Taking the ‘progress’ out of Farm Progress, show debuts changes

With the smell and dust of Agribition still in the air at Evraz Place, big changes were announced Monday for the upcoming Farm Progress Show, now rebranded Canada’s Farm Show.

The most obvious change is the name.

“Since its inception, agriculture has been progressive. The reality of agriculture today is, if you’re not progressive you simply don’t exist. And so, now is the time to drop the progress side and just recognize that everything we do in the agriculture and farming industry is progressive,” explained Tim Reid, president and CEO of Regina Exhibition Association Limited — the organization that operates Evraz Place.

Reid said the advisory committee has been talking for the last year and a half about what exhibitors, buyers and producers really want out of the show. He said the committee members came around to the idea that the show really needs to be about innovation and new products.

Other changes to push the event in that direction include the entire event moving indoors at Evraz Place.

“It should mitigate some of the challenges we see around weather in the spring. It’ll provide a much more comfortable hosting environment for international delegations, but it’s also going to make parking that much easier for guests that just want to come in here real quickly and get off site,” said Reid.

He explained the show is going to bring back some indoor space. Organizers expect to be able to accommodate even more vendors next summer for the 43rd edition of the show.

The show will also be moving dates to operate only during the week — taking place now from June 16 to June 18. And, one ticket will now provide access to all three days of the show.

Reid said the show is shifting to really focus on a business-to-business experience instead of focusing on consumer traffic like other events.

“This is not necessarily about me coming with my children, coming to look at some farm equipment. It’s actually about businesses networking, exchanging, collaborating and innovating. And what we want to do is, we want to make sure businesses can do business at this show — not only within our province or southern Saskatchewan but also to a global stage,” said Reid.

The show will also have new facets added in like a launchpad which will showcase a new speaker series and product launches. And the Alpha Bull rodeo will make its first appearance at the show in 2020.

Reid said show organizers wanted to give local manufacturers an opportunity to “host” guests, somewhere to take international delegations or buyers to have a good time but also get deals done.

Jeff Cockwill is the director of corporate affairs with Viterra and he’s also on the show’s advisory board. He said that in 43 years agriculture has changed, and it’s time for the show to change with it.

“We’ve listened to the exhibitors, we’ve listened to the attendees, we’ve listened to producers, and it’s time to really take the show’s values, focus on the key things such as innovation, and drive the show changes to make sure that we have value for everybody that attends as well as agriculture and Saskatchewan,” said Cockwill.