Vermont Cheese Council invites you to our 2026 Artisan Cheesemakers Conference on Friday, May 1.
Storytelling is the theme of this year’s conference, with in-person all-day programming. While content is specifically geared toward cheesemakers, it’s open to all: makers, mongers, chefs, retailers, industry folk, and food producers of all flavors!
How do we guide cheese from farm to plate? How do we share our story in a compelling way, across a range of audiences? How do we connect the dots between flavor and provenance?
Join us for a full day focused on stories, flavors, and flair behind a "successful" cheese.
Programming:
- The Passion Economy with Adam Davidson
In The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century, Adam Davidson argues that the 20th-century “widget economy” of mass production is dying and being replaced by a new model. Success now depends on leveraging unique, specialized passions to create high-value, niche products for a targeted audience. Instead of selling one-size-fits-all products, success comes from offering something irreplaceable, highly specialized, and deeply personal. This session will explore this thesis while priming attendees for a storytelling workshop unfolding later in the day. - The Art of Tasting with Yvonne Yeoh (Neal’s Yard Dairy, UK)
A wise leader of Neal’s Yard Dairy once said that selling fine cheese comes down to two simple words–tasting and talking. Yvonne Yeoh embodies this spirit as well as anyone in the biz. She’ll be tasting us through some exemplary cheeses of Great Britain, demonstrating the thoughtful approach her company is famous for. She will also discuss the anatomy of a healthy feedback loop with cheesemongers, who act as the arbiters of taste for our shared customers. - The Art of Storytelling with Adam Davidson
In this session, Adam will pull back the curtain on what makes stories work—lessons that he picked up from his time as the co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money podcast, and from his work at This American Life, the New Yorker, and in Hollywood. He’s distilled everything he’s learned down into a few universal rules that can help you tell your story whether you’re writing a pitch deck, refining an elevator pitch, or composing your about page. This session includes some time to reflect on the most crucial elements of YOUR story over a working lunch period. - The Art of Tabling with Emilia D’Albero (Formaticum)
World Champion Cheesemonger Emilia d’Albero will join us for a demonstration of best practices for presenting your cheese at a trade event. Your approach to cheese handling and display communicates much about the caliber of your cheese, for better or worse. Ideally, you can set the bar for how your cheese should be cut, displayed, and wrapped after it leaves your loving arms. As the Sales Manager for specialty cheese paper company, Formaticum, Emilia is well-equipped to advise on the best methods and materials for handling a range of cheese styles, and will have options on hand to explore. - The Art of Storytelling: Continued with Adam Davidson
Our final session will pull together insights that have emerged throughout the day, including some brave volunteers willing to share how their story will be developing from here, or what parts of their current approach illustrate each presenter’s good advice. Adam will share advice for our group based on his work with Vermont artisan producers since moving to our brave little state.
Tickets are $125 each*, with limited capacity. View detailed session descriptions and speaker bios, and register for your seat at https://vtcheese.com/conference.
*NOFA-VT members can receive a 15% discount! Didn't receive the code in your April NOFA-VT member email? Contact [email protected]!
