You know us, we're always trying something different! This was our second year in Exhibition Park and, by numbers, our largest conference yet. We had 49 sponsors and 35 trade show booths. Packed into a big U in the trade show area were 12 tables of 4H auction items donated by our sponsors and supporters of the 4H Southern Region.
The almost 300 attendees enjoyed our keynote speakers, Kevin Folta and Dwayne Beck, a lot. Of course they liked hearing about Farming Smarter's project progress and updates from some of the region's favorite researchers such as Dr. Carcamo, Kelly Turkington and Linda Hall.
The conference included two trial balloons: a facilitated networking session and live auctions each day at lunch just after the 4H speakers. Both those activities added some energy and fun to the room. Also, the 4H auction proceeds reached $9270 this year between the silent and live bids. Thanks to everyone for that.
Keep an eye on this post for speaker videos or watch for them in our video library. They will start to appear in February.
If you need to refresh you memory about speakers, download the program below.