MOFAD: Indigenous Roots

About

Initially a live event, COVID shifted the event online to stunning results. Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), in collaboration with 8th Nation, kicked off their multi-event series with “Indigenous Roots: Exploring the Crossroads of African American and Indigenous American Cuisine.”

Ubiquitous, but often overlooked, African American and Indigenous American foods and ingredients are essential to the American experience. Products such as corn, potatoes, and tomatoes and chocolate are pantry staples the world over and yet the historical context of these ingredients are often glossed over or forgotten entirely.

As a person in the BIPOC community, the event came together as a joint desire between 8th Nation and MOFAD to continue to create more inclusive programming. After COVID 8th Nation with a choice to either cancel the event or go virtual, the choice was really a no-brainer. The switch to the Zoom platform allowed us to have a wider audience across the United States as well as Canada.

The Ask

By virtue of being a virtual event, chefs cooked in their desired indoor or outdoor setups outdoor settings which would not have been possible with a live event in NYC. 8th Nation approached MOFAD with a concept around exploring and honoring Indigenous food systems that fit in perfectly with their exhibition African/American: Making the Nation’s Table, which then easily led to further collaborations.

What 8th Nation Did

8th Nation has ensured a cross-section of views are represented in all of the MOAFAD and 8th Nation collaborations. These have included a panel discussion and live cooking demos with optional ingredient boxes to cook along with the demos.

Piri Piri Shrimp with Celosia and Ute Mountain Blue Corn Grits
Yellow Cornmeal Fried Okra
Hominy Grits and Greens with Benne Seeds and Guinea Hog Cracklins
Meals that were demoed

We have partnered with Toasted Sister Podcast WNYC and the Greene Space Toasted Sister, a show about Indigenous food, recorded an episode with panelists that was available as. teaser for a virtual panel, and they hosted the panel discussion. We have been able to increase our marketing reach by leveraging all of our partner’s networks, landing us in the New York Times “Things to Do” section for our fall event. These partnerships have also allowed us to have access to more divergent teams leading to higher production values. With each successive partnership, Created an invite and sponsorship template and Press Releases.

Initiatives

8th Nation is spearheading the following initiatives:

Develop and execute an integrated and multi-channel marketing plan in conjunction with MOFAD to grow registrations and attendance this and future events
Create audience generation and engagement strategies and campaigns to increase engagement and registrations within key industry categories.
Identifying and reaching out to sponsorship partners
Finessing panels, speakers presentations, and topics.
Identifying and booking panel speakers
Collaborate with leadership and cross-functional team members to brainstorm, plan, and develop new ideas and strategies.
Defined comprehensive marketing performance framework, including creative reviews, tracking, and optimization of results.
Work with commercial, events, and editorial teams on marketing programs and tactics to increase the visibility
Grow relationships with industry partners to increase audience through co-marketing and cross-promotion opportunities.

The Results

The events continue to grow and gain momentum. The first event saw over 100 guests in attendance and we jumped to 150 for the following event. Guests joined us from the US and Canada and beyond. The post-attendance response with guests literally hungry for more from 8th Nation and The Museum of Food and Drink. The success of these events does not seem to be slowing, and both 8th Nation and the Museum of Food and Drink are excited to continue their partnership.