bc association of agricultural fairs and exhibitions … · 2021. 1. 16. · livewire. as another...

Volume 40 - Issue 2 Spring 2019

B C A S S O C I A T I O N O F A G R I C U LT U R A L F A I R S A N D E X H I B I T I O N S

Rooted in tradition,

growing for tomorrow.

#20-16655 64th AVENUE, SURREY, BC V3S 3V1 | PHONE 778-574-4082 www.bcfairs .ca

LiveWire

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this publication, by the

province of British Columbia.

BC Association of Agricultural Fairs

and Exhibitions

Growing BC’s Communities

As a long-term partner of the BCAAFE, we're

committed to supporting agriculture in BC.

Ask about our exclusive BCAAFE member program.

For all your insurance needs, contact

SUPPORTINGRobert Fiume, CAIB Commercial Risk Advisor

250 869 3815 [email protected]

Daniel Tassoni Commercial Risk Advisor

250 860 2426 [email protected]

3LiveWire - Spring 2019

ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION“LiveWire” is the official newsletter of the BC Association of Agricultural Fairs & Exhibitions.

All advertisements appearing in this publication are paid for by the advertisers. Submissions must be approved by the BCAAFE. The BCAAFE reserves the right to refuse to publish any advertisement.

Who are we?

We are a gathering place for British Columbia’s communities and regions; a social and economic force that has the ability to drive and enhance the quality of community life!

BC FAIRS Mission Statement:

To provide leadership, resources and services to all association members so they can effectively celebrate the diversity and importance of local agriculture in communities throughout British Columbia.

BC FAIRS Vision Statement:

A sustainable provincial association that represents its membership and increases awareness of BC agriculture through alliances with other industry related organizations.

2019 BCAAFE

OFFICERS

PRESIDENT:

Tom Harter [email protected]

1ST VICE PRESIDENT:

Karen Streeter [email protected]

2ND VICE PRESIDENT:

Ann Siddall [email protected]

FINANCE CHAIR:

Pamela Brenner [email protected]

DIRECTORS

Allison Bowers [email protected]

Keith Currie [email protected]

Sylvia Layzell [email protected]

Shari Paterson [email protected]

COMMERCIAL/

ASSOCIATE

DIRECTOR

Ben James [email protected]

TABLE OF CONTENTSMessage from the President .....................................................................................................Page 4

Message from the Executive Director ................................................................................Page 5

Commercial Members Corner .................................................................................................Page 6

4-H BC Rabbit Show Update .....................................................................................................Page 7Celebrating the rich tradition of Agricultural Fairs ............................................Pages 8-9

Meet the Keynote Speaker at the 2019 BC Fairs Conference ..........................Page 9

Digital Marketing - What Is Programmatic? ................................................................ Page 10

Livestock Traceability FAQ’s .................................................................................................... Page 11

Welcome

LiveWire IS PUBLISHED BY

BC Association of Agricultural Fairs and Exhibitions#20 – 16655 64th Avenue, Surrey, BC V3S 3V1

Phone: 1-778-574-4082 • [email protected] • www.bcfairs.ca

4 LiveWire - Spring 2019

News

Welcome to another addition of the Livewire. As another season of agri-cultural fairs and exhibitions begins, our association is proud to recog-nize several fairs that will celebrate milestone years in 2019, as well as continue our work within the agricul-tural community to create lasting and positive connections.

Our members are certainly resilient in these changing times, and have faced unexpected challenges. Kudos to the Lakes District Fall Fair in Burns Lake; in 2018 the fire situation caused them to cancel their event, so instead

of marking their 75th anniversary last year, they will celebrate it this year. The Bulkley Valley Exhibition endured last year’s environmental haze in the northern region of our province, and this year will celebrate 100 years. One of our smaller fairs, the Peachland Fall Fair in the Okanagan, also marks its centennial this year, and one of our bigger members, the Vancouver Is-land Exhibition in Naniamo, turns 125.

I would like to recognize and thank every fair for their contribution to the economic health and vibrant spirit of their respective communities, and

the history, traditions, education, and overall goodwill that each of these fairs provide is incredible. Without each of these fairs all the history and traditions that make their community what it is today would be lost and the children of today would have no idea how and why the agricultural aspect of this great province got to be what it is today.

Lastly, I want to say good luck and wish each of our agricultural fairs a wonderful and prosperous year.

Tom Harter BC Fairs President

A Message from President Tom Harter

Join us Aug 17-Sep 2 for the best part of summer!

livewire: bc fairs size: 7.265 in x 4.88 inpub: spring 2019March 14, 2019MktgData:MKTGMAC:back up drive:ADS:2019:Livewire:Spring:Half Page:Fair19-Livewire-Spring-HfPg

Join us Aug 17-Sep 2 for the best part of summer!

livewire: bc fairs size: 7.265 in x 4.88 inpub: spring 2019March 14, 2019MktgData:MKTGMAC:back up drive:ADS:2019:Livewire:Spring:Half Page:Fair19-Livewire-Spring-HfPg


News

Greetings and Happy Spring every-one! There are several programs that I want to bring you up to date on, so I’m going to get right down to it:

2019 Buy BC initiative – I have been working together with the Innovation & Adaptation Services Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture to define the criteria for this year’s Buy BC project. Unfortunately, at the time of printing for the newsletter, we are still work-ing out the details. I will ensure that every fair receives the information as soon as we have signed off on the agreement!

2019 Guide to BC’s Fairs & Exhibi-tions – Thank you to all of our adver-tisers for their support of the guide! The brochure will be delivered to BC Fairs office from our printers on April 10th, from here a dedicated team of volunteers will be helping me to package up and ship out the guide to more than 300 locations across the province! Every member will be receiving copies of the guide for dis-play in your office, but if you would like additional copies to share with your supporters, please contact me at [email protected]

2019 Provincial Awards program – you’ll find a summary of the award categories in this issue of LiveWire, as well, for our members, a hard copy of the full program will be included with this newsletter mailout package. Or, visit our website to download the 2019 Provincial Awards Program! Dis-cuss the categories with your com-

mittees, ask everyone to take lots of photos and plan to be a participate in this year’s awards program!

Livestock Traceability – Over the winter, I received several inquiries from our member fairs about live-stock traceability. Later in this issue of LiveWire you’ll find a terrific FAQ on this topic, and I want thank Christina Franc, Executive Director at CAFÉ for compiling this information for all of us! On April 9, I will be participating in a teleconference meeting with all the other provincial associations and CAFÉ to further discuss traceability requirements for agricultural fairs. As information is confirmed, again, I will ensure that this is passed on to you!

BC Fairs 2019 Conference

Don’t Stop

Believing!2019 BCAAFE Conference – October 17 – 19, Sun Peaks Grand Hotel

The Conference Committee are excit-ed to announce our Opening Keynote Speaker for the 109th Annual BC Fairs Conference has been confirmed! Mr.

Brian Casey, past president of the Hants County Agricultural Society in Nova Scotia, will address “Small Fairs – Their relevance and how to help them survive” and “Keeping Ag in your fair while keeping up with the changing times”! I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read Brian’s bio later in this issue!

2019 BC Fairs Annual Scholarship and the Bingo Hauser Memorial Schol-arship application deadline is April 30th, please help us promote these wonderful opportunities to the youth in your community! Applications are available to download from our web-site.

In closing, I just want to remind ev-eryone, over the past several years, BC has experienced an increase in devastating forest fires – many of our fair members and their communities have been adversely impacted either directly or indirectly. Nearly half of all wildfires in BC are caused by hu-man carelessness. Let’s all help to promote public awareness and forest fire prevention!

Best regards, Janine Saw

Executive Director

A Message from our Executive Director


and Exhibitions


Commercial Members CornerA message from Commercial Director Ben Lefler

A Message from AssistExpo

Calling all fairs!!! As we embark on an exciting new era with great initia-tives being launched to share and discuss new information and issues that affect all of us in the fair industry. It could not be a better time to grow our base of knowledge by welcom-ing new members on board. As the commercial members director, I have created an initiative to start reforming our commercial members base. This will be an effort to bring more value to

fairs by way of variety, uniformity, an expansion of ideas and knowledge.

I am hoping you can all dig up some referrals for some potential new and reputable commercial members of contractors and suppliers that have delivered services to your fairs in the past.

Once I have collated a list of potential new members, I will begin canvass-ing these referrals and presenting

the vast benefits of being a BC Fairs member.

I appreciate your time, thoughts and co-operation on this and look forward to seeing you all on the other end of the log real soon.

Please email me at [email protected]

or call 604-765-8836 to pass on your referrals!

I’d like to thank the BC Fairs Associ-ation for inviting AssistExpo last Oc-tober to demonstrate our software at the annual conference; it was a great opportunity for AssistExpo and we’re proud to be a member of BC Fairs as we believe we can make a difference!

To all the BC Fairs member who are interested in using AssistExpo, we want to apologize for any delays in responding to your requests. We’ve received more inquiries than usual

and had to reorganize our team to meet the increased demand. I am very pleased to advise, that we now have new staff in place and their train-ing will be completed shortly.

AssistExpo has been praised for our exceptional software and quality of support service. Maintaining that rep-utation is why we’ve taken the steps to ensure AssistExpo will continue to provide the same quality and service.

In closing, I’d like to thank all the BC

Fairs members who are already using

AssistExpo; thank you for your contin-

ued support and we look forward to

working with you in 2019!

Michel St-Pierre

President and Founder

mailto:[email protected]


4-H BC Rabbit Show Update2018 was a challenging year for 4-H rabbit clubs and for fairs and exhibi-tions hosting 4-H rabbit shows around the province due to the unfortunate outbreak of Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD). RHD is an extreme-ly infectious and lethal disease of rabbits; it does not affect any other species. Multiple rabbits on Vancou-ver Island and the Fraser Valley were confirmed to have been killed by RHD in the spring of 2018.

Following the outbreak, on the advice of our consulting veterinarian, all 2018 4-H rabbit events were cancelled or put on hold. Later in the season, 4-H rabbit shows were permitted outside of the directly affected areas, but only for animals who had received the RHD vaccine.

Looking ahead to 2019, 4-H BC has determined that in areas where rabbit deaths occurred (Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island) only rabbits with vaccination certificates should be present at 4-H events until the end of June. After June 2019, if no further outbreak occurs, rabbit activities in

these areas can return to normal with no vaccination certificates required. 4-H rabbit events and shows hosted in areas other than Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island can proceed as per normal starting in January 2019, with no vaccination certificates required.

We’d like to thank everyone involved in this difficult situation for their cau-

tion and attention to biosecurity best practices. Hopefully 2019 will be a safe and fun year for 4-H rabbit club members and their projects.

Thank you,

Aleda Welch Manager

4-H British Columbia

News

CHO CES

The Youth Development Program where

YOU HAVE

4-H BC Clubs offer a variety of projects within our 4 pillars.Visit 4hbc.ca for more information or call 250 545 0336

4-H British Columbia


News

Celebrating the rich tradition of Agricultural Fairs

Last summer I had the opportunity to experience a number of our Vancou-ver Island Fairs. Each fair unique in its own way. The Cowichan Exhibition and the Saanich Fair celebrated their 150th birthdays in 2019! This is a testament to the resilience of the community fair. Although staying with their roots they provide relevant and important information to the local farmers and constituents of their communities and beyond.

The Saanich Fair was created in 1868 when ten farmers, all located in the Saanich region, decided to host an agricultural fair. The event allowed the farmers, and other community mem-bers, to compare their livestock, crops and crafts in friendly competition, it also allowed bragging rights for their accomplishments. The first fair was held on a field owned by one of the ten farmers, and each year the fair would move to another farm field until even-tually moving to its permanent home in 1992 on Stelly’s Cross Road in Saanich.

Exhibit Hall at the Saanich Fair

The 2018 Saanich Fair theme was “150 - Years Then and Now” featuring ‘A Fam-ily A Fair’. The organizers created dis-plays that gave fair visitors a glimpse of what the fair was like 150 years ago with many of the volunteers and orga-nizers dressed in period clothing. The

opening ceremonies included local, provincial and federal dignitaries, in-cluding the BC Minister of Agriculture, Lana Popham and Federal Green Party Leader, Elizabeth May. Members of the BCAFE board, including our Ex-ecutive Director, were also invited to the ceremony. The highlight of the ceremony was the ribbon cutting, with some of the decedents of the original ten farmers. It was exciting for me to see Parker Springford, from Nanoose, as part of the ribbon cutting ceremony.

I was struck by the Saanich fair, in that, although the fair offered new and ex-citing exhibits, yet the commitment to promoting agriculture was woven throughout the grounds. The high-lights for me included the Farmer’ market, the livestock and poultry dis-plays and who couldn’t miss the ‘men’s Apple Pie baking contest. Didn’t know how many men in the Saanich region could actually bake pie!

The Cowichan Fair located in the Co-wichan Valley just north of Duncan also celebrated their 150th birthday last September! The fair’s theme was ‘150 Years of Growing’. This fair be-gan in 1868 and moved to its present location in 2009.

The 150th Cowichan Exhibition opened on Friday September 7th; there were many invited dignitaries including the Honorable Lieutenant Governor of Brit-ish Columbia, Janet Austen, and it was an honour for our BCAFE representa-tives to have the opportunity to meet her. Her worship was keenly interest-ed in activities that were underway at the fair, especially, the exhibits in the Exhibit Hall.

Cowichan Exhibition 150th Anniversary Exhibit

The return of the “Loggers Sports Competition” was a special anniversary special, the last time this competition was held at the fair was in the1980’s! The competition honours the deep history of logging in the Cowichan Valley and it’s return to the fair was a tremendous success.

The Mellor Hall (Exhibit Hall) display was fantastic; it was one of the best displays of crafts, baking, flowers and horticulture that I have seen, most memorably was the ‘Decorated Hat’ competition! The hall itself was dec-orated with flagging identifying each section and the 150th theme was cre-atively carried throughout.

Both the Saanich Fair and Cowichan Exhibition provide a testament in stay-

Continued on next page...

Opening Ceremonies at the Saanich Fair


News...Continued from previous page

ing relevant to their communities in pro-viding agricultural education and providing healthy competition for community mem-bers to show their skills. Each of these fairs mix the old with the new and have been successful for 150 years!

I believe that agricultural fairs are a signif-icant part of our communities, from small to big. They provide a place where families, old and young, can look back to when times were simpler and learn about our agriculture history. They give children the opportunity to touch and see animals that they may not otherwise have in their daily lives. They offer support to other community non-profit organizations and bring economic benefits to local businesses!

A number of fairs have expressed concern over a decline in exhibit entries; this is a call-out or call-to-action for fair organizers to bring the young millennials into the fold and teach them the importance that agriculture plays in their lives and the significant roll that agricultural fairs play in bringing awareness of our farming communities.

Currently there are over 2,000 fairs that op-erate each year in North America! BC Fairs have nearly 50 agricultural fair associations in our membership; of those members, near-ly half are celebrating 100 years or more in 2019, which I believe, proves that agricultural fairs provide an important legacy to each community.

Allison Bourne Director, BC Fairs

Meet Brian Casey, Opening Keynote

Speaker at the 2019 BC Fairs Conference!At the present time Brian, along with his wife Janice and his daughter Courtney, show a 6-horse hitch of Clydesdales and breed and raise foals. At the age of 14, Brian became an active participant at local shows, bar-rel racing, as well as helping his father Keith show draft horses.

After graduating from Nova Sco-tia Agricultural College in 1976, he and his father bought a dairy farm. This led to the start of showing dairy cattle. During this time, he became involved with the dairy and draft horse committees at his local exhibition. In 2005-2006 he was president of the Hants Coun-ty Exhibition, North America’s old-est agricultural fair. In 2007-2008 Brian was elected president of the Exhibition Association of Nova Scotia; he was then elected to the CAFE board in 2008. In 2014 he was re-elected to the position of president of the Hants County Ex-hibition and helped guide this fair to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2015 as the oldest Agricultural Fair in North America. He held this position until 2016.

Brian’s involvement in various community organizations has been constant throughout his ca-

reer. He is a past president of the Hants County Federation of Agri-culture; the West Nova Holstein Club; the Nova Scotia Holstein Association; and the Nova Scotia Animal Breeders Association. His efforts are not limited to the world of agriculture, although he does offer farm tours for various local 4-H groups, school groups, and local community groups. He also sings in the church choir and is President of his local cemetery association.

Although retired from the CAFE board, Brian is still involved in fairs and exhibitions, sitting on various boards and committees. Brian is a firm believer in small fairs; it is the small fairs that are the backbone of the industry and it is the small fairs who need to continue to educate the public on the importance of the agricultural industry.

We need to preserve our heritage and continue to impress upon the ever-growing population, the important role that agriculture plays today. The trick is, we need to educate and entertain at the same time so people will have fun and learn at the same time. A daunting task to say the least.

A handmade hat on display at the Cowichan Exhibition


News

As organizations continually look for competitive advantages and ways to grow, programmatic has presented a unique opportunity to target audiences with incredible precision plus it`s very inexpensive!

This form of digital marketing relies on software and algorithms that display your Fair`s advertisements in real time to your audience across any device they own with internet connectivity.

It also provides the ability for your Fair to measure their return on marketing investments down to the penny.

To keep things simple - as market-ing buzz words are manufactured on a near daily basis - we refer to programmatic as any form of on-line advertising where a computer is bidding for the right to display your ad to someone on an online platform.

These include, but are not limited to Google AdWords, the Google Display Network (GDN), program-matic display networks, mobile phones and tablets, social media apps and websites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, You-Tube)

To advertise on these platforms effectively, you need to identify your audience through three pa-rameters. Where is your audience located, who are they and what are they doing online? Once these

questions are answered a blend of the platforms are used to accom-plish your objectives.

You could market directly to vis-itors of your physical location or website, attendees to other events in your market, or to an individual who has a similar profile to those existing guests that visit your Fair. There is a near limitless variety of uses for programmatic advertising - the important thing to realize is you can target specifically to reach only those you identify as possible attendees to your Fair. Each time someone fitting the parameters you`ve selected opens an app on their phone, surfs the web, search-es on Google or visits a social me-dia platform, they are shown your ad. The objective being to drive them to your website, call your of-fice, fill out a form you need or get them to your Fair.

The good news about program-matic and digital marketing is that it makes a wide-variety of mar-keting opportunities accessible to anyone with a computer or internet access.

Need help getting your program-matic program going or have more questions - send me an email [email protected] or call me at 1-250-897-5055. It`s easier than you think!

Keith Currie Director BC Fairs

DIGITAL MARKETING:

What Is Programmatic?

FRIDAY NIGHT

SOCIAL

Friday, October 18, 2019 Sun Peaks Grand Hotel, Sun Peaks


and Exhibitions

• Costume Contest • Prizes • Games •

BC Association of Agricultural Fairs and Exhibitions’

FRIDAY NIGHT SOCALThis Year’s Theme: Zombie Apocalypse

ZOMBIEAPOCALYP

SE

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


News

Livestock Traceability FAQ’sWhat do I need to do this summer for livestock traceability?

There is nothing different you need to do for this summer. However, since 2014, fairs and exhibitions have been deemed responsible to ensure all animals who arrive on the grounds have approved tags. The best prac-tice to be compliant with this is to tell all exhibitors that their animals will not be allowed on the grounds if they are not properly tagged. You can include these in your rules and regulations and include signage on your grounds at at your entrances to support this regulation.

What is going to possibly change?

There are proposed changes that will mean your fair or exhibition will be obligated to record and submit when animals arrive on and leave your fairgrounds.

When will these changes likely hap-pen?

We have just received notice that the earliest these changes will be dis-

cussed is Spring/Winter 2020. Which means likely final approval will not occur until late 2020. You will likely have to implement changes in 2021.

The regulations need to be published in the Canadian Gazette (Spring/Win-ter 2020) with a 75 day comment peri-od. The comments are then reviewed and the final version will be published in the Canadian Gazette. Once the final version is published, the rules will be implemented.

Why did the Canadian Cattle Iden-tification Agency (CCIA) email me?

As part of the proposed changes, you will need to get a premise identifica-tion number, and the CCIA is working to collect these numbers because they are the “responsible adminis-trator” for livestock traceability (aside from pigs).

What animals are subject to live-stock traceability?

The proposed changes would mean that cows, cervids (ie: bison), sheep and pigs would all be subject to

livestock traceability, if they aren’t already.

Where does our industry stand on this?

The provinces and national organi-zation (CAFE) have signed a position statement on livestock traceability. We are not in favour of fairs and exhi-bitions being responsible for tagging and reporting.

What should I do?

More information will follow on how you can support the position state-ment before and during the 75 day comment period mentioned above. It is important that we have a unified voice in advocating for change. At this point, you should:

1. Amend your regulations to speci-fy that all animals arriving on your grounds require approved tags

2. Sign up for a premise identifica-tion number and inform CCIA of this number (it will be required regardless of whether fairs and exhibitions are responsible for submitting when animals arrive on and leave the fairgrounds)

3. Monitor your inboxes for emails from CAFE and BC Fairs regard-ing next steps.

If you have any questions or con-cerns, do not hesitate to contact Christina Franc at CAFE, [email protected]

[email protected]

west coast amusements @westcoastamusementsLIKE & FOLLOW US:

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