Back to the basics
Minnesota Milk restructures dairy conference and expo By Missy Mussman missy@dairystar.com
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – This year’s Minnesota Milk Dairy Conference and Expo is going back to the basics. “We wanted to stick to the roots and keep things simple this year,” said Eir GarciaSilva, associate director of the Minnesota Milk Producers Association. Minnesota Milk Producers Association and the planning committee have made modications to the Minnesota Milk Dairy Conference and Expo, which will be held Nov. 29 through Dec. 1 at the River’s Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud, Minn. One of the biggest changes made to simplify the conference was eliminating the breakout sessions and switching to all general, keynote sessions. “We wanted to keep the group together, to keep everything compact and to keep the morale going through the whole conference,” GarciaSilva said. “They’ll hear the same information, be able to talk about it with each other and learn from one another.” The change will be seen on Nov. 29 with only one pre-conference keynote
session kicking off the expo called “Tough Questions; Easy Answers” presented by Midwest Dairy Association and facilitated by their staff and Donna Moenning of Look East. Moenning is a former Midwest Dairy communicator. “There are a lot of tough issues and questions swirling around the dairy industry, and this will be a great opportunity for farmers to get good answers to those questions and share on their social media, with their friends or at the grocery store,” GarciaSilva said. “It’s going to be a really good training.” On top of the quality training, producers can expect more benets for being one of the 100 farmers to pre-register for the workshop. “Since we are teaming up with Midwest Dairy Association, we are paying for hotel room expenses, registration fees and onsite childcare from noon to 8 p.m., that day when they register in advance,” GarciaSilva said. “We’re really excited to offer this to our farmers.” Another new feature for the rst night will be the structure of the welcome reception. This year, farmers will travel to three locations – Beaver Island Brewery in St.
DAIRY STAR FILE PHOTO
The Minnesota Milk Dairy Conference and Expo tradeshow offers �me to visit with business exhibitors. The dairy conference and expo will be Nov. 29-Dec. 1 at the River’s Edge Conven�on Center in St. Cloud, Minn. Cloud, Urban Moose Brewery in Sauk Rapids and the Green Mill at the Best Western Plus Kelly Inn in St. Cloud. “They’ll be able to network
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with different people and taste different things,” Garcia Silva said. “It’s going to be a fun, social atmosphere.” The rst full day of the
conference will kickoff with a town hall style breakfast meeting focusing on the Turn to EXPO | Page 2