A look at recent years' retail sales of an array of fermented products - yogurt, kombucha, pickles and other fermented vegetables, condiments, sauces, etc. - to see trends and where these products are selling.  Data comes from retail tracking by SPINS.

Hear from Johnny Drain - who works at the cutting edge of food, fermentation, design and sustainability, helping to rethink how we will feed the world of the future in a more delicious, regenerative, equitable and ecologically-friendly way - as he discusses the exciting new fermented and cultured foods that populate the "alt-universe." 

Karen, a classically trained chef, certified nutritionist, food writer, expert fermenter, has launched three crowdsourced campaigns on Kickstarter. All were successfully funded and fulfilled. And, most importantly, they were all fermentation-related projects! 

What you will learn: 

How to prepare for a crowdsourcing campaign 

Which platform to use 

Best practices for designing your launch page 

Do’s and don’ts during the campaign 

What to do after the campaign is funded 

How to leverage your campaign once you are in business 

In this session we will cover: clarifying goals, considering resources and mapping out a realistic plan that will achieve objectives and build value in your business. We’ll discuss planks in the growth platform and tie in those drivers of value creation prized by investors as well as financial and strategic buyers. The framework offered here will be valuable to both early stage companies as well as those seeking to take their business to the next level. 

This session provides insights from The Good Food Institute's Zak Weston into the dynamic alternative proteins industry and the flood of investment dollars it is attracting.

Do you want to expand your business and increase your distribution? Erica Gibson and Rodd Willis will walk through all the considerations and steps involved, highlighting not only the upside of doing so, but the risks and costs. 

Cortney Burns brings together a group of practitioners to discuss their  commitment to zero waste, and the various means - including upcycling - they use to achieve that goal.

Cortney Burns collects expertise from a panel that has developed creative and effective means of interacting with farmers. They will discuss these activities along with their link to regenerative agriculture, reduced waste, and improved farm performance.

As things currently stand in the food manufacturing world, producing an innovative fermented food or beverage at commercial scale requires staggering (and often prohibitive) amounts of money and time. In this session, we'll dive into the challenges facing new food fermenters and discuss possible solutions for how to ease the path to scale.