InTents: The Farmers Market Conference 2025 Schedule

More than 12,000 farmers markets operate in the US and Canada, with 250,000+ farmers, vendors, market managers and employees making a living there. Add loyal shoppers, and our voice and power multiply exponentially. Catt Fields White encourages us to use them for good.

Catt Fields White, Farmers Market Pros, San Diego CA and Philadelphia, PA

Effective advocacy can change hearts, minds and public policy. This discussion of the ways and means that market groups in California and Utah used to succeed in protecting funding, free speech and more.

Allen Moy, PCFMA; Andy Naja-Riese, Agriculture Institute of Marin; Jaclyn Pace, Utah Farmers Market Network; Martin Bourque, Ecology Center

Speed Dating: Find your camp friend, your market bestie, your mentor or mentee in this quick paced session. Previous participants report ongoing connection and support from their InTents camp buddies

Facilitated by Cara Mae Wooledge and Mimi Adams, Napa Farmer Market, California

A simple program created and managed by the Maine Federation of Farmers Markets has harnessed the power of corporate workplace wellness and employee retention programs to increase farmers market sales by hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Learn how this kind of system can generate sales income to make your farmers markets financially secure.

Jimmy DeBiasi, Maine Federation of Farmers Markets

The good news is hiring a great team member or starting a project based on grant funding. Now what happens when the grant funds run out. Think ahead about working to secure alternative funding to keep that forward motion.

Emily Lysen, Lawrence Farmers Market, Lawrence, Kansas and additional panelists

Strengthen your marketing and materials to secure and retain local business and corporate sponsorships at any level, from $100 to $10,000. Stay true to your large or small market’s mission as you generate unrestricted funding and increase your long-term financial sustainability.

Jessica Mullen, Travelers Rest Farmers Market, South Carolina

Beyond the Anti-Racists Famers Market Toolkit and changing public policy, prioritize inclusion at your market to create spaces of belonging and security for your whole beloved community.

Sagdrina Brown Jalal, SageD Consulting, Lead Facilitator Anti-Racist Farmers Market Toolkit

More than 12,000 farmers markets operate in the US and Canada, with 250,000+ farmers, vendors, market managers and employees making a living there. Add loyal shoppers, and our voice and power multiply exponentially. Catt Fields White encourages us to use them for good.

Catt Fields White, Farmers Market Pros, San Diego CA and Philadelphia, PA

The math proves that utilizing local, high quality ingredients creates product differentiation, and higher profitability. While many food makers are in a race to the bottom, standing above the fray with better ingredients and better products makes financial sense. The marketing benefits of with fellow farmers and vendors from your market benefits everyone.

Christopher Hudson, Benny Blanco Tortillas, Apache Junction, Arizona

Speed Dating: Find your camp friend, your market bestie, your mentor or mentee in this quick paced session. Previous participants report ongoing connection and support from their InTents camp buddies

Facilitated by Cara Mae Wooledge and Mimi Adams, Napa Farmer Market, California

What can we answer to make the conference better for you?

For maximum return on your farmers market efforts, visual merchandising, table space and presentation hold the key to attracting and maintaining customers and increasing sales. Ben will demonstrate and discuss the finer points of positioning your tables and displaying product for efficiency and profit.

Ben Wenk, Three Springs Fruit Farm, Aspers, Pennsylvania

Do more income streams via adding more markets, wholesale sales or adding online platforms mean more profit? Maybe. Join the conversation with experienced vendors and food business consultants before you make your decision.

Maya Madsen, Maya’s Cookies; Sarah Delevan, The Good Food CFO; Sarah Marshall, Marshall’s Haute Sauce and The Meaningful Marketplace

Help them help you. Whether you have a big following on social media and a big email list, or are just starting out at farmers markets, cooperative marketing can amplify your efforts. Learn how easy changes to the way you post, tag and link can increase your visibility and your sales.

The product you throw away as you trim vegetables or toss unsold baked goods after the farmers market could be a valuable source of additional sales and profits. Learn tips from farmers and chefs to add value and profit margin with simple recipes and packaging tips.

Gary Ware

With social media algorithms and best practices changing daily, how do you market your farmers market? Find new reach with good old email newsletters. Determine the best platform and frequency, keep building and expanding a contact list that you own, and build in calls to action. Learn from an expert here. 

Erika Tebbens Consulting, Ypsilanti, Michigan

Discover the results of nationally representative survey and social media data collected to inform strategic marketing insights for farmers market managers. Including responses from historically underrepresented groups, the survey examined participation, motivations for and barriers to attendance, and benefits and experiences provided and options that would increase market attendance. Up next: using this data and your input to produce a Farmers Market Communication Toolkit

Meet Bret in the Resource Lounge for a Lunchbox Session today

Bret Shaw, University of Wisconsin Madison

Gain tools and tips to create informed and engaged farmers market consumers with minimal budgets or significant ones. Learn the basics of converting longer videos to short form YouTube and social media posts. The team from this grant funded study that filmed on farms and at markets will share how to determine whether various video approaches translate to actual market shoppers

Chris Ball, Johanna Klaiman, Vanessa Parham; Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association

Meet at the Main Stage for meet-up updates, then move on to your chosen Workshop

Farmers Market managers will learn the power and leverage to be gained by participating in regional statewide and national surveys of farmers markets. This hand on workshop will guide you in using published survey data to develop, enhance and frame the messaging that will obtain the support you need for your market.

Amanda Shreve, Jenny Radon; MIFMA: Michigan Farmers Market Association

How do you verify that your producers are selling what they grow, bake or make? This workshop’s leaders will share their guide to planning farm visits that create deep connections with the growers of your food. Use compelling content gained from visits to strengthen community ties, encourage repeat visits, and support the local ecosystem with effective calls to action that inspire customers, leading to increased foot traffic and vendor success.

Melissa Maltais, BC Association of Farmers Markets, Vancouver, BC; Meghan Railton, The Collective Markets, Vancouver, BC

Using Enneagram Insights to Transform Markets: This interactive workshop will help market managers identify individual leadership styles and tendencies. Learn how to concentrate your talents, navigate challenges, and apply these insights to foster a harmonious market environment and do your best work.

Limited to 35 attendees. Participants must agree to complete pre-session Enneagram assessments to enhance the learning experience. Sagdrina Jalal

Sagdrina Brown Jalal, Founder, SageD Collective

This wide open workshop will offer market operators and vendors a chance to discuss ways to make markets more profitable and enjoyable for all. Submit your bright idea in advance, and be willing to present and discuss it with other participants. Five ideas will be chosen and brainstormed.

Join this panel of operators from urban and rural areas to discuss varied consignment and cooperative table options. Programs created at farmers markets across the state of Louisiana grow farmer participation and access to markets with a wide range of geography, size, and funding support.

Explore urban vs rural vendor recruitment, operational design, market regulations, farmer responses, and lessons learned in pricing, fees, nutrition access programs, and more. Resources and tools will be provided for developing similar systems in your own market community.

Stacy Hall, Market Umbrella, New Orleans, LA; Nicole Ryane Johnson, Fightingville Fresh Market, Lafayette, LA; Erica Sage Johnson, SPROUT Truck Farm, New Orleans, LA; Iriel Edwards, Louisiana Central, Alexandria, LA

If you build a farmers market, will they come? Starting a market in an area with demand for fresh food but few farmers requires thinking outside the box. In Navajo County, Arizona, outreach, training programs, small business support and the first nutrition incentive program in the area built a dedicated base of vendors and shoppers. In Colorado, teaching urban neighbors to grow enough for their families and a bit more to sell encourages better nutrition and a growing market.

Discover creative ways to grow a market where it’s really needed.

Laurie LaShomb and Samantha Crisp, Mother Road Farmers Market, Winslow, AZ; James Grevious, Rebel Marketplace, Aurora, CO

Municipal relationships are critical to farmers markets' success, providing public space for markets (or making them move), approving, permitting (or restricting) market operations, acting as as a market cheerleader (or getting in the way), providing funds (or charging fees). Nationally, farmers markets exist in an unclear space in municipal laws, including ordinances and zoning, leaving interpretation to given municipal staffers or policy makers that change over time.

Learn how to look up your own ordinances, zoning and master plans. Consider how to advocate for policy change and inclusion to give markets more clarity and a voice in the civic conversation.

Amanda Maria Edmonds, Beehive Strategies, Ypsilanti, MI

What are the tools available for hardening market streets from vehicles, dealing with wind and heat, and communicating with vendors and shoppers in an emergency? See what new innovations can help farmers markets cope.

Cara Mae Wooledge: Napa Farmers Market; John Joly: Meridian Rapid Defense Group

Our job is weird, our industry is complicated and yet, our communities want more farmers markets and their effect on small farmers’ financial sustainability is significant. Are you ready to launch another market? Hear the good, the bad and the ugly from an operation that opened 3 new markets in 2024. Consider partnerships, site assessments, customer availability, Organizational readiness, vendor capacity and more and take away a checklist to help analyze if it’s your right time to expand.

If you’re doing it right, farmers markets don’t just happen.

Natalie Labejof, Farm Habit, Orange County, California

Some farmers market association leaders and market operators are sure that digital processing will replace tokens and scrip for SNAP, FMNP and Senior incentives, moving EBT out of the Info Booth and into farmers’ tents. Other haven’t heard a thing about those changes, with messaging inconsistent. Everyone has an opinion. Let’s discuss where we are and where we’re going, and hear from market professionals who’ve tried the new systems about the benefits and the concerns.

Jaime Hadji, Ohio Farmers Market Network, Columbus, OH; Maggie Switzer, Larimer Country Farmers Market, Ft Collins, CO.

Taking incentive innovation into their own hands, the Lawrence Farmers Market introduced Double Up Protein Bucks in 2024, mirroring matching programs for SNAP recipients that typically specify fruit and vegetable purchases. With skyrocketing meat and eggs prices due to various issues, the new program creates the ability for the most vulnerable customers to purchase local protein options while also sustaining local meat producers. Learn how this offering tripled the SNAP customer base while supporting local producers of meat and plant-based proteins.

Learn how new tokens can help shoppers and vendors alike; ways to fund a new program and how to educate customers and producers about different programs.

Emily Lysen, Lawrence Farmers Market, Lawrence, Kansas