Part 2 — Reimagining industry engagement

Part two of Tom Karst's interview with Amanda Griffin, vice president of education and program management for the United Fresh Produce Association about the association’s Reimagine Conversations programming in June.

The Packer: The lack of shows has affected people’s ability to talk about new products, hasn’t it? And I was just talking to somebody this morning about that. And in Europe, it’s even less of a clear runway ahead than it is in the US. At least there’s pretty good hope that things are going to get opened up a little bit now in the U.S.

Griffin: I think I think personally, we’re all ready. It’s just when it when you can get the approval and the openings of the cities. And I think we’re heading that way with the announcement of about no masks for those that have been vaccinated. That’s a big step.

The Packer: Describe the types of sessions available in Reimagined Conversations.

Griffin: We have a food safety track, we’ve got a marketing track, or marketing as key to increasing sales. we have a Produce 101 track, an orientation to the fresh produce supply chain. Essentially, that’s going to take participants on the produce supply chain journey and that’s meant to broaden folk’s horizon. It is not necessarily meant for young professionals per se, but folks who may be newer to the industry, where their companies want to broaden their scope to know how things happen from soup to nuts.
And so that was a new idea that we’ve heard some interest from a membership to bring forth. Then you’ve got the top-to-top retail and foodservice dialogue, which will have sessions that range from technology and innovation. And then we’ll have an industry leaders panel that Tom Stenzel is going to moderate. And we’ll have representatives from the top across the supply chain looking ahead, to have that crystal ball approach.

The other track is overcoming supply chain challenges to profitability. And we’re going to focus a lot on that worker safety requirements, the post-harvest workforce and labor shortages. So that post-harvest labor piece, and whole chain management technology and some innovation sessions.

The Packer: What kind of feedback have you heard from your members?

Griffin: Reimagine Conversations t seems to be resonating. Again, throughout this entire year with the convention last year, the Washington Conference, the re-Fresh experience in the month of January and then moving BrandStorm into the virtual sphere, we’ve received a lot of feedback on that education, on the ebb and flow of those sessions to make sure they stay relevant. We are receiving some positive feedback on that, and it is fitting into the nugget of what they already know that United delivers. So that’s exciting. It’s a testament to the hard work to get to this point. And now we just need to fill the rooms virtually. people are coming, they’re signing up, it’s just a matter of us getting the word out to everybody.

The Packer: What have you learned in the process of doing virtual events over the past year?

Griffin: There is a whole new audience that organizations can reach throughout the year. Even when you add back in-person events, if you have the staff power to be able to thread in both virtual and in-person, I think we figured out a way to engage a group that we weren’t engaging before without taking away from the in-person experiences that can come back. I fully believe that this year allow folks to rethink, flip it over, rethink what you’re offering, not only on the structure, because obviously now it’s virtual, but on the content piece. So is the content actually relevant because people are dialing in solely for that content. it really causes to think through what folks wanted to hear, what they’re showing up for. And then the surprises, obviously, you’ve got the breakout rooms and the interaction pieces we just talked about. But I firmly believe it and now, actually, it’s very exciting with the merger, the new association information is out there, we will have more staff to be able to really focus on what I said, which is thread together all of it, and how we piece it together to have a full offering (to) reach folks more globally, like PMA does. It will be exciting to see how we can lay out the offerings now that we’ll be able to get back to being in person. But now we have this whole new bit of knowledge on how to engage with folks properly in the remote environment. Assuming that you have got the staff power to do it, it is very exciting.

Part 2 — Reimagining industry engagement

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