Andrea Wiesenmeyer, CFE, Jerome County Fair & Rodeo, ID shares her experiences at the IAFE Convention through her different roles at different fairs. She currently is the fair manager for the Jerome County Fair & Rodeo, a smaller fair with two full-time staff and three part-time staff, but comes from a marketing director role at a larger county fair of 300,000 attendees that had 13 full-time staff members and 400 volunteers.
As the marketing director attending the convention, she was focused on marketing, sponsorship, and idea-generating education. Now attending as the fair manager, she is looking at ideas from a manager's point of view. Even the way she shops the trade show is different.
She has attended the CEO’s networking session and was looking at topics on board governance and staff development; human resource topics are of much more interest now.
She loves the convention and encourages everyone to attend. It is the best week outside of fair week, she believes, and helps to generate new ideas, and to destress and get ready for the next year.