Potato Expo Coming Up
Potato Expo Coming Up. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.
Each year, just after the holiday the United States Potato Board and the National Potato Council get together for one big meeting. This years meeting is in Las Vegas the second week in January and USPB’s Vice President, Industry Communications & Policy, David Fraser discusses this years event.
FRASER: The U.S. Potato Board representing all potato growers - for industry communications, our sole purpose in life is to communicate with all the growers and also the allied industry but primarily the growers, how we are investing their assessment dollars - long term demand for U.S. potatoes and potato products. We do it through what we call a media mix of print, radio, electronic, direct communication as far as face-to-cafe and trade shows.
Fraser says that their largest growing area is their digital communications.
FRASER: And that’s out industry update e-newsletter, our fresh grower/shipper update e-newsletter and of course USPotatoes.com, our website. Well last year at Expo we actually launched a new media channel, a smartphone app. And it’s the U.S. Potato Board app. That’s our newest objective for FY13 is to promote grower use to download the USPB app. So we are running a promotion called “Show Us Your US Potato Board App.”
Attendees need to show that they have the app loaded on their phones or tablets and they will be registered to win a gift card from Best Buy. They hope through this promotion to be able to reach more growers.
FRASER: Growers are busy. We want to try to reach them anyway we can and in a way that’s most convenient to them. And what’s more convenient than having a smartphone app. The idea is to make sure growers stay informed but do so in a way that’s convenient to them.
Of course the promotion is just one part of the Potato Expo and Fraser talks about who should be attending.
FRASER: If you are in the potato business whether it be as a grower, allied industry and potatoes are your primary business, you need to be at Potato Expo. This is the must attend event. It has become the one meeting of the year, which it was intended to be when it was first created, the one meeting of the year where all the sectors come together. Networking opportunities are tremendous. You know a sign of a good meeting when you see a lot of people in the hallways and the restaurants and the coffee shops, you get a group of people around a table doing business. That’s the sign of a good meeting.
More tomorrow on the 2012 Potato Expo.
That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
