Who should attend? Any founder and/or leadership team – with clarity that grocery retail is a channel you already have a focus on – or you know you want to pursue. A desire to truly understand this complex channel and have the baseline resources to successfully execute.

This workshop IS for you IF:

· You are focused on building brick & mortar retail sales

· You know that the grocery natural channel is a the right fit for your brand – with a specific emphasis on the natural channel

· You want to up your game – your understanding – your proficiency of/in retail management

· You want a velocity strategy that will increase your odds of successful distributor slotting and retailer placement

· You've got a few retail accounts already and want more

· You feel like you're mostly responding to opportunities vs actively going after strategic opportunities

· You want to manage your business like a boss

· You want to be in the 'know' so you can speak to retailers, brokers and distributors like an industry insider.

Tools you'll leave with:

• Retailer Roadmap - excel grid of all grocery accounts across the US, including channel segmentation, location, number of stores, and primary distributor partner

• Templates:

• Account Tracker

• Master presentation deck

• Sell sheets

• Spec sheet

• Retail incentives

• Annual promo plan

Join us for an exclusive tour of Northern Diversified Solutions​, a leading hemp facility, where you'll get an inside look at their innovative processes and sustainable practices. Learn about the latest advancements in hemp ingredient production and explore how this versatile plant is transforming industries. Register now for this insightful event and secure your spot to gain valuable insights into the future of hemp!

Spaces are limited. If you register and can no longer attend, please email mcdo0777@umn.edu to relinquish your spot and refund your ticket.

Are you heading to Expo West?! Then join us for our 5th annual Minnesota Mingle! This is an opportunity to meet and connect with Minnesota's growing food startup and innovation community including founders, industry leaders, investors, retailers, and more. We encourage our Minnesota "ex-pats" to attend.

This year we will be gathering on the 2nd-floor balcony outside the MN Alley in the North Hall from 4-6 pm on Wednesday, 3/13. We are excited to offer everyone a break from the salty snacks intake and enjoy some heavier bites and beverages to send you off into the evening. A huge thanks to our sponsor for the event, the MN Department of Ag. Hosted appetizers and one complimentary drink per guest will be provided courtesy of them!

Are you an entrepreneur looking to explore more options for funding your business? Dive into this capital access education workshop that will cover the wide array of funding options that are appropriate for each stage of a company, from pre-revenue to over $1 Million. You'll have the chance to learn from industry experts, connect with local financing leaders, and take the next step to growing your natural product, tech, or agriculture-based business.

Join us on January 26th at FINNOVATION Lab and learn what it takes to raise capital and prepare yourself for success in 2024 and beyond.

Close out Food, Ag, Ideas Week by joining us at Amsterdam Bar & Hall for our annual Crash the Networks Happy Hour. This is a chance to network with folks from across the ecosystem and forge deeper connections. Additionally, we will giving out our inaugural Naturally MN 5 P's of Progress Awards. These awards recognize companies and individuals who have demonstrated exemplary leadership in the 5 P's - People, Planet, Prosperity, Passion, and Purpose, and are nominated by the community. We are excited to keep building a community of action, collaboration, and support. Join us for this finale and celebration!

Looking to nominate a brand for a Progress Award? Click Here

If you're a non-food founder join us for the multiphase session all about the beauty and body care industry. We'll kick off with What Founders Need to Know Now - the old DTC model is worn down. Here's how to succeed in a competitive market. We'll then open up to an AMA session with experts where you can ask questions around building a business in this category. Finally, our Experts will have info tables setup and you can wander around during HH to have 1:1 conversations or share contact info. Complimentary wine and refreshments will be available after the panel concludes to continue the networking.

Regenerative agriculture is no doubt a hot topic in CPG, but what does it really mean? Join Lil Bucks and Mad Agriculture on a lush field day visit to their partner farm, A Frame Farm, a Regenerative Organic Certified farm where farmers Luke and Ali Peterson have been trailblazing in the sustainable farming movement for decades.

Experience firsthand regenerative farming's positive impact on A Frame's buzzing ecosystem and the food you eat, first with an educational farm tour, where you'll see how a regenerative farm's soil compares directly to conventionally farmed soil. You'll see buckwheat fields growing for Lil Bucks, alongside ingredients growing for other brands such as Simple Mills and Patagonia Provisions.

If seeing is believing, tasting may turn you into a full-blown regenerative food advocate! We'll follow the tour with lunch hosted by A Frame, and during lunch we'll have a panel with Lil Bucks, Mad Agriculture, and A Frame to discuss how they collaborate to bring regeneratively grown ingredients like buckwheat to grocery CPG, why they do what they do and learn from their journey together.

Join us as we celebrate the incredible women in our ecosystem at the Women in CPG: Panel and Happy Hour. This event is hosted in conjunction with the national Naturally Networks "Women in CPG Summit"​ taking place July 18-19th. In addition to their 2-days of content focusing on amplifying, educating, and celebrating females in the industry, we are thrilled to be hosting this in-person event for our local chapter at MordernWell​.

Hear from our impressive panel featuring Women Leaders, featuring: Danyel O'Connor - CEO of Cravings by Chrissy Teigen , Lee Wallace - CEO of Peace Coffee, Rita Katona - Board Chair, Chief Brand & Innovation Officer at So Good So You, and Ebony Wyatt - Vice President, North America East & West at General Mills.

Afterwards, enjoy a celebratory happy hour featuring lite bites and delicious wine by The Vine Room, and a fabulous assortment of local, women-owned, natural products!

We can't wait to see you there!

We can't wait to see you there!

It's no secret that data is critical for growing/scaling your brand and showing buyers why you deserve shelf space. However, do you know:

• When is the right time to start using data and why should you care about data?

• What do Buyers care about and how to effectively talk to Retailers using data?

• Which insights are most impactful for creating a data powered sell-in story?

• Which insights can take you to the next level in your growth journey?

If you're looking for answers to these questions, join Naturally Minnesota's member brand, So Good So You​, and Naturally Network's national sponsor, SPINS​, for a 1-hour workshop at Haberman ​on July 12th from 3-4pm, followed by a networking happy hour.

So Good So You is nationally #1 shot brand, the #4 functional beverage brand by dollars and the fastest growing brand in the category. So Good So You will share how using data has helped provide buyers and the brand with the data needed to monitor and accelerate growth. SPINS will then walk you through a short "retail data bootcamp," including sharing key examples of how to extract powerful insights for crafting a sell story that will resonate with retailers and amplify your growth.

This event is hosted by Haberman​, a full-service marketing communications agency with a 25-plus-year history of modern storytelling for media and marketing. Our mission is to tell the stories of pioneers making a difference in the world— from leaders of the good food movement and cause marketing innovators to entrepreneurs with life-changing ideas. Storytelling and business strategy unite everything we do across all channels, including branding + design, paid media, public + influencer relations, owned media, data analytics and ESG. As modern storytellers, Haberman helps organizations grow, inspire engagement and drive positive social change. www.modernstorytellers.com​.

Join Naturally Minnesota and FINNOVATION Lab to celebrate the arrival of summer and to Re(Discover) connections in the natural products startup community! For the Second Annual Summer Spree we will be exploring and celebrating the theme of Building Community.

Please join us on June 29th on the FINNEGANS patio, starting at 5 PM. Sure, there's food and beer and live music, but that's not all!

This years expanded Summer Spree event is taking place immediately following an NMN X FINNLab Community Day - Free to all Naturally Minnesota Members. To learn more and/or register for the June Community Day click here.​

The real party will be kicking off at 5pm on the ground level of FINNEGANS Brew Co. - Grab a bite to eat, listen to live music from Heart of a Tinman, and enjoy networking with founders, investors, thought leaders, and check out local founders who will be showcasing!

Join us for a spring excursion day trip to Moorhead, MN (roughly 3.5 hours west of MSP), on June 9th for an afternoon on the farm with Noreen Thomas​ of Doubting Thomas Farms. Noreen has been trailblazing in organic local farming, often focusing on heritage varieties that have caught the attention of renowned chefs, including Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barn, who sources grains from her, as well as Molly Yeh of the Food Network, and additional James Beard award winning chefs. We will begin the day with a walking tour of the farm to learn how it is integrated with the local ecosystem and natural environment. Lunch will be provided by Heart and Soul​ food truck, a nonprofit focusing on local foods. We will also hear from leaders of Farm in the Dell​, who support folks with special needs and provides job training, fulfills a local CSA, and provides food for pop-up restaurants. You will also have a chance to purchase goods from local vendors, including fresh eggs, artisan loaves of bread made from wheat from the farm you are touring, etc.

When moving your product from a commercial kitchen to larger scale production there are many things to consider, and an often overlooked topic is how do you approach scaling your formula so you maintain your product quality and consistency. You will need to work successfully within the new guardrails of the larger production cycle and there may be shifts in your sourcing, claims, ingredient deck, and more. Join us on May 31st for this Lunch 'n Learn Educational session on formula development beyond the kitchen, featuring guest speakers from Stauber Ingredients​, Becki Schwietz​ and Olivia Feilen​. They, along with Kate LaBrosse​ from Sted Chocolate​, will discuss how to formulate for your market opportunity, the timeline and what to watch out for when shifting to a larger scale, and how to manage this process so you have a smooth transition. 

Join Naturally Minnesota at FINNOVATION Lab for a day of community, learning, Member networking, and celebration on May 25! Learn about Ayurveda, an ancient Indian health system for balance and well-being from Nalini Mehta, indulge in a delicious lunch, and hear from inspiring founders Junita Flowers, Kate LaBrosse, and Certified Wellbeing Coach Jessica Horton about resilience, entrepreneurship, and mental health. End the day with a happy hour featuring Coconut Whisk! This event is FREE for Naturally MN members. Don't miss out!

Join us for a Thought Leadership session, lunch 'n learn style, where we will be joined by Perry Aasness(hyperlink LI), VP of Legislative Affairs at Compeer Financial to discuss the 2023 Farm Bill. Learn more about the key issues Congress faces, the bipartisanship required to approve it by September 30th, and what may be new or different in this year's Bill. Come armed with questions, we're excited to see how this year's legislation will continue to support our communities on farm and across the country. Prior to attending we encourage you to read the attached Farm Bill primer so we can jump right into the discussion! We will see you (virtually) on April 26th!

Check out April’s Founder Forum! The topic is raising capital with Connor Wray and we will start out the session with an exercise on what sustainability means to each founder.

Are you heading to Expo West?! Then join us for our 4th annual Minnesota Mingle! This is an opportunity to meet and connect with Minnesota's growing food startup and innovation community including founders, industry leaders, investors, retailers, and more. We encourage our Minnesota "ex-pats" to attend.

This year we will be gathering on the 2nd-floor balcony outside the MN Alley in the North Hall from 4-6 pm on Thursday, 3/9. We are excited to offer everyone a break from the heavy salty snacks intake and enjoy some heavier bites and beverages to send you off into the evening. A huge thanks to our sponsors for the event - Lazard Middle Market and the MN Department of Ag. Hosted appetizers and one complimentary drink per guest will be provided courtesy of them!

Fractional Executives are emerging as a competitive advantage for scaling start-ups to leverage c-suite level expertise in a fractional capacity to accelerate growth and keep costs down. The Twin Cities' fractional talent marketplace in Food & Beverage is growing as many professionals are looking to translate their corporate experience to make an impact in the startup world. Join fractional talent experts and founders in a discussion about how we can all work better together to create more impact for our local food & beverage ecosystem!

The panel kicks off at 3 pm with networking to follow at 4 - don't miss it!

Join Naturally Minnesota and broadhead on December 8th at broadhead HQ in the North Loop starting at 5:30 PM for a holiday happy hour featuring food, beverages + more.

Hear from plant-based leaders from the Plant Protein Innovation Center, Cargill, Puris, Wicked Kitchen, and Schwan's on what's exciting them now, what to look forward to, and where the industry is heading next!

Then, take your thought starters and your tastebuds for a journey around Minnesota's plant-based ecosystem and sample products from Wicked Kitchen, Acremade, Clo-Clo Vegan and more! Food and beverages will be provided so bring yourself and a friend, and join us in kicking off this holiday season right!

Agenda:

5:30 pm: Doors open, networking, product sampling, and food and bev offerings commence

6:30 pm: Welcome and Plant Innovation Remarks

7:00 pm: Networking and activities resume!

Are you curious to learn more about regenerative agriculture? Join Naturally MN as we celebrate the newest star in our sustainable food orbit, Tree-Range Farms. TRF is the final cog in an ecosystem built on regenerative land practices, animal health, and family farmer profitability & sustainability. The system is firmly grounded in a time-tested agriculture approach which places a premium on resiliency and measures success for the entire community. TRF CEO, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, will share his journey to create a scalable regenerative farming system capable of transforming a significant portion of the poultry industry.