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| FPS isn't trying to run off the Iowa Farm & Field Fest in Boone, IA or any other farm show. The F&FF staff insist on trying to piggyback on the same dates as the FPS. Why?. Why anyone would want a farm show that is still in its infancey and yet to prove that it can draw the major manufacturers to compete with the likes of the FPS is beyond me. It would be like having a highschool football playoff game in the same town and at the same time as the Super Bowl, only the locals would have any interest and not 100% of them either. To ensure that the farming community receives the greatest value possible from the FPS, or any one of the other premier national and/or regional fall farm shows and exhibitions (i.e., Husker Harvest Days, Ohio Farm Scince Review, etc.), FPS et al. have to draw the greatest possible number of suppliers and attendees and the only way to do that is through marketing. The advantage that FPS has over its competition is Farm Progress is also a publication firm , who publishes the majority of our favorite ag magazines. Entry to participate in most Farm Progress activities is proportional to the amount of ad space purchased from FP. "Farm Fest" Shows, like the F&FF, don't really have anything to offer, publicity wise, other than regional marketing campaigns that coincide with their shows, which is good for the area dealers and serivce providers when they can get attendance.
Farm Shows are a necessary evil that most of the majors and probably the minor mfg's, etc. would prefer not to attend in as a grand manner as they do today...there is lots and lots of $$$ that go into being able to put a combine and header up on a set of ramps or suspend a 900bu auger cart 60 feet in the air and even run multiple products in multiple field demos and most of all take several key sales, marketing and service personnel out of the field and away from where they earn the company money during the busy season and force them to talk and listen to the genral public in the same of crowd appeal. I'm sure they all collectively discuss how they all need to scale back. But, as sure as they all agree, in their own gentleman's fashion, there will be a select few who remain at an up-scale level in an attempt to make themselves look better, more profitable (to stockholders attending maybe), more popular, etc. Complaining about how farm shows are run is useless. No one will ever change. | |
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Iowa Farm & Field Fest at Boone this year
