Over the 10 years that MarketReady has been offered to producers in Kentucky, it has always been an in-person, face-to-face event. In 2020, the program was unable to be held because of COVID-19 precautions. In 2021, Emily Spencer, Savannah Columbia, and Tim Woods adapted the MArket Ready curriculum to better fit in an online delivery format.

The typical MarketReady training lasts a full day- around 6 hours. To adapt the training for online, the program was broken up into a Core Training- highlighting the core principles that producers need to know when considering taking their product to commercial markets. This Core Training was held at 3 different times- one during lunch hour, one in the evening, and one on a Saturday, to best meet the needs of as many producers as possible. The training was limited to 30 registrants each, to leave space for interaction throughout and questions at the end. 

Following the Core Trainings, the program was broken down into hour long sessions featuring  variety of panelists from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the Kentucky Horticulture Council, the Kentucky Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (KCARD), among various other community experts. These sessions were called Advanced Topic sessions and featured an in-depth look into a specific topic.Producers were able to pick and choose which sessions they wanted to attend based on their business needs.

The topics included:

Insurance & Communication

Marketing

Packaging & Labeling

Logistics & Distribution

Quality Assurance