The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, in partnership with the Oklahoma Local Ag Collaborative (OLAC), is hosting the 11th Annual Oklahoma Local Agriculture Summit (OKLAS) – formerly Oklahoma Farmers Market & Agritourism Conference – on January 29-31st at the Hilton Garden Inn Edmond Conference Center in Edmond, Oklahoma.
This multi-day conference will feature hands-on workshops, panel discussions, and traditional conference sessions of interest to farmers market managers, producers, community support organizations, and agritourism site managers.
Bayleigh Acosta, Engagement Manager for OLAC, was on hand to talk with Oklahoma Farm Report’s Farm Director KC Sheperd and share the details.
“It is really three days packed full of educational sessions and tours for Oklahoma producers,” Acosta said.
On Wednesday, January 29, workshops will be center stage with sessions on Innovative Growing with Langston University and Marketing workshops with expert speakers including Morgan Vance and Dr. Audrey King. A Business workshop with Dr. Lauren Cline and one-on-one business consultations with ag business managers will also be held on that day.
“We do still have a few of those appointments available at oklac.org/oklas,” Acosta shared.
She said that the marketing sessions on the first day are good for beginners because they really go in-depth. “This year, we will specifically be going through branding basics, auditing current communications efforts, leveraging digital profiles, and I’m really excited about the Heartland Regional Food Business Center session on Business Builder grants. That is a great opportunity for funding that they have set aside specifically for Oklahoma. I really recommend for producers to visit both the Innovative Growing sessions with Langston and the Marketing Sessions on that day,” she recommended.
The main summit day is on day 2 and includes more than twenty sessions for four different tracks: Market Managers, Support Organizations, Agritourism Hosts, and two rooms presenting simultaneously for Producers.
“This doubles the sessions available for producers,” Acosta said. “This is the first year we have had two rooms so we are really excited to get more sessions for local farmers and producers. Then, we will also have our keynote session with Jill Ragan of The Whispering Willow Farm in Arkansas. We are super excited for that. She will be talking about navigating the hard times of farming and how to get through it.”
OKLAS Awards will also be presented on day 2 and promises to be a great event for those in attendance.
Day 3 is when the Farm Tours are happening. One tour will visit agritourism venues and the other will be going to innovative farms in Central Oklahoma. The tours will run simultaneously.
“There are still some spots available for the agritourism tour, and people can visit the link I mentioned earlier to register for those,” Acosta noted.
Personally, Acosta is most excited about the Scaling for Wholesale Producer Track, presented by Renaldo Lemons & Rachel Kretchmar, and Selling to New Markets with Group Gap, presented by Ravi Jadeja & Taryn DeWitt.
“This is a great opportunity for producers who have started to scale up to wholesale to get involved in a Group GAP, or Good Agricultural Practices, where only a few farms are audited out of the total number,” she explained. “This is an opportunity we have going on through OLAC right now and I definitely recommend going to that one.”
She is also looking forward to the Microirrigation & Water Conservation Session, presented by Travis Godeaux at the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Small Scale Mushroom Farming, presented by Jacob DeVecchio, also promises to be an interesting session.
While registration for the event is sold out online, walk-up registration opportunities will still be available in the main lobby; however, lunch is not guaranteed for walk-ups. Membership to OLAC is available on the website which will help interested individuals stay informed throughout the year. To read more about the conference and see the schedule, click here:
