Marla Calico, IAFE president and CEO; Gary Slater, CFE, Iowa State Fair, Des Moines.
REPORTING FROM LAS VEGAS — The Association of Fairs and Expositions (IAFE) Conference & Trade Show wrapped after six days at Paris Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nov. 26 - 29. This year’s theme was ‘®evolution,' which represents the revolutionary ideas that fairs use to both preserve history and adapt to the future.
The IAFE Hall of Fame Award, the association’s highest honor, was presented to Rick Frenette of Fair Advantage.
Glen Duck, Saskatchewan Association of Agricultural Societies & Exhibitions, was named the State and Provincial Associations of Fairs Executive of the Year and Jeff Thayne, San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo, won the IAFE Young Professionals Initiative Rising Star Award.
This year’s convention featured keynote addresses from comedian and professional speaker Mark Mayfield and Mike Egan, director of global affairs for Microsoft.
In the first order of business at the final ceremony, outgoing chair Kent Hojem, Washington State Fair, Puyallup, introduced the 2017 officers and directors.
They are:
Becky Brashear, Maryland State Fair, Lutherville-Timonium; Chair
Rick Vymlatil, South Florida Fair, West Palm Beach; 1st Vice Chair
Jessica Underberg, Erie County Fair, Hamburg, N.Y.; 2nd Vice Chair
Eugene Cassidy, Eastern States Exposition, West Springfield, Mass.; Treasurer
Kent Hojem, Washington State Fair, Puyallup; Immediate Past Chair
John Sykes, East Texas State Fair, Tyler, Past Chair Mark St. Jacques, Washington County Fair, Greenwich, N.Y.; Zone 1 Nancy Smith, South Carolina State Fair, Columbia; Zone 2 Zis Parras, Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto; Zone 3 Kathleen O'Leary, Wisconsin State Fair, West Allis; Zone 4 Jill Hardesty, Fisher Community Fair, Fisher, Ill.; Zone 5 Cliff Barton, Greater Baton Rouge (La.) State Fair; Zone 6 Brianne Brower, Sublette County Fair, Big Piney, Wyo.; Zone 7 Rick Pickering, California State Fair, Sacramento; Zone 8 Brendan Christou, Royal National Agricultural & Industrial Association of Queensland, Ekka, Brisbane, Australia; Non-North American Fairs Greg “Scooter”’ Korek, North American Midway Entertainment; Canadian Association of Fairs & Exhibitions Lisa Hinton, Florida Federation of Fairs; State & Provincial Fair Associations Gregg Woody, Woody's Menagerie; At-Large from Associates Andy Schoendienst, Luehrs Ideal Rides; At-Large from Associates Marla Calico, IAFE, President & CEO.
2016 IAFE Heritage Award winners were Cliff Barton, Greater Baton Rouge (La.) State Fair; Paul Merkins, McLeod County Fair, Hutchinson, Minn.; Michael Rouillard, Hennepin County Fair, Corcoran, Minn. and Kermit Smith, Eustis (Neb.) Fair and Corn Show.
Attendance figures for the 2016 IAFE were unavailable at press time, but Calico said, “We were very, very satisfied with our numbers going into the convention. We had achieved the highest registration revenue that we have achieved in the past three years and none of that was from promotions; it was all just regular delegates.”
“We also had a sold-out trade show. Those two markers are really the best two markers of the association's success,” she said. “The final marker would be, ‘how did our delegates respond to the convention?’ Based on preliminary emails and anecdotal comments coming in and people reaching out, we’ve been told many times it was one of the best conventions ever put on, so we are thrilled with how it went and the initial response.”
Final attendance numbers will be out next week as well as the result of the yearly survey that IAFE conducts. “The survey will be a real apples-to-apples comparison that is a standard evaluation and will tell us how to move the meter for the next convention,” said Calico. “We exist only for our members and it’s very important that we get their input.”
IAFE has two different categories for membership. There are approximately 1,200 agricultural fair members and 900 associate members made up of commercial entities and nonprofits.
“Based upon the comments, we believe it went very well. Our mandate this year was change and we changed things to accommodate the suggestions from past years,” said Calico.
Major changes included the Ag Awards presentation and the educational sessions. In previous years the Ag Awards were a ticketed breakfast event. “We were only reaching about 200 people with the old format,” explained Calico. “This year we wanted to emphasize the agricultural aspects of our association, so we made it a general session with a complimentary continental breakfast and we recognized our first place winners and our competitive exhibits.”
“We also changed the presentation from a single keynote speaker to a three-member panel where we had Aaron Alejandro, executive director, Texas FFA Foundation; Kelly Mosley, owner of Amazing Grace Crop Maze, and Jerry Doak, North Dakota Rancher. All three were recognized by Farm Credit Services in 2016 as some of their Ag Leaders with Fresh Perspective.”
“They certainly had good programming this year,” said Kathy Kramer, CEO, OC Fair, Costa Mesa, Calif. “They provided an outstanding lineup of educational sessions this year. The topics were relevant to current industry issues and trends.”
Kramer said that she was impressed with the strong focus on agricultural topics. “We’re developing a three-year theme that’s going to be agriculturally based and I was able to interact with other fairs who had very good ideas for robust urban ag programming.”
“I was so impressed that we’re going to make a commitment to send more staff to the next IAFE convention,” said Kramer. “IAFE really stepped up their game this year and really found the right level of relevant programming for attendees. It was invaluable content and networking.”
During Calico’s closing remarks, she touched upon an issue facing many fairs this year, animal rights. “It’s all about a group of people who believe animals are sentient beings and have rights,” she said. “A number of our members have been approached by these various animal rights extremists in the past several years."
“PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in particular; they are a machine,” she said. “They get people to sign up on their page and then send a blast email about our fairs. It creates a huge disruption to our members. They get thousands and thousands of emails, anywhere from 7,000 to 30,000 a day and PETA will stop at nothing in the name of ‘animal rights.'
Calico said she encourages IAFE members to work with legislators to ensure that their rights are not infringed upon. She also has a plan for helping IAFE members deal with the attacks. “It’s going to take a lot more resources to do it right, and we are looking for an underwriter or sponsor to help us prepare a series of training webinars, templates and a way to provide resources to help fight the animal extremists.”
“Overall I thought it was a very successful conference,” said Andrew Kroening, creative service director, Wisconsin State Fair Park, West Allis. “I really enjoyed the driving force of the ‘®evolution’ theme. It’s important in our industry to stay on top of trends and keep things fresh. The convention helped us share ideas and ways to keep people excited about coming out to the fairs.”
Kroening also wanted to praise the IAFE staff’s hard work. “They put on a great convention, with a small staff, and the benefits to the fair industry are amazing,” he said. “Each year it gets better.”
Next year will be IAFE’s last year in Las Vegas, where ‘Striking It Rich’ will be the theme, Nov. 26-29. After that, IAFE is moving to Henry. B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas for the 2018-2021 conventions.
Interviewed for this story: Marla Calico, (417) 862-5771, Andrew Kroening, (414) 562-5292; Kathy Kramer, (714) 708-1514