The 8th International Public Market Conference wrapped up its 3-day gathering last weekend and, once again, it was jam-packed with presentations, workshops, receptions, and tours of some local markets, farms, and other North-Eastern Ohio locales of interest to this fascinating bunch of participants.

The conference is produced by the fine folks at the Project for Public Spaces (www.pps.org) which manages to gather together two or three hundred market managers, urban planners, food advocates, municipal leaders, architects, consultants, and various other hangers-on (such as yours-truly!). There were participants from all over the country and from several countries outside the U.S. as well, including a contingent from Hong Kong. The conference only happens about every three years which adds up to a 25 year run, at this point.

Deputy Secretary of Ag for the USDA, Kathleen Merrigan

 

Participants needed to make tough choices about which sessions to attend throughout the conference. Many great topics from which to pick, like “Connecting a Market to its Community,” “Food Hubs,” “The Professionalization of Farmers Markets,” “Creating and Operating Market Districts,” “Expanding Your Market,” etc.

The initial plenary included a informative presentation by Kathleen Merrigan, the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture from the USDA. It was great of her to stick around for hours afterward, visiting with attendees and answering questions.

I’m going to list some names of people who were highlights of my experience at the conference, people who made great presentations or had a strong, potent presence on tours or running meetings, but I worry about who I might leave out. Please remember that any individual person could only take in about a third of what went on over the course of the event. For every session I attended there were three others that I had to skip. Of the four different tours offered I was only able to take one and probably missed some visits to places and people I would have liked to see.

Steve Davies and David O’Neil are the two PPS people who anchor the experience of the whole event. As hosts and MCs they provide some continuity to the whole affair, and David’s enthusiasm and knowledge of the subject matter is perpetually evident. Big kudos to those guys.

Some great stories and experiences were shared by Laura Avery from the Santa Monica Farmers Market, Ben Franz-Knight from Pike Place, Ben Vitale from the Syracuse Regional Market (and the NAPMM), Dan Carmody and Randy Fogleman from the Eastern Market in Detroit, Cheryl Eagleson and Karen Kahle from Findlay Market in Cincinnati, Ewen Wallace from the Halifax Market, Journalist Nicola Twilley from New York, and Myron Ng from the Tai Yuen Market (and others) in Hong Kong. Great to hear from Antoine Harris from Tulsa, Paul Steinke and Sarah Levitsky from Philly, James Farr from Rochester, Darlene Wolnik and Jen O’Brien from the Farmers Market Coalition, Kira Dixon-Weinstein from Tucson, Gary Holloway from Vineland, NJ, Odysseas & Sandra Gounalakis from Toronto, Kathleen O’Malley from Portlandia, Brian Geraghty from New York (OK, from PPS, too), Ted Spitzer and Hugh Boyd, frequent collaborators from opposite coasts, and, of course, Fred Kent, head honcho of PPS.

And it was exciting to see all the local enthusiasm from the likes of Councilman Joe Cimperman, Eric Wobser, Michael Ruhlman, Donita Anderson, Amanda Dempsey and Matt Orehek. Ohio City (a suburb to the West of Cleveland, but it’s a city unto itself) was an important host for the event particularly because that’s where the West Side Market is located, a truly fabulous Public Market that happens to be celebrating its 100th birthday this year. The timing of our conference fit right in to the various celebrations the city is having around the Market this year.

But never mind all this talk…let’s look around…

North Union Market in Shaker Square