Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention packs its virtual sessions

During the virtual Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention, Annie Miller noticed her young neighbors had food delivered daily amid the winter snowfall in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Miller, an agent with the Penn State University Cooperative Extension, was one of almost 900 attendees at the event held on their computers in their homes or offices for the first time, instead of in Hershey, Pa.

The live, online Feb. 8-11 show — and what working-from-home industry professionals saw out their windows — further solidified the digital, delivery-focused theme of the popular marketing track of education sessions at the convention.

“I don’t think they’ve left the house since the snow started to fall. They have had every meal and, crucially, groceries delivered to them,” Miller said. “And people are getting used to buying something on their phone, driving up and picking it up. I like it myself as a busy mom.”

That means every company needs to maintain some sort of web presence with at least one e-commerce channel, such as website ordering, apps, social media shops and email marketing.

Besides wholesale and retail marketing, other education session tracks focused on tree fruit, vegetable, small fruit and potato production. Many sessions had 70-80 attendees, and several had more than 100.

The convention’s registration total was about half of what it normally is, and none of the Amish and Mennonite growers could attend, said William “Bill” Troxell, who coordinated the convention’s vegetable and marketing programs while handling publicity. At the ice cream socials for each track, some people said they can’t wait to see everyone in person.

Even so, that snowy weather and time-consuming, expensive travel might’ve hindered some of the speakers and attendees from arriving at the show if it were in-person, and growers told Troxell they were looking forward to watching the recorded sessions they couldn’t watch live.

“In some cases, I believe the ability of attendees to ask questions via the chat function has prompted more questions than we would get verbally in-person,” Troxell said.

Even though the 76 virtual exhibitors were much fewer than at in-person conventions, many companies who usually buy a booth chose to do a sponsorship or advertisement on the event website, Troxell said.

For Spanish-speaking attendees, Mario Miranda Sazo of Cornell Cooperative Extension and Sergio Rosario and Silvia Rosario, cofounders and co-owners of Albion, N.Y.-based Rosario Bros., led a session focused on tree fruit.

The final day’s marketing track focused on social media.

“I find that my customers and clients get overwhelmed with what to use and how to spend their time,” said Ginger S. Myers, University of Maryland Extension marketing specialist for agriculture and food systems. “Return on investment from email marketing is double that of any other digital channel. Email is the king of social media.”