🧭 Learn scenario planning strategies and skills 🧭

🧭 Be prepared by planning for uncertainty 🧭

🧭 Build a more nimble and resilient food business 🧭

Sign Up for These Sessions:

What is scenario planning?

How will climate change, e-commerce growth, federal and local policy, or food safety protocols impact your business or the world your business exists in?

Are you at a pivotal point in deciding if you should manufacture in-house or search for a copacker?

Navigating Uncertainty helps you use scenario planning techniques to plan for multiple possible futures and identify what it will take to be successful in each of them.

This is Right for You if…

Your business is pivoting to address new or altered markets

Your business is considering a significant transition

Your business is confronting operational decisions that require investment

Your business needs to address current or potential supply chain disruptions

Participants Say …

“Phenomenal! Everything I’ve been searching for, in a nutshell. As I work to launch my own business, Eric was amazing at identifying groups that are succeeding in my specific area with regional, organic, regenerative food — there’s no other way I could have known about them. And for my work supporting food hubs, I received comprehensive scenarios and investment strategies that are so useful in helping them scale and sustain themselves!”

— Chris Massa, Producer Engagement Specialist,
California Department of Food and Agriculture

What You Get

This fast-paced, immersion training takes entrepreneurs and their teams out of their day-to-day context and gives them the clarity and focus to navigate changes in markets, operations, and finance.

Attendance for each training is limited to eight businesses. Two people from each business are encouraged to attend.

Come out with greater resilience in times of high levels of uncertainty.

Included in the Training:

4 days of content delivery and work time
2 hours of 1-on-1 coaching
Scenario planning template
3-4 scenario narratives with supporting strategies
Business presentations with scenario feedback from coaches and industry experts

Walk Away With:

Tools, templates and resources
Developed strategies for uncertainty
New connections with food-focused entrepreneurs and service providers

What to Expect

Activities by Day	What You’ll Do	Outcomes
Session 1: Framing Your Stories for Your Future	Identify a powerful question about the future of your business Scan the future for key trends, what’s clear, & what’s uncertain	The foundation of your presentation
Session 2: Create Your Potential Futures	Outline and craft different, possible futures	Deeper understanding of the assumptions behind your business model and market A common language for your leadership team to make sense of the unfolding future
Session 3: Present Your Potential Futures	Present different, possible futures Receive observations, reflections and insights from invited guests with deep experience and expertise Learn from peer presentations	Coherent, relevant stories about your business’s core, path forward, and changing ecosystem
Session 4: Developing Robust Strategies and Strategic Foresight	Identify and future-test strategies Explore strategic implications from your presentation and vet potential strategies	A shortlist of robust strategies to navigate uncertain times and move forward Planning with strategic foresight

Meet Your Trainer: Eric DeLuca

Eric DeLuca has engaged in over $10 million in funding decisions benefiting working lands enterprises since 2010 and serves on the national Food Systems Finance Advisory Council of the Council of Development Finance Agencies. He serves on the Board of Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society, DBA Co-op Food Stores. In 2021, Co-op Food Stores created a $15.5M retail market for 403 local producers, representing 18% of over $87M total sales. He curates the Financing for Farmland Access Priority Strategy Team in the VT Farm to Plate Network. From 2016-2021, he served as vice-chair of the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Board. For three years he led the Slow Money VT network catalyzing impact investment in the food system asset class. He co-founded the University of Vermont Food Hub Management Professional Certificate program, the first of its kind in the country. DeLuca managed the U.S. Program for the UN-declared International Year of Cooperatives. He guided the development of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association—now a network of over 35 food co-ops in New England and NY State with $90 million sales of local products annually.

Scholarship Opportunities are available, learn more.