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DIRECT 2021: Behind the Scenes
153 Plays4 years ago
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast we'll be giving you a behind the scenes look on the Direct conference from the team that put it together.
Show Notes:
https://directfarmconference.com
https://www.barn2door.com/resources
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Focus on Farm Success
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the direct farm podcast, the weekly listen for farm selling direct. We'll talk about the four levers for farm success, which are quality, brand, price, and convenience. We'll hear from outside industry experts and producers like you to delight your customers, save time and to increase your direct farm sales and business. We're glad you're here.
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to the Direct Farm podcast.
Overview of Direct 2021 Farm Conference
00:00:29
Speaker
My name is Rory, your host. We've got a great conversation for you today. We recently wrapped up our Direct 2021 Farm Conference. So today we'll hear from the team who made the conference happen. I'm delighted to welcome the first team member, Rachel.
00:00:43
Speaker
Hi, I'm
Developing Conference Theme and Partnerships
00:00:44
Speaker
Rachel. I am in charge of the content and messaging at Direct 2021. For the conference this year, I really focused on kind of building out the theme with the team members. That was the first step leading into the conference. Awesome. So that a lot of what you're working on starts out months in advance before the conference. Could you maybe talk about what that's like getting started so early on when the actual project isn't until way later on?
00:01:12
Speaker
Yes, so I would say my role kicks off right away. I'm kind of the early beginning stages of direct. Again, it really starts with the theme of the conference and the messaging behind that. Like for this year, for example, the theme was grow and manage direct sales. So as soon as we nailed that down, then it was really easy to plug in, you know, who are our keynote speakers? And we were so lucky to get MailChimp and QuickBooks as official partners of the conference and then
00:01:41
Speaker
From there we were able to plug in farmers like Dan and Debbie's Creamery, Oldridge Valley, Jessica Evans from Evans Family Farms. So it was really cool to have them come on and share their own stories on how they've been able to successfully grow and manage their businesses.
00:01:59
Speaker
And then could you maybe talk about how you chose that theme, like what went into deciding on grow and manage? Here at Barn to Door, we're really about providing the software and the services to help farmers sell direct. And so when we were thinking about the software and services that we offer, it really did line up with we help farmers grow their businesses.
00:02:21
Speaker
with Barn to Door and MailChimp as an example. And so farmers are able to drive orders through their emails and we see a lot of orders. I think up to 30% of farmers' sales can be driven from their emails. So that's huge. Being able to bring on a farmer, bring on MailChimp that can talk more about how more farmers can do that was really exciting. And then from a management standpoint, we were thinking, okay, you know,
00:02:49
Speaker
you grow your business, but how are you able to manage it? What are the tools? What are the tactics farmers can use there? So we thought QuickBooks, obviously, a great, great company. They've been around forever into it. And we thought that they would just be perfect to come on and talk about the management side of your business, how to track expenses, how to manage your cash flow, all the things that, you know, are super important. People don't think about it maybe all the time. So that was kind of the process behind that.
00:03:19
Speaker
So all that kind of stuff, you're kind of taking a step back and deciding on some of these bigger topics and themes for the conference. As the conference gets closer, how does your role kind of transition into actually making sure that that all comes together to create a conference?
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, great question.
Highlights of Conference Sessions and Talks
00:03:33
Speaker
So as we narrow in on the theme and we decide who we would like to come on to speak at the conference, then my role shifts to actually planning out each of the sessions. And so I kind of go in and see, okay, how can, for example, Dan and Debbie's Creamery, they've been so successful with growing their business. What messaging, what content can we get them to share? And so building out the session step by step like that.
00:04:01
Speaker
Well, Rachel, what was maybe one of your favorite talks during the entire conference, and maybe some of your main takeaways from that talk?
00:04:08
Speaker
Oh gosh, that's a good question. I would say probably Josie's talk from Dan and Debbie's Creamery. They've grown so quickly and have really expanded their delivery service. I think it was something like in six months, they went from servicing to zip codes to I think it was 15 zip codes and they really leverage email marketing to get the word out and they've done a really good job with their branding. So I think that was the biggest takeaway for me from direct.
00:04:37
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you, Rachel. Thanks, Murray.
Rebranding Efforts and Design Innovations
00:04:44
Speaker
All right. It was great to hear from Rachel about the content side of the conference, but now we're going to go to the design side with Kyler and Joe. Could you guys both introduce yourselves?
00:04:54
Speaker
Awesome. Hi, I'm Jo. I am part of the design team. And I'm Kyler. So we just talked with Rachel about how as soon as the previous conference wraps, she pretty much gets to work right away. Could you guys maybe talk about what the first steps you guys take in terms of the design for the conference?
00:05:10
Speaker
From the last conference, we did a huge brand overhaul. So Joe and I worked, you know, for a good month or so kind of rethinking the brand and, you know, developing a whole new brand guideline and style. And that was a pretty incredible process, being able to go through that with someone else and bounce ideas off of. Awesome. And this was your first time working on a conference design together. That's correct.
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, this is my first direct conference that I've worked on, which is very exciting to also get to start with the new rebrand as well. So really working from scratch and starting over with the whole look of everything. Awesome. And then so kind of throughout the next few months, I know you guys have a ton of content to work on as we prepare for the conference. Joe, could you maybe tell people like the things you're working on as you're getting ready for the conference?
00:05:55
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. So for us, the first thing we're probably going to start doing is kind of some updates to the overall look. So anything we want to change, like deck designs, the website will get updated pretty frequently with any new announcements we have or any updates on content. And then just kind of keep working on any social posts or agendas, programs, kind of everything you might not really think is there, but we pretty much update everything before the next one.
00:06:19
Speaker
Awesome. And, Kyler, I know for you, you do a lot of the live graphics that we use during the conference, because you maybe talk about what goes into those and how that process works, getting those ready. Yeah, absolutely. Joe was talking about designing things like the agenda and decks.
00:06:34
Speaker
So for me, when I'm designing motion graphics and things that go along with to accompany the conference and kind of move the conference along throughout the day using those motion graphics, I look to the things she designed. So like I said, the agenda and decks and kind of take those elements and recycle them back into motion graphics and put movement behind them. So for instance, our logo or the arrow mark that you'll see all over the place.
00:06:59
Speaker
you know, add some movement to that to kind of help guide people throughout the day. So some of our key videos as well got animations to kind of help demonstrate things like our CEO Janelle was talking about new features. So generally animations to just guide people throughout the day, but doing that in tandem with the things that Joe created.
00:07:19
Speaker
Awesome. So I know with design, a lot of times the designs and things like that can be kind of personal for you guys. So what was your favorite thing that you put out for this conference that you were really excited about? Oh man, that's a great question. I think I personally really liked the icons that Kyler came up with, the D shape. That was kind of one of those things that when we did the rebrand, we were like, how can we change this up? Because these used to be just circles, which were really fun, but we wanted to do something a little different.
00:07:42
Speaker
And then that D shape then kind of turned into the fun D images, which then turned into really fun tabs and agendas. And everything really connects back to the Barn to Door brand through that icon. So that's super exciting to kind of see it connect to the Barn to Door website. So it's a nice little touch that I think really worked out well. Thank you guys so much for all your work on the direct conference. Everything looked amazing. Thanks for coming on the podcast today. Yeah, thank you for having us. Yeah, it was great.
00:08:12
Speaker
All right, it was great to hear from Kyler and Joe about the design aspects of the conference. Next up, we have Meet on the demand side.
Conference Promotion and Key Metrics Presentation
00:08:20
Speaker
Meet, could you introduce yourself?
00:08:22
Speaker
Hi, yeah, I meet from marketing here at Barn to Door, also part of the direct team. And I handle, you know, a bunch of the promotion, the interactive stuff you see at the conference, like mentee. And I was also fortunate enough to give a talk this time around. Yeah, you did a great job with your presentation during the conference. Cause you may be, before we get to that, talk about what goes into your job at the very early stages of the conference when we've just kind of decided on a theme.
00:08:46
Speaker
Yeah. So once the theme is laid out, we start to get speakers coming through and then it's my job to plan out the promotion for the conference and then just laying out this plan for, you know, the two, three months leading up to the conference just to get the most possible registrants and to come and attend and watch the talks. Awesome. So you did give a talk this time at the direct conference. Could you maybe talk about what that was like in terms of doing that with Cade as well as also what your talk was on?
00:09:12
Speaker
Yeah, so we talked about the five key metrics that farmers need to key in on to, you know, grow and manage their business. My job here at Barn to Door deals with a lot of analytics and data. So it's really cool to be able to kind of translate what I do on a daily basis and make it really hit home for farmers as well.
00:09:30
Speaker
The main thing that you need to know about any business is that if you're putting in all this time and effort to get this great product out to the people you want to get it to, if you can't see how effective your time and effort is through data, then you're really putting in all that effort for nothing.
00:09:46
Speaker
So being able to see, you know, if I'm doing an ad campaign, and I'm putting in all this effort, and it's not getting the returns we want, seeing that data helps me then plan out and do this differently. And then that can really help, you know, key in on what we need to do to really make sure that we're getting the most out of our efforts. And the same applies for farmers. And if you go and watch the talk, you know, we really dive in deep to what these numbers can mean. And it can really help, you know, really take your farm to the next level.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, like we've said a million times, we've never met a farmer who has extra time on their hands. So figuring out which tactics are actually working and which ones aren't so they can not spend as much time on those and then really hone in on the important ones. That's a great thing for farmers to learn about. And again, they can still see your talk on the direct farm conference website.
00:10:33
Speaker
Definitely. Yeah. It's all on the website there for your viewing pleasure. And I definitely recommend if you're trying to key in on metrics to definitely go watch that talk and you know, get the most out of it that you possibly can to help your farm business. Awesome. Well, meet. Thanks for telling us about all this. Of course. Yeah. Thanks for you.
00:10:55
Speaker
Okay. Well, it was great to hear from me about the demand side of things, but next up we have the guy who spends the most time in this room, the multimedia room. We're talking with Sebastian. Could you introduce yourself?
Video Content and Quality Assurance
00:11:06
Speaker
Yeah. Hey everybody. My name is Sebastian. I am on the multimedia team for direct here. I usually work behind the scenes, making sure everything looks and sounds the best that they can.
00:11:16
Speaker
The conference is very content based around video. So because you maybe kind of talk about early on in the process, what are the first kind of steps you take to outline how those videos are going to work and what's going to go into those.
00:11:27
Speaker
I work quite closely with Rachel and Kyler and Joe on the direct team as well, since they kind of do a lot of the early on leg work to get everything ready for direct. So once they have completed all of their tasks, they just kind of pass the baton to me and I will follow through with making sure that all the audio and the video quality for each of the presentations are at its utmost highest quality. With these conferences and it being virtual, it can go quite long.
00:11:54
Speaker
And we would like to keep it as nice and timely and neat as possible. Could you maybe talk about that and some of the setup and things that are required of you leading up to it? So during the day before the conference is usually our prep day. That's usually when we put all hands on deck. We're setting up the area. We're about to host the conference and making sure all the cameras and lights and microphones and everything are all ready to go because we do host our conferences early in the morning. So a lot of this stuff has prepared the night before.
00:12:22
Speaker
And in order to make sure that we don't have any hiccups throughout, we'll also kind of just do like a rehearsal, if you will, just to kind of make sure, you know, who's going to be sitting where and you know, who's going to be doing what during the conference and leading into the conference during the day of, we'll have our hosts come on, they'll arrive early in the morning with us and then we'll kind of get ready for the conference, get ready for the broadcast. And that's really when all the nerves are really there. And we're all anxious to get ready to start this when showtime is going to happen.
00:12:52
Speaker
Could you talk to me maybe about what was your favorite of the talks?
00:12:56
Speaker
My favorite was actually Amy and Will from Oldridge Valley. I really loved hearing their talk and even though they're living in a really rural situation, they're actually able to still make delivery and selling online work for them. Thank you for all your work on the Direct Farm Conference. I think it really did turn out great. I think farmers are going to find a lot of the talks that you've worked on to be super helpful. Well, thank you so much Sebastian for coming on and kind of giving us a peek into what your part of the Direct Team looks like. Yeah. Thanks for having me on, Rory. Appreciate it.
Podcast Conclusion and Access to Conference Videos
00:13:31
Speaker
Thanks for sticking with us through this podcast. It was so great to hear from Rachel on the content side, as well as then talking with Joe and Kyler about how visually the conference will look and feel, as well as the motion graphics that go into it, and then moving on to meet and hearing how he helps drive demand for the conference and get the word out to farmers so that they can access all these great resources and great presentations, as well as farmer success stories that are all a part of the Direct Farm Conference.
00:13:58
Speaker
We also heard from Sebastian and all the legwork that he does to put together the presentations so that it's ready to go for the day of the conference. If you missed the conference and want to access the videos for free, they're all available in the video archive at directfarmconference.com. To learn more about Barn to Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your farm, go to www.barntodoor.com slash resources. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next week.