The Grower Meeting Planner

Every year the show calendar fills up. You pay for the booth, haul a machine or two, and stand on concrete for three days. Growers walk the aisles with a tote bag and a stack of brochures, and your name is one of hundreds on the floor.

Trade events still have their place. They're where the industry gathers, where growers see what's new, and where you catch up with people you only see once a year. I'm not telling you to skip them.

But I think the real value for a local dealer is moving closer to home. It's in smaller, local events that you host yourself. The grower meeting is the best of them.

Your list. Your room. Your message.

A grower meeting is different from a booth in three ways.

Your list. You decide who's invited. Every name in the room is someone you can call next week.

Your room. There's no booth next door competing for attention. For one evening, the growers in that room are there to hear from you.

Your message. You choose the topic, you ask for one next step, and your name is first on the invitation, the sign by the road, and the name tags.

It also works both ways. You'll hear what's on growers' minds, and the best questions usually come from the neighbors in the next chair.

What a good grower meeting looks like

It doesn't need to be big. A dozen growers in your shop with a hot supper and a straight conversation can do more than a week at a show. A few things make the difference:

• One goal, one topic, one next step. Decide what has to be true after the meeting, and ask for one thing before anyone leaves.
• Pick the date around the farm year. Stay clear of planting and harvest. Evenings after chores tend to draw better, and a meal helps.
• Invite people personally. A mailed card or a flyer is a start. A text or a call from someone they know is what fills the room.
• Sign everyone in at the door. The list is the payoff. A door prize drawn from the sign-in sheet gets everyone to sign.
• Follow up within a week. Thank everyone who came, and call everyone who asked for a call while the evening is still fresh.

“A dozen growers in your shop with a hot supper and a straight conversation can do more than a week at a show.”

What's in the planner

I put together a free planner so you can run one without starting from scratch. Print it, fill it in, and hand it to whoever owns the event.

• Plan it. One page to set the goal, the audience, the topic, the next step, the date, the place, the food, and the budget.
• Countdown checklist. What to do at six weeks, four weeks, two weeks, one week, the day of, and the week after, with a spot to assign who does what.
• Run of show. A sample 90-minute evening and a day-of setup list.
• Sign-in sheet. A clean page your growers will see, ready to set on the table by the door.
• What to say. Fill-in-the-blank wording for the invitation, the invite and reminder texts, the thank-you, and the follow-up call, plus a short debrief for afterward.

Start with one

You don't need a full calendar of events. Pick one topic your growers care about, pick a night that works around the season, and invite the people you'd most like to see in the room. Then do it again next year, a little better.

Download the planner, and if you'd like help shaping the topic or the invitation, send me a note.