We just got back from our first ever booth at the National FFA Convention! We met lots of excited FFAers, supportive ag teachers, up-and-coming pre-service teachers, & other vendors.
I was never officially in FFA in high school. We had one high school with ag classes in our district & I took one class there my senior year, where I got a little involved with the horse judging team, but was never an official member & never competed. In both my careers as a veterinarian & college educator, I've interacted with many FFA students & FFA advisors, & I sure wish I could've been involved when I was younger!
Most of the FFA students that stopped by our booth were well spoken, friendly, & asked good questions. Even those that just stopped by for a pen or a piece of candy were polite & kind. Many were excited about some of our classroom & animal management resources & took a flyer with them to pass on to their teachers or to check out our website themselves. It was learning about where they were from, what animals they had at home, & what events they were at nationals for - there are a lot of talented kids out there!!!
We had ag teachers from all over the country come by to see our classroom materials, ask about their own school farms, & offer ideas for future areas of development. The story is generally the same: ag teachers are generally supported by other ag teachers within their department (if they're not single person departments!) but often lack administrative support, may or may not have a background in animal health or farm management, & are always looking for ways to better engage their students in learning. It was great to see how excited everyone was about what we have to offer! Our materials have been a labor of love & first inspired by my own experiences as a veterinarian supporting school farms & student SAE projects. I'm excited to continue learning about all that FFA has to offer our young people, engaging with the ag education community & trying to help ag educators in the classroom & on their school farms.
For our first largescale tradeshow, I think we did pretty well! My mom was able to take some time off work & help me man the booth. She got a crash course in what we have available, how to access our products, & how to set up our booth each day. It was really fun to share such a unique, exciting experience with her & see her in person for the first time since our cross-country move. My aunt & uncle were kind enough to pick us up from the airport, house us for a couple days before the show, & provide a free marketing consultation, giving some booth design advice & lending us a TV to showcase our videos. My dad was cheerleading from afar, with texts about how to ration our promo items & get better visibility on social media. We learned a lot & are better prepared for the next one!
We look forward to continuing to support the future of agriculture!
