Janet Keller, communications and public relations manager for the World Dairy Expo—held in Madison, Wis.’s Alliant Energy Center—shared her insights on handling the moving parts behind the world’s largest dairy event.
What is the biggest challenge when organizing an agricultural show of this magnitude, and how do you handle it?
World Dairy Expo (WDE) is recognized as the largest dairy event in the world. Over 70,000 dairy producers and industry partners traveled from 92 countries in 2013 to view the very latest dairy technologies and share cutting-edge research that they will need to feed the world. WDE planning begins approximately 18 months prior to each annual event. A professional staff of 11 works full time to host the five-day dairy extravaganza. Even more interesting is the fact that there are over 500 volunteers that assist in the planning and implementation of some of the facets. A large dairy cattle show, innovative trade show, youth competitions, educational seminars and live cattle auctions are just a sampling of the various facets found at WDE.
What types of venues are best-suited for large agricultural events?
Due to the variety of event features and the size of modern dairy equipment, space is one of the first priorities in choosing a host site. Another important priority for ag events is the flexibility of that space so that the event can grow and evolve over time. The WDE event has always been at the Alliant Energy Center. This facility offers a 164-acre campus, numerous buildings with exhibition space and livestock stalling opportunities. The next new building phase, planned for April, 2014, will replace aging livestock buildings with 290,000 square foot of multipurpose enclosed space.
Are there any trends with the WDE in recent years, or with agricultural events in general? How have they changed over the past decade if at all?
WDE has evolved greatly since the first show, which was 48 years ago. Starting as a dairy cattle national show with a modest trade show, early attempts included national musical entertainment and huge door prizes to attract attendees. Over time, the Dairy Cattle Show expanded and grew and is now a world-class event attracting 2,500 head of animals from across North America to compete for the coveted Supreme Champion award. The trade show is also world-renown and last year featured 843 exhibiting companies from 29 countries. This trade show is most notable, as the commercial exhibitors leverage WDE as the annual unveiling event for the newest that the industry has to offer each year. Dairy producers are becoming very technology savvy, so implementing new tools to collect, analyze and share data and information have exploded in recent years, just as it has in the overall global economy.
What unique elements add to the planning of such of an event?
Probably the most unique element of WDE is the logistics that hosting 2,500 head of high-quality bovine beauties presents. Transportation, health status verification to meet federal and state regulations, stalling, feed, preparing and showing the cattle provides a long list of logistical challenges that the event and facility hosts must address. Each animal has an entourage of caretakers and bovine beauticians known as fitters that come to the event for about 10 days. Daily chore basics like bedding, washing, milking and feeding the cattle must replicate the normal routine at home farms. Dairy-cattle farming is a business for those hundreds of families that exhibit cattle at Expo, and the market value of these cattle can increase sharply if they win at Expo, so our event staff needs to be responsive.