BARD VALLEY, CA - Bloggers and food influencers recently gathered for a two day experience in Bard Valley, California, the growing home of Natural Delights Medjool dates.

The company hosted its second bi-annual blogger summit this September, which included fourteen of the country’s top food bloggers and registered dietitians.

"This summit was such a great experience because it felt like there was a sense of family the entire time, between spending time with the growers, marketing team, and other influencers,” Alexis Joseph, Registered Dietitian and Blogger at Hummusapien, said, according to a press release.

During the experience, guests were treated to a tour that included the “Big 6,” the six original Medjool date palms that have stood since the 1940’s and have spawned all 250,000 other trees in production.

“Being able to see the Natural Delights story from start to finish really helped me understand just how personal the process of harvesting Medjool dates is,” Joseph added.

The group also got to see one of the world’s most technologically advanced medjool date packing facilities, Datepac, and learn about the state-of-the-art equipment.

“Our first blogger summit in 2013 taught us a lot about communicating with influencers, and how we can best tell our story in a way that is personal and resonates with each individual’s unique audience,” David M. Anderson, Director of Marketing at Natural Delights, stated in the release. “We applied those learnings to this year’s Medjool Date Summit by creating truly unique experiences between our influencers and our growers, the Medjool date gardens, Datepac packing facility, and the beautiful Yuma-Bard Valleys.”

According to the company, Natural Delights has put a significant amount of time towards taking a more personalized approach to experiential marketing by bringing influencers and the marketing team together to discuss:

• What is trending with influencers
• Their unique audience needs
• What opportunities may exist for brand growth within a new item development strategy.

Natural Delights’ growers have taken the opportunity presented by the increasing popularity of Medjool date consumption to share its story with such influencers to give them the tools they need to both engage with and educate consumers.

Natural Delights