If you have an idea rolling around in your head for a new food business of nearly any sort in Michigan’s Great Southwest, there’s a major conference next week at Michigan State University designed specifically with you and people just like you in mind.
For a full decade now the Michigan State University Product Center has been creating opportunity for Michigan food service and food product entrepreneurs and accelerating the pace of innovation in the Great Lakes State.
The reason next week is critical to foodie entrepreneurs is the arrival of the 10th Annual Making It In Michigan Conference for both new and established dreamers and registration is currently underway. On top of all of the great ideas rambling around on the conference floor, the milestone event will celebrate a full decade of creating opportunity and accelerating innovation.
The 2017 Making It In Michigan Conference is slated to be held on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at the Lansing Center in Lansing, with topics ranging from finance to nutrition, from photography and marketing to working with distributors and beyond.
If, in fact, you have an idea for a food business, it will be your opportunity to interact with the Michigan State University Product Center Team and other thriving Michigan food businesses to learn how to make your idea a viable reality.
If, on the other hand, you already have a product developed and need distribution channels, you have the option to exhibit your product in front of hundreds of key Michigan food and agricultural buyers at the Marketplace trade show that day.
Even if you simply want to learn more about making your business more efficient and profitable, the one-day event features morning and afternoon educational sessions that will concentrate on different business strategies that cover the following:
- Determining when, why and how to work with a distributor
- Understanding the difference in retailers to garner more product sales
- Marketing to Millennials
- Mastering food photography for product promotion
- Learning more about Social Entrepreneurship in Agri-food industry and how your business can create change
- Identifying what you need to know about the new FDA 2016 Nutrition Facts
- Exploring your options for business financing from tradition to equity resources
- Managing product costing templates and other related business costs
- Preparing for sound record keeping
- Understanding how the new MSU Food Processing and Innovation Center can help your processing and production needs
This Year’s Keynote Speaker is Howdy Holmes, Chief Executive Officer and President of Chelsea Milling, makers of the ubiquitous Jiffy Mix product line.
Additionally, the Marketplace Trade Show is expected to draw over 100 vendors of Michigan products, many of whom are clients of Michigan State University Extension and the MSU Product Center.
If you’re serious about going…act quickly because the registration fee goes up on Friday.
Click the link for registration information and additional details:
