FARMINGTON — According to local lore, Farmington was where Maine’s first maple syrup was sold back in 1820. So it was fitting that this was where the the first three-day educational conference in Maine was held.

The syrup connection dates back to 1781 when Stephen Titcomb, one of the town’s early settlers, made his first maple sugar on land he cleared and where he built a cabin. His descendants continue the sugaring tradition today at Maple Hill Farm on Titcomb Hill Road, and a cast iron kettle, believed to be Titcomb’s and used for years by his son, Joseph, to make sugar, is part of the family’s memorabilia.

About 85 people involved in the maple syrup business – from producers to distributors to vendors – attended the Maine Maple Producers Association event that ran from Thursday to Saturday.

They attended technical workshops to learn about the latest equipment, invasive pests and plants, organic certification and better ways to market and brand their businesses.

They browsed a trade show held at the University of Maine at Farmington, spent Friday touring area sap houses and enjoyed evening entertainment. But there was still plenty of time to talk syrup.

“This is all about promoting the education of maple syrup production in Maine. It’s a chance for these folks to learn more about the new technologies and share what they know with others. And they are doing it right here in Maine,” Eric Ellis, president of the association and manager of Maine Maple Products in Madison, said.

The conference was modeled on similar longtime events held annually in other maple syrup-producing states in New England that many Mainers traveled to attend.

“We wanted to bring that same level of education that people were getting at out-of-state conferences to Maine and have this showcase the kind of maple syrup enterprises we have here,” Ellis said during lunch on Friday, after the group returned from the first round of sap houses tours.

At every table, producers — from small to large operations — were sitting alongside distributors and vendors and were engaged in conversations.

“There is a lot of education being dispensed around these tables,” Ellis said as he looked around the crowded room.

Participants came from as far away as Easton in Aroostook County, New Hampshire and New York as well as from Quebec, said one of the organizers, Kathryn Hopkins, the maple syrup specialist from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

“People coming to a trade show like this get a chance to ‘kick the tires’ of a new piece of equipment and talk to vendors and see how it works. At a dealership, they may not be able to see everything that we have here today,” she said.

“Technology is changing so rapidly, and there are ways to make processing more efficient that uses less labor,” she said.

Maine’s maple syrup production was up 14 percent for the 2011 season, making it the third largest producer in New England, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and reported by the Associated Press.

The ranking was announced Saturday during the conference at a workshop on what the statistics mean, presented by Gary Keogh from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Northeast Division.

The annual report found 2011 was a record production year in New England, where records indicate the region produced more maple syrup than any year since 1935.

Maine produced 360,000 gallons, New York produced 564,000 and Vermont, 1.1 million.

Among the reasons for production growth were more people, including hobbyists, tapping trees on their properties and the increased use of vacuum tube systems that pull sap from trees, which saves the labor that used to come from fetching sap buckets.

There are also new taps with valves designed to prevent a longstanding problem for sugar producers of sap flowing back into trees.

Excessive snow depth proved to be an obstacle to many sugar producers at the start of the season but helped extend the season across New England, the report states. Some sugar makers in Maine reported collecting sap as late as the first week of May.

In addition, temperatures were warm enough during the day and below freezing at night, resulting in consistent and steady sap flows.

“I’m not sure when the season was this good. Everyone had a bountiful crop,” Ellis said.