The sky’s the limit when it comes to hosting classes. In our last Agritourism blog post, we discussed ways to engage visitors on your farm – classes being one of those ways.  

A well-hosted class or workshop can be one of the more profitable (and fun!) ways to engage visitors on your farm and offer agritourism opportunities. However, they can be quite labor-intensive and require lots of planning and thoughtfulness. Here are a few tips to get you started: 

1. Pick a Topic. Pick one that represents your farm and your skills. Pinterest has lots of ideas, especially if you like crafts or cooking. You can also survey your customers through an email newsletter or on social media with polls. This can help you see what your customers are interested in learning about. 

2. Plan, Plan, Plan. Once you pick your topic, the planning begins. Think through the goals for your workshop – what do you hope customers will get out of the class? What items will they be creating? You will need to start listing out what supplies you will need, including consumables, utensils, equipment, and other items necessary.  

3. The Nitty Gritty. Make sure that you obtain any necessary permits or licenses you will need to host a workshop on your farm, and you have enough seating and tables for everyone. It is also important that you have liability insurance and that you contact your insurance provider to let them know that you will be having visitors on the farm and what they will be doing.  

4. Staffing. You will also need to decide if you will be teaching the class or if you will be hiring someone. If you are going to hire someone, you will need to schedule a date that works for them as well as you and ask them what supplies they will need. How many staff will you need to run the event? Make sure you have ample amounts of people to help customers with their projects and someone there to take pictures to share on your farm’s social media!  

5. Promote! Shout it from the rooftops about your workshop. Create an event on social media, share it to your farm’s page, your personal page, encourage friends and family to share it. Put a little money behind your post to boost it to get some people who might not know you’re there to see it. If you have an email newsletter, be sure to include a short blurb, photo and link to register in it for your loyal fans. If you are close to town and have developed partnerships with local stores and restaurants, ask to put up some flyers with a QR code to register.  

Hosting an on-farm workshop and class can be a great way to engage visitors and develop new customers. They can also be a lot of fun! If you would like to talk more about hosting on-farm workshops and classes, contact us today at kcard@kcard.info or at 859-550-3972.