It’s taken me 72 hours of mini-hibernation but I think I’m finally catching up on my sleep.
Last Monday I took off for Saint Paul, where my office started set up for the 45th annual Midwest Poultry Federation Convention – the largest show focused solely on the poultry industry in the U.S. The convention itself ran Tuesday-Thursday and brought in at least 2500 people (probably more – we’re still counting numbers) from around the U.S. and Canada for education programs, exhibits, and plenty of networking.
My role is varied – and certainly includes many months of pre-show work and organization behind-the-scenes – but one of my main responsibilities onsite at the show is to make sure the education workshops and meetings run smoothly. While this sounds rather innocuous, I am actually on my feet, running around between three floors of the convention center from 6:30 am until the show closes each day. It’s hard to explain all of what I do, but it involves everything from laptop setups in each workshop room and handling audio-visual glitches that happen, placing a gazillion (give or take) signs around the building (and changing said signs for different meetings), taking photos whenever I remember, answering questions (so many questions!) on the fly, helping with security detail at our Welcome Reception, meeting up with a videographer who captured our show digitally, making sure our keynote speaker at a large breakfast event is good to go, coordinating media interviews with various farmers and other leaders, and ensuring our Minnesota Turkey Growers Association annual meeting runs smoothly.
Basically, I do what it takes to create a successful convention – as do the other four staffers in my office. Sometimes I can’t believe our little staff of five actually puts together such a large event – given that it’s only one part of our responsibilities throughout the year. I’m so proud of our team!
Our show is focused on poultry production – specifically the farmers who raise turkeys, chickens, and egg layer hens commercially. Our attendees represent a variety of production methods – from large farms and small farms to organic and conventional – and our goal is to make the convention the best place for farmers and poultry companies to gather and learn.
It’s inspiring for me to see the level of learning that happens at our show. And for the naysayers who say farmers don’t care, I know so many farmers who are committed to doing the right things by their animals – and want to educate themselves on improvements they can make on the farm.
My personal favorite part of the convention is seeing all my industry friends come together – and after 20+ years of working for poultry farmers, I know a lot of people. (For an extroverted introvert, that’s pretty cool!) I don’t think I’ve shared photos from this annual event here on the blog before, so I thought you might like to get a taste of what my week was like.
Pre-convention drinks at the St. Paul Grill with three of our staffers – Erica, Teresa, and Teresa. (Yep, we have two Teresas in our office.) Rough way to start the week, yes? 😉
The calm before the storm. This is my view early in the morning (about 6:30 am) at Saint Paul RiverCentre, as I set up laptops for all of our education workshop rooms. Later, this room was filled with folks learning about the nutritional needs of poultry.
If you follow me on Facebook, then you saw this photo last Tuesday morning. It’s rather peaceful walking around, getting everything set up before the show starts. But I can tell you I was very ready to get the show on the road by this time!
One of the cool perks of my job is getting to meet leaders such as Anne Alonzo, the new CEO of the American Egg Board. Here, she spoke to the annual meeting of the Chicken and Egg Association of Minnesota – a member-based organization of farmers and companies that raise chickens and egg laying hens in our state.
I also get to see industry friends like Dr. Jill here. She’s an independent poultry veterinarian who works with a variety of poultry farmers in Minnesota. She was instrumental in helping our state get through the avian influenza outbreak that occurred in the spring of 2015. Jill definitely rocks!
Here’s a look at just part of our three exhibit halls. We had well over 500 booths this year, which was a whopping 76 more than last year! We’ve seen phenomenal growth in our show in the past decade and it’s really exciting to see it all come together!
Naturally, one of my favorite parts of the show is the Jennie-O Turkey Store food truck, which does recipe demonstrations and gives out samples of fun stuff like turkey breakfast burritos, turkey pizza, and more.
I saw my friend Jim Sieben during our annual omelet demonstration. (We actually set up 16 omelet-making stations for attendees to make their own omelets – after seeing a demo on just how it easy it is to whip up an omelet in just a couple of minutes.) Jim and I attended the Minnesota Agriculture and Rural Leadership (MARL) program together and got to know each other well during that 18-month intensive leadership experience. Jim is pretty awesome – he’s the nicest guy and a true family man, plus he’s general manager of a company in Willmar, Minnesota (Nova-Tech Engineering) that has pioneered robotics systems for poultry hatcheries around the world. In fact, if you ever hear from animal activists that baby chickens or turkeys are de-beaked by cruel methods, you should know that particular argument is antiquated and Jim’s company developed laser technology that is painless, humane, and is being used in hatcheries right now.
So there you have it – a small snapshot of my week at our convention. Now, after 8+ hours of sleep each night at home (heavenly!) and some naps along the way, my mini-hibernation is coming to an end and I’ll be back at the office tomorrow.
One last photo … Earl the Pug is very glad to have his #pugmom home again. 🙂
Have a great start to your week!
Lara