Potato Expo Goes Virtual Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. It comes as no surprise in a year filled with postponements, cancellations, and format tweaks to comply with COVID restrictions, but the National Potato Council has made the decision to go with a virtual format for the Potato Expo, January 5-7, originally planned for Grapevine, Texas.
CEO Kam Quarles says it was a decision they were hoping they wouldn’t have to make …
QUARLES … “We surveyed likely attendees, our sponsors, exhibitors and, you know, we wanted to have the absolute best information to figure out where to go with Expo for 2021.”
And, Quarles says after careful consideration, the answer was pretty clear …
QUARLES … “What came back to us was, given where a number of the different states are in terms of their quarantine restrictions. We have a lot of international visitors who likewise have quarantine restrictions, either inbound or outbound. It was fairly obvious to us that folks were just not going to be able to attend in person.”
And the attendance numbers, Quarles says are very important …
QUARLES … “We’re coming off of Vegas, Bob, where that was the largest Potato Expo we had ever had, well over 2,000 people and we were looking at a fraction of that attendance under the best of circumstances. So, we made the difficult decision to err on the side of health and caution.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the Virtual Potato Expo in January and what the format changes mean for you.
