220 attend Bord Bia Open Day

Over 220 delegates attended Bord Bia’s Small Business Open Day which took place recently at the Johnstown House Hotel, Enfield, County Meath.

Now an established event in the industry calendar, this year the theme adopted was ‘Global Trends, Local Relevance’.

The day’s format consisted of a morning seminar with speakers and panel discussions. Speakers from Bord Bia, Kantar Worldpanel and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland presented the delegates with an update on the retail environment while the food and drink industry was represented on the ‘Evolving your Brand in a Digital Age’ and ‘Global Trends, Local Success’ panels providing practical and insightful commentary for the delegates.

Wicklow Wolf Brewery’s Quincey Fennelly took part in the ‘Global Trends Local Success’ panel discussion while the ‘Evolving your Brand in a Digital Age’ panel included Dungarvan Brewing Company’s Clare Dalton and this panel gave their response to a number of questions from the conference participants and via twitter.

Among them, for example, was the question ‘How frequently should I post?’ to which the panel suggested drilling your analytics on facebook and twitter to find a pattern emerging of when people are engaging most with your posts and tweets.

“For craft beer companies Friday afternoon might see more chatter and engagement whereas for health fruit juices this may be on a Monday morning,” suggested digital media consultant Lorraine Griffin, another of the panelists.

Another question asked ‘What channels work best?’.

Delegates were advised to “Go where your target audience is. Research your key demographics and the channels that they are using. Is it 18-22 year olds? Consider Snapchat. Perhaps it’s more 30-45 year old women? Try Pinterest. Are you appealing to 45 -55 year olds? Facebook might work best for you”.

Other presentations on the day included Bord Bia support and services for small food businesses in 2016 and one on ‘Artisan, Farmhouse, Traditional and Natural – The Use of these terms for marketing purposes’ from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s Wayne Anderson.

Bord Bia Insight Team’s Paula Donaghue gave a presentation on Global Trends, Local Relevance for the Irish consumer.

The afternoon breakout session saw the launch of Bord Bia’s Guide to Starting a Drinks Business in Ireland. The guide is designed to help potential entrepreneurs get the right start in this competitive premium drinks business in Ireland.