Pollinators’ members and partners are coming together for a month-long series of surveys, dialogue, training and action around on the allure and economics of buying, procuring, eating or even banking local.

Everyone from government policy-makers to weekend coffee-drinkers think about the social and economic impact of ‘local’, and it’s a conversation that needs to be had.

Does buying local really makes our community or world a better place? Who is local, anyway? What are other criteria I could use to guide how I buy? If I want to sell or market my local services, how can I do this better?

This workshop will bring together the insights and expertise from the previous weeks and offer you insights, tools and tips to make the most of ‘localism’. As well as tips and insights for individual businesses, this workshop will also enable creation of a whole-of-community approach to supplying and buying local.

The workshop is relevant to:

• Established local businesses looking to increase their reach and impact in the local market
• Social enterprises and NFPs wanting to capitalise on their social and local credentials to secure procurement contracts
• Government and corporate procurement staff keen to increase their percentage of local procurement
• New enterprises investigating offering new local products or services into the market

Agenda:

• 1pm Presentations and Panel Discussion
  • Analysis of We Love Local? survey results and an economists view with Rebecca Davidson,
  • John Stanley and Melanie Davies on what locals and business can do to buy local,
  • The government and regional development perspective on buying local with Gavin Treasure
  • Panel Discussion — How can We Love Local?
• 2:20pm Break for delicious afternoon tea
• 2:45 to 3:45pm Case studies & Q&A on
  • PR and Communications for social enterprises with Monica Luppi
  • Corporate procurement and partnerships withh  Milton Milroy and Greg Payne
  • The value of local collaboration and networking with Wendy Norris
  • Smart marketing of local produce with Mark Weston
• 3:45 to 4:45pm Collaboration on how We Love Local?
  • Facilitated parallel workshops session (Open Space) to progress the retail, government, social enterprise and community plans for growing local procurement, buying, and eating.
  • Closing Q&A with all presenters.
• 5pm Drinks at The Provincial!

Guest presenters:

• John Stanley of John Stanley Associates and Melanie Davies from MWCCI — John is a retail consultant on growing local enterprise and Melanie provides business networking and development services for MWCCI
• Gavin Treasure of Mid West Development Commission —Gavin’s passionate and well-informed about the power of localism to transform towns and regions
• Rebecca Davidson of Progress Economics (WA) — Rebecca is a postgraduate trained economist working with a wide range of regional clients, and will be helping with the analysis of the We Love Local? survey

Case studies:

• Monia Luppi of Hope Community Services — Monica has lead PR and Communications for international NGOs and is leading on the development of a new community farm in Walkaway “Being Strategic in a PR & Communications when setting up a local enterprise”
• Milton Milroy of MEEDAC and Greg Payne of Karara Mining — MEEDAC have established innovative local food enterprises through contracts to Karara Mining. Greg leads on Karara’s community engagement initiatives, including the innovation park, and partnerships to grow sustainable local enterprises through corporate procurement “How to engage corporations with procuring locally?  The advantages for corporations in procuring locally”
• Wendy Norris of Geraldton Organised Primary Producers — Wendy leads GOPP — a Midwest success story taking a collaborative approach to local buying “The Value of Local collaboration and networking”
• Mark Weston of Bookara Goat Dairy — Mark’s established a local Goat Dairy that sells cheeses in the Midwest and across the state “Smart marketing to increase reach in the local market”

Benefits:

• Get valuable insights from expert and experienced guest speakers,
• Discuss strategies and tactics for improving marketing and procurement of local products and services,
• Connect with new partners, collaborators and service providers,
• Get the ‘facts’ about perceptions and habits, as documented through the survey results.

For details of other events during this month, check the ‘We Love Local?’ page on Pollinators website.

Karara logo

Bookara logo

Hope CS

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Gavin Treasure - MWDC CEO

Jo Blayney - Facilitator

John Stanley - Retail Consultant

Rebeccas Davidson - Economist

Proudly bought to you in partnership with

• Midwest Development Commission
• Regional Development Australia Midwest Gascoyne
• Geraldton Organised Primary Producers
• Pracsys
• Midwest Chamber of Commerce and Industry