NOTE: Change of date due to COVID restrictions. Now Wednesday August 4th

Background

Telling your story is critical for any successful business. Telling it well is about being yourself; about communicating your authentic self and doing so in a genuine way. It’s not simply having a logo or an elevator pitch; but is the layered way you express the essence of your business in an honest and consistent way to connect with new and existing customers.

In fact, storytelling is key to building that connection with consumers which allows them to understand who you are and how you came to be producing what you do. Storytelling creates meaning.

Sounds easy, but we are not all communication experts and it can be a bit uncomfortable talking about ourselves. Sometimes it helps to have an expert to guide us through a process to come up with something that resonates deeply with us.

Building our regional food provenance

NRF are running this workshop at subsidised rates to help our local food & beverage community develop their unique authentic stories. By working on our individual stories, collectively we also help define our regional food provenance or industry reputation of the region.

Who should attend

This workshop is designed for all food & beverage businesses who run, own or work in small to medium sized food businesses and who have responsibility for the business’ strategic planning and/or communications.

It will be focused on helping you to understand the role of storytelling in your business and support you in communicating your story in a way that is genuine, effective and appropriate for your own audience(s).

Our approach

The workshop will be interactive and informal. Our presenter and facilitator is Georgina Inwood from Table Under a Tree.

Georgina has a very strong background in communications at both a practical and theoretical level, and also has great local knowledge of the region, its food and people.

The workshop will be delivered in a couple of parts: a half day face-to-face workshop and follow-up online meetings with the facilitator Georgina.

The face-to-face component will explore the role of storytelling; why it should be an integral part of participants' business life; and how it should be incorporated at every level from long-term plans to day-to-day operations. Following on from the workshop will be two optional online meetings to revisit the content covered in-person and help participants review how they are applying in to their own business.

As an additional opportunity, NRF will offer our members the opportunity to share your content with local foodie audiences via our channels i.e. social media, newsletters and website.

What we’ll cover:

Part One: Why tell your story?

• What the research says about consumers and what they want from food businesses.

• The role of authenticity and integrity.

• The role of community and connection.

Part Two: How to really know your story?

• Do you know what your overarching story is?

• Aligning your story with your business plan or your broader strategies for growth and development.

• Understanding audiences and the tools available to connect with them.

Part Three: How to really tell your story?

• Identifying the layers of your story.

• Planning, producing and preparing content; how to eat the elephant.

• Implementation in your own business; how do you want to roll out your story?

Two optional follow-up online sessions

• Touching base – what’s resonated for you?

• Reviewing how you’ve implemented storytelling into your business so far.

• Brainstorming opportunities for collaboration and support.

What you'll come away with

• An understanding of the role of storytelling in your business communications and a plan for how you can tell the story of your business through the tools you have available

• A network with other workshop participants with whom you can collaborate with in future

• A listing of helpful resources (free) which can assist you in developing your business communications

• A working draft of a storyline or script for a short piece of video communications about your business

Optional content sharing

Once you have created your story, NRF will also offer the opportunity to help share it. With your permission, NRF can share your story via our own channels (social media, website and newsletters).

About our speaker / facilitator

Georgina Inwood is the owner-operator of award-winning Northern Rivers business, Table Under a Tree. The business showcases locally produced, grown and made food through private farm and food tours of the region and a weekly delivery service. Before establishing Table Under a Tree, Georgina worked across the public sector, including federal, state and local government; in corporate consultancies and the not-for-profit sector for over 20 years. Her experience spanned strategic planning and implementation, communication management, major event management, facilitation, and community consultation and engagement. She holds a Masters degree in communication management and has built her business around her personal values of integrity and service.