow-to-finish operation with heritage Berkshire pigs, and are buying pork from area producers to process into a series of sausage products (see www.irvingfarmfresh.com).
The Irvings are also converting a former store on their property into a 1,500-square foot processing facility, and they’re grappling with strategic decisions, such as whether they want to primarily be farmers or processors.
“There’s no way we’d ever want to be large-scale commercial pig producers,” Irving says. “We’re enjoying what we’re doing and we’re making money — not a lot of money, but we’re doing okay, and how many people in the commercial end of the pig business can say that?”
Irving sees more opportunity for others. “Even in our business, if we wanted to big enough to supply some of these buyers year-round, the business would be there waiting for us to take it on,” Irving says. “That’s how fast things are moving in local food.”
The key though, is to be able to make connections with buyers, Irving says. “You can be highly successful, but it does take a certain kind of person.”
Making the connections is equally important for chefs and food buyers who have wanted to get into local food, but haven’t known how to get started.
“Chefs were coming to us and asking where they could source locally produced products,” says Abrams, who is team lead for Dine Alberta with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.
Dine Alberta began in 2003 as a month-long celebration focused on marketing local food to consumers, although it has since evolved to become a year-round integrated marketing initiative linking farmers and chefs in the Calgary and Edmonton areas.
Speed dating has been one of the best ways for farmers and chefs to connect, Abrams says. With only five minutes to become familiar with each other, each “potential couple” must distinguish what foods can be offered and what foods might be needed.
Throughout her match-making efforts, Abrams makes it very clear that it’s the farmers’ responsibility to “lead” the dating game and follow up with potential customers.
Like Abrams, Vsetula expects speed-dating events to get even more popular, so it will make sense for farmers to refine their pitches, learning the buzzwords that will show chefs and food buyers that they understand the pressures that they work under.
“Food businesses want to be in the forefront,” Vsetula says. “Speed dating helps both of you get there.” CG
