This Spring, we turned our day-long, in-person MarketReady Producer Training into a virtual learning experience. The virtual learning experience was well-received. We had 49 producers participate in our virtual training and 48 producers participate in the follow-up advanced topic sessions. The MarketReady Producer Training educates producers interested in retail, grocery, farm to school, wholesale, etc. sales. The advanced topic follow-up sessions serve as deeper dives into some of the material covered in the initial producer training. We have already received interest in upcoming Market Ready trainings.

Our move to virtual was an opportunity to potentially reach a larger crowd of producers because of the flexibility virtual training provides. We were also able to offer our training free-of-charge because we didn’t have to rent space or provide lunch. This might lead to a hybrid training platform in the future.