Crowds seemed light this year, which could be caused by a recent rush of equipment purchases, lingering uncertainty about travel, or perhaps a shift in how we conduct business.

We find it hard to believe that anything will ever be better than a face-to-face conversation. The possibilities of what we will learn from one another rises to a next level when we are together.

Membership Services Director Matt Rice will attend the show and plans to raise the Association’s visibility by posting membership signs at your exhibits. He’s also happy just to stop by and say hello.

If you plan to be at the show, please let us know. Contact Rice at (314) 720-4234 or Matt@FarmEquip.org.

We look forward to seeing you. Heck, we look forward to the dust, the heat, even the potholes … It’s been too long.

“The beauty of a virtual event is that we will open the virtual gates on Sept. 15 with a slate of field demos and rich content, but once live, farmers can engage the content all year long,” says Don Tourte, senior vice president, Farm Progress. “With this event, the farmer can virtually stroll through more than 500 exhibits in their own time, and each exhibitor will have valuable new information to share.”

Farmers will be able to search exhibitors by categories consistent with the structure of the in-person show.

Organizers say the event will kick off with something “made richer in this virtual environment.”

“We’re going to have what may be the most extensive field demonstration program we’ve ever conducted with corn harvest, tillage, hay and cattle equipment,” says Matt Jungmann, events manager, Farm Progress. “And we’ll include a first-look at a range of autonomous tools.”

The FPVX will be free to attendees and compatible with viewing on desktop computers, smart phones, and tablets.

“The beauty of a virtual event is that we will open the virtual gates on Sept. 15 with a slate of field demos and rich content, but once live farmers can engage the content all year long,” says Don Tourte, senior vice president, Farm Progress. “With this event the farmer can virtually stroll through more than 500 exhibits in their own time, and each exhibitor will have valuable new information to share.”

Farmers will be able to search exhibitors by categories consistent with the structure of the in-person Farm Progress events.

Event organizers say the event will kick off with “something special, made richer in this virtual environment.”

“We’re going to have what may be the most extensive field demonstration program we’ve ever conducted with corn harvest, tillage, hay and cattle equipment,” says Matt Jungmann, events manager, Farm Progress. “And we’ll include a first-look at a range of autonomous tools.”

The FPVX will be free to attendees and compatible with viewing on desktop computers, smart phones, and tablets.

As it looked at the landscape of competing events in the context of COVID-19, it planned an event that it promises will deliver double the return-on-investment of the Farm Progress Show.

The mostly virtual Farm Journal Field Days is Aug. 25 to 27. It will feature hours of live-streamed educational content for farmers, a series of half-hour sessions with live Q&A, and controlled, socially distanced in-person programming.

Farm Progress was scheduled to be an in-person show in Boone, Iowa, until Monday. Andy Weber, CEO of Farm Journal, said in a conversation with Folio earlier in June that “we decided to go after Farm Progress” in early April.

“I wondered, what are they going to do about it,” he said. “Meanwhile, we’re thinking, this is a chance to put a template out on the future of what events are going to be.”

Weber says he’s confident that Farm Journal Field Days can deliver on the promise to outperform Farm Progress based on the strength of its connection to its audience as well as the extensive data it collects through its media channels.

He said the 144-year-old company has built up trust among farmers, “and then we’ve got AgWeb, which generates more traffic than our direct competitors’ websites combined. We collect behavioral data on every piece of content that they consume, on an audience of well over a million farmers.”

Weber promises sponsors a 125 percent return on their investment by the end of 2020 and a 200 percent return by June 30 of next year.

Source: Folio