FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: Beth Sequeira,
Communications Director
(559) 688-1030/ beth@farmshow.org
The World of Agriculture did serious business at the 2008 World Ag Expo
The 2008 Expo brought a host of new additions to the three day event. On Monday, Feb. 11 during Media Day, Expo leadership officially unveiled the new Dairy Technology Center and surrounding outdoor dairy exhibits that increased the grounds by 100,000 square feet.
“Leadership and management here at the Expo are committed to improving the show to benefit both our exhibitors and attendees. I’m very happy that we can bring our visitors more dairy related connections that will improve their daily operations,” said Shelley Khal, 2008 World Ag Expo chairman.
Media Day also marked the debut of the Top Ten New Products selected at World Ag Expo and the Top Five New Dairy Products at the event.
Opening day began with a bit of foggy weather which quickly burned off to welcome a sunny California afternoon.
During the first day the Expo kicked-started the onsite attendee registration, which although a mammoth undertaking, ran smoothly throughout the event. Expo guests who arrived with a ‘fast pass’ or who pre-registered online, quickly entered the showgrounds. Most other attendees simply registered and paid at the gate.
“I was pleased with the first year. It’s not a simple task to register nearly 100,000 attendees, 1,200 volunteers and 1,600 exhibitors, but for the first year we can all sleep well knowing the program fulfilled our goal and has room to improve next year,” said Lisa Garcia, show operations manager.
During the show, the Expo was again host to an array of free dairy, irrigation and ag-related seminars covering timely issues and challenges facing the agriculture sector.
Show-goers from across the nation traveled to the Expo to see all the show had to offer, but most notable were the number of international guests attending the show. At the close of the event there were more than 1,500 registered international guests from 74 countries.
During the closing day exhibitors also spoke with excitement about the business they completed during the show.
“World Ag Expo is the only place to showcase our equipment to thousands of large operators, and this show has been a major factor for our increased sales in the west. We also make many international prospects here,” said Doug Williams, Kuhn North America, Inc.
At the event’s close, event organizers were more than pleased with the annual Expo and already planning improvements for 2009.
“We’ve made major additions to the show this year. Next year we’ll fine tune the new improvements. The Dairy Technology Center will get special attention and the registration system will be polished to make it even easier for our attendees. It will all be more refined in 2009,” said Jerry Sinift, International Agri-Center general manager.
The 2009 World Ag Expo is Feb. 10-12.