On November 12th five Co-op representatives were able to attend the annual Small & Strong Conference in Bloomington, MN. Read more about the day below.
The Small and Strong Conference, offered by the Northcountry Cooperative Foundation, is an annual conference that provides support and training for small food co-ops in the upper Midwest. This event, in its second year, features topics and presenters that are beneficial to both start-up and existing stores.
One of the first sessions discussed timeline tools that are helpful to start-ups when they’re organizing their path to opening the doors. This tool helps to organize all the big events while making sure no details fall through the cracks. It can be used by all teams so that everyone is aware of the big picture and which goals are currently being worked towards. Another session featured a case study of the Bisman Food Co-op. Hearing the experiences of other Co-ops is one great perk to attending the conferences and helps us ensure that we are learning from each other how to best succeed. Other sessions that were attended included “Creating a Marketing Strategy Roadmap,” “Financing Fundamentals,” and “Zero to 900 in Five Years Flat: Membership Campaigns for the Long Haul.” Every session offered had an amazing amount of useful information and provided us an excellent opportunity to learn from other co-op organizers.
We are very fortunate to have such amazing resources nearby and being able to meet with an amazing array of co-op professionals and enthusiasts. As we move into the next stage of our development we plan to put all that we learned into action to bring you the best co-op for our community