FruitGrowerConnect: The Idea Exchange

Mealtime at FruitGrowerConnect is a great time for networking and sharing with your fellow growers what you've learned. (Photo credit: Rosemary Gordon)

Mealtime at FruitGrowerConnect is a great time for networking and sharing with your fellow growers what you’ve learned. (Photo credit: Rosemary Gordon)

Twenty fruit growers gathered along with supplier operations at the beautiful Hyatt Centric Park City in the breathtaking mountains of Utah this past week for a unique opportunity for their businesses: FruitGrowerConnect.

This annual event brings together some of the most progressive tree fruit, grape, and nut growers in the Western U.S. with suppliers and product solutions ranging from crop protection and nutrition to irrigation and nursery stock.

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In advance of the event, each grower attendee took part in an in-depth interview to identify his or her most pressing needs and upcoming projects. Suppliers were recruited in categories that could offer solutions to those problems.

The result was two full days of private, 50-minute, decision maker-to-decision maker meetings between growers and vendors.

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The event provided an efficient environment for discussions, free from the day-to-day distractions on the farm. Both the growers and the vendors decided in advance who they wanted to meet with, eliminating time wasted on meetings that weren’t a good fit for each.

Nonetheless, Tim Welsh, Tree Fruit and Variety Manager for Columbia Fruit Packers, Inc. in Wenatchee, WA, said he was a little leery at first about the concept.

“I was kind of a skeptic coming in,” said the first-time attendee. “It’s been an event that I’ve been surprised a little bit about because I was uncertain I would enjoy it as much and connect as much I would, and ultimately I have connected with some very good vendors.”

Jeff Leonardini, IPM Manager for Washington Fruit & Produce Co. of Yakima, WA, had attended FruitGrowerConnect before, so he had a better idea of what to expect. He was not disappointed.

“The quality of the suppliers I met this week were outstanding. I did not know 50% of the suppliers,” he said. “It’s a wonderful experience to meet new people with new ideas, new materials and new technologies.”

Never underestimate the value of a good idea, said Leonardini, an American Fruit Grower® and Western Fruit Grower® Apple Grower of the YearSM, and FruitGrowerConnect is a great place to find them.

“I have the opportunity to connect with new potential valuable business partners who have new ideas that can help us grow, maximize our production, and be stewards of the land,” he said.

In addition to the private meetings, growers and vendors also had numerous opportunities during meals, receptions, and breaks throughout the day for informal discussions that also lead to solutions.

Welsh found the back-and-forth invaluable.

“I would just say there’s an opportunity to learn,” he said, “and when you get an opportunity to learn, take advantage of it.”

Gorgeous views are found in every direction at FruitGrowerConnect, held at the Hyatt Centric Park City in Utah. (Photo credit: David Eddy)

Gorgeous views are found in every direction at FruitGrowerConnect, held at the Hyatt Centric Park City in Utah. (Photo credit: David Eddy)

 

Issues That Impact All

While the one-on-one meetings were the primary focus of the week, the event kicks off with a growers-only roundtable in which each tossed out a short list of pressing challenges they were facing with their businesses and their peers in the room shared how they have handled similar issues in their own operations.

“It’s a really nice opportunity to hear other people talk and share their concerns, which often are the same issues are yours, said Leonardini about the roundtable. “You also pick up nice information from other growers that have dealt with this (issue) maybe before you have, maybe on a larger scale, maybe smaller, but you gain a good education, experience, and value from people that are in the same business as yours.”

Welsh agreed that networking with other growers holds tremendous value. “It’s about talking to people who are doing what you’re doing,” he said, “but finding better ways of doing it.”

 

Supplier Significance

Like the growers, suppliers also mentioned the benefit of relationship building.

A first time supplier attending FruitGrowerConnect, Don Lester of Vestaron Corp. discussed his company’s plan to launch a biopesticide either late 2017 or early 2018 that will target lepidopteran pests. Called Spear-C, the product is based on a component of spider venom and is designed for use on both fruit and vegetable crops.

Lester, the company’s Vice President of Product Development, said the Connect is “a good venue to meet influential growers to get us on their radar for future products and get them on board to be early adopters [of Spear-C].”

The highlight of the event for Lester was that several of the growers he met with were willing to conduct demonstration trials in their fields.

What is Lester’s advice to suppliers thinking about taking part in the Connects?

“If you are looking for visibility and exposure to influential growers, coming to the Connect will be a good move for you,” he said. “Our company is very happy with this concept and the results.”

Like Lester, Bobby Mitra of Evonik, the supplier of Stockosorb, a water-absorbing crystal or hydrogel, said attending the Connect is an effective way to get in touch with the decision makers from growing operations. His goal is to have the growers he met with at the Connect trial the product.

“For the growers, it is a chance for them to learn about our product, which helps with better water management and better use of water,” he said.

The 2017 FruitGrowerConnect — which already has a number of growers registered to attend — will again take place in Park City, Utah. An event for growers in the Eastern U.S., SoutheastGrowerConnect, will be held February 7 – 10, 2017 at the Legacy Lodge at Lanier Island in Buford, GA.

 

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