We're opening the year with two virtual sessions in the same week, and it's worth knowing which one is which before your calendar fills back up. Counter Culture 2020 runs January 14 and looks at the retail side of the business: case layout, tasting programs, and how to hold your shelf space when a buyer's attention is pulled in a dozen directions. Whey Management 2020 runs the next day, January 15, and takes on a much less glamorous but equally real problem: what to do with the several pounds of whey your operation produces for every pound of cheese it makes.
Counter Culture: for anyone who sells across a case
If you run or staff a retail counter, or you're a producer who sells direct at markets and pop-ups, this one is built for you. Trade coverage of new product launches over the past two months has shown just how crowded the refrigerated case has gotten — plant-based creamers, flavored yogurts, prepackaged snack formats, and traditional cheese all competing for the same eye-level shelf. Counter Culture 2020 walks through how to keep your cheese case legible in that environment: what to put at eye level, how to rotate seasonal selections without confusing regular customers, and how a short, well-timed tasting still outperforms a sign every time. Members who've taken past retail-focused sessions tell us the biggest change they made afterward wasn't the layout — it was training staff to ask one good question before recommending a wheel.
Whey Management: for anyone making cheese at volume
This is the session we hear requested every year and don't always get scheduled in time. Every pound of cheese leaves behind several pounds of whey, and what you do with it is a real cost line, not an afterthought — hauling it away, spreading it on fields, or finding a buyer for it all carry different economics depending on your volume and your region's rules. Small and mid-sized creameries usually don't have access to the same processing options that larger plants use to turn whey into a sellable ingredient, which means the practical choices are narrower and the cost per gallon matters more. Whey Management 2020 focuses on those practical choices: what small-volume producers are actually doing with their whey right now, what questions to ask a hauler before you sign anything, and where the line sits between "manageable cost" and "the reason your margin disappeared in February."
Both webinars are free to attend and open to all current members; recordings go up for members who can't make the live session. If you only have time for one, pick based on where your business actually touches the problem — most of our retail members haven't thought hard about whey, and most of our production members could stand to hear the case-layout session at least once. If you're not sure which applies to you, the Events Committee can help you figure out which session will actually be useful this year.
Either way, clear an hour on both the 14th and the 15th if you can. January is a good month to fix something small before the spring rush makes it harder to change.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.