This podcast episode features Nath Morris, President of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, discussing the poultry and egg industry, his career journey, and the upcoming International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE).
Key points:
Additional takeaways:
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
This podcast episode features Nath Morris, President of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, discussing the poultry and egg industry, his career journey, and the upcoming International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE).
Key points:
Additional takeaways:
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
The Poultry Leadership Podcast
Episode 2 - Leading through Adversity - Nath Morris - President US Poultry & Egg
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast. I understand that there are many choices available today, and I am so appreciative that you chose to listen to this podcast. If you want to grow, become a better leader, and ultimately a better version of yourself, then this is the podcast for you. Thank you for joining us.
Before we dive into today's topic, I need to take a moment and express our gratitude to our sponsor, Prism Controls. Without their support, this podcast wouldn't be possible. For over 40 years, Prism Controls has been an invaluable partner to the poultry producers, leading the charge in providing technology that tackles real world challenges.
Prism Controls. If you want to find out more about Prism Controls, check out PrismControls. com. On the website, you will find all of the products that they provide the industry, as well as all the new technology that they're releasing for IPPE. Welcome back to the Poultry Leadership Podcast, the go to podcast for insights into America's poultry industry.
I'm your host, Brandon Willnix, and today we have a very special episode lined up for you. Joining us today is a distinguished guest, someone who plays a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of the poultry and egg sector in the United States. He's a leader, an innovator, and champion for the industry. I'm thrilled to introduce Nath Morris, the President of the U.
S. Poultry and Egg Association. With years of experience under his belt, Nath has been at the forefront of driving progress in the sustainability in poultry and egg production. Today, he's here to share his insights on latest trends, challenges, opportunities facing the industry, as well as the upcoming IPP trade show.
From farm to table, we'll delve into what it takes to keep America's poultry and egg production thriving. Without further ado, Nath Morris. Nath,
welcome. Thank you, Brandon. It's a pleasure to be talking with you today.
Nath, as we get started, can you share with us who, who Nath Morris is?
What's your background?
Well, again, it's Nath Morris, and first and foremost, I'm a husband to my wife of 37 years. I'm a father of two married daughters, and I'm a grandfather of three. I've got a granddaughter that's five. I have two grandson, one that just turned one year old yesterday and one that's six weeks old. So this, this industry has always been a family type atmosphere.
You can tell by the history of the way that the poultry companies grew up, they were family owned and family that continues to be an important part of. Of the industry today. I, I am a third generation in the poker business. My grandfather was a veterinarian and a professor at the University of Georgia in the 1950s, and he was one of the original veterinarians for the Georgia Poker Lab Network.
And my father started his career at actually at Southeastern Poultry, which is now U. S. Poultry and Egg Association. He spent a year here and actually ran the trade show in 1963. He became president of MARJAC was, had several stances from equipment manufacturing companies. He's mostly retired at 82, but he still is active in the industry consulting on a couple of board of directors roles in the industry.
He's even attended the trade show every year since 1963 and helps others with the exhibit space there when they come. I worked my way through this industry as well. Eight years old, I was selling eggs to folks in the neighborhood. In high school, I was packing and loading hatching eggs at CWT Farms. I worked summer and winter breaks at the processing plant.
I would hear our football team over there said, Hey, we're going to get in shape. We're going to get disciplined. We're going to learn how to work and work together. They come over there and join me and said, man, I know what I don't want to be doing, but you know, Hey, there's still some folks that are in the industry that we used to do that with even, even take care of the ground for cutting grass and being.
Proud of earning the yard of the month at the at the plant. But anyway, it's it's just been really great. I went through a UGA poultry science department earned a marketing poultry degree at UGA and, and 86 and began my career at Seaboard farms in Athens, Georgia, and then. Been through the genetic side a few years on the equipment side.
Actually spent 22 years in two different genetics companies. And I've been with US Poultry now for 10 years. Came in managing, or understudy of the manager of the show, which was Charlie Allentide. And in 2015 managed my first show and became president this past summer. Wow.
So based on your dad's history, you're just getting started in the industry.
Is that correct?
I don't know if it's that long or not. He just, he loves it. He's still got a lot of friends. They'll even come down here. We'll go to lunch and folks that have been in the industry as long as he has. So you
said you're the president of the U. S. Poultry and Egg Association. What is a day What does that typically look like for you doing that
role?
Oh, well I mean, we're, we're always, we've got, I've got several departments and, and on my staff that, that I work through the environmental and regulatory issues. I've got a food safety department head. I've got a an IT we have research, a director of research Dr. Denise Hurd. Of course, your typical accounting, HR, safety.
We've got someone that leads the HR safety. Conference, joint conference with the NTF and the NCC. So it's, it's always just recently it's just been tell me what's going on. Tell me how I can help you. Tell me what what resources you need to, to advance and to support our industry members. So, you know, it's everything from your typical.
Accounting overview, the financial situation to check on everybody. It's it's just, you know, it's leading. I don't, I've always told people, don't, don't, don't call me boss. I mean, you know, we're all a team. I'm just going to give you the resources you need. I'm going to empower you to do your job and let me know.
Well, you've got a great team. I got to hang out with a few of them last week at the sustainability conference in North Carolina that in. Yeah, they just, they were great to have. Great resources. My goodness. So many people in so many different areas, but all focused on sustainability that day. So that was great.
And yeah, like I said, great team. We talked about IPP. What is IPP?
Well, IPP is the largest annual meat poultry and egg expo and feed manufacturing trade show, which is actually integrated. We we integrated with the North American Meat Institute in 2013, integrated with the American Feed Industry Association in 2007.
There was tough times happening in the industry at that time and the economic conditions were not so great. Shows weren't performing very well. And, you know, we sat there, and this was way before I was here, but they said you know, we're doing a lot of similar things. Feed is involved in, in, in poultry production and pork production and beef cattle production.
We had a lot of common exhibitors. We had a lot of common attendee groups. Let's, let's, let's combine with the feed industry and similar situation in 2013, when we brought on, on NAMI, a lot of our, our integrators were, were had multi protein species at that time delving into pork and beef, and some had already had turkey and broilers, and so it, it, it was a, it was a natural fit.
So some of that growth came from, combining of the shows, it's, it's not three separate shows, but we still, still keep our, our heritage of what we had with international poultry. People still call it a poultry show. And, and some people that come from the meat side still call it the meat show. So You know, it just, it's just, it ends up that way.
It's always our portion of it. We celebrated 75 years last year of having a trade show in Atlanta. It's always taken place in Atlanta last week of January. In the beginning, producers, hatcheries, processors, they began their year. They had their budgets developed. They knew what they had to spend, they knew what their needs were, they gathered in Atlanta for some education and the opportunity to sit out with vendors and, and make their agreements for the year and plan their plan their year.
And some of those meetings that happened way back still happen today. Where folks get a, you know, a, a meeting room or use, utilize their business to sit down with groups of folks and, and buy their product supplies and, and, and continue to build those customer supplier relationships. So it's actually IPPE in, in 2019 was recognized as the 22nd largest trade show in the United States.
So it is, it is a big deal, a big deal. We we work together, but my team. Pretty much manages the day to day operations of the of the expo.
It's interesting because just a couple years ago, getting in the industry, going to the event, and it was a COVID year. So there wasn't a lot of, a lot of people there.
Just the expansiveness of that show, three large areas. I mean. Bigger than I'd ever seen in any of the other industry events that I'd ever been to in other industries. Mm-Hmm. . So it is, it is expansive. A little overwhelming, especially as a vendor some days, I don't even think, I don't even think I've made it to the the pro, the me side of the show at all.
Like, it's, it's just, it's a, it's a good walk to
get over there. Well, and, and even in planning an event like this, we try, it is so big, there's some folks that you know, they may not have a full three days to, to to, to be there and experience everything. There's a lot to do, there's a lot of folks to see, and we try to, we've got tools that will help people.
What am I looking for? Here's a list of those people that are supplying the needs that you have. And we, we, we try to make the floor plan navigatable and have. Apps to help people find their way around. It's not an easy, easy task, but we were always looking for improving ways where people can better engage with their suppliers and their customers.
Yeah. I mean, you mentioned
the trade show, but there's a lineup of sessions and networking events and tech talks. I mean, what are some of the other, other things outside the trade show that. Future leaders, you know, from this industry should consider attending while
they're there. Like you mentioned, the the tech talks we started I'd say about eight years ago having exhibitors, giving, providing exhibitors opportunities to provide a technical session on the show floor 20 minutes no charge.
We set up three different theaters on the show floor put one in the feed area, one in the production area, one in the processing area, and those, those talks will focus on. The, the, those segment tech, new technologies, networking events, what we, what we see, and it's been the history of this show is customers like to, or, or suppliers like to entertain their customers.
A lot of dinners, a lot of breakfasts that are going on. We, we know about them. We want to make sure that the focus is for the exhibitors. They're the ones that are, that are paying the price to, to showcase their products and services. We try to focus everything around the Congress Center, keep people there.
We have a lot of our councils, whether it's a FIA or NAMI or US Poultry, our council councils will have an opportunity to have some meetings. And as far as as future leaders, we have a, a young leaders program. We're, our industry will submit nominees to participate and we'll go through and select up to 30 folks.
That have their own real program. They get to walk through the trade show show floor before it opens. So I'll give a little overview of what they'll see and what they can find out. They have their own keynote speaker. One of our industry leaders from the NBA, FIA, or us poultry. And they have we have an awards.
Award ceremony. This is the first year we're going to do the award ceremony on the show floor, at our our little engagement area on the show floor, where some of these presentations will be made. Our innovation station, where for the show, people submit their new product innovated, and we've got judges, and we'll present those awards on the trade show floor for the each, each segment's new innovation.
So, like, like you said, there's a lot going on especially for young leaders. Yeah. In today's
farm consolidation, specifically, and I'm aware of it on the layer side, the idea is you see less and less managers or less representation from each of the farms. Why is it important for the decision makers, the CEOs and and maybe the CFOs or the executive level management to be sending more on.
More folks from their team that are, you know, have their hands down in the, in the dirt and have their, you know, Taking care of the birds and the animals and maybe working on the equipment. Why is it important for them to be there?
I think it's important for an array of different levels of folks to be there.
I mean, we ask in surveys, who do you want to see on the show floor? Ask exhibitors, Who are they looking to see? And there's different levels. There's some engineers that want to see plant engineers. There's the sales guys obviously want to see the key decision makers. I've, I've all, I've, I've talked with some exhibitors about.
Why don't, why don't we look at having a demonstration in your booth about how to disassemble your equipment and properly sanitize it. Bring in some maintenance folks. It's tough, I understand it's tough for folks to get away from the plant. There's all kinds of things going on. We see, we see some that rotate that maybe, you know, one of the plant superintendents comes one year, the next year someone else will come.
There's a lot of that rotation. But we also see that there's about 30 to 35 percent of the people that answer in their survey this is the first time they've ever been to the show. And I think we've got to think about that. When we put the floor plan together, when we put, you know, people are coming here for the first time.
It's a huge facility. Where do they go? How do we welcome them? How do we help them? How do we direct them on, on, on, you know, where things are going on? And not only that, 20, 25 percent of our attendees are international. So think about first time international, maybe even the first time in the United States.
So it's, I kind of veered a little bit away from the, from the question, but I think it's all those decision makers and it is the consolidation has changed the scope of the folks that come to the show, but the internationals are really filling in in heavy numbers especially from our Latin American countries.
Same thing, it's the opportunity for receiving education, it's the opportunity for networking, and it's an opportunity for looking at new technology and innovation. Hey, what's interesting
is you, you spoke from the, the producer side, the animal side. I'm going to actually speak real quickly from the supplier side.
I find bringing. More of my team to that show is important because they get to see what's outside the walls of our company. They get to see the new technologies that may be affecting our customers that we could integrate into our products. And so it's interesting as you walk that show floor with the eyes from a different perspective.
Our customer is going to be looking, you know, maintenance guy might be looking for. Things that make his job easier, but he also could see something that possibly a CEO couldn't may not see because he's used to working on equipment every day. And he goes, Hey, that would make sense to help us. Another value for me as a supplier is the feedback from those guys to say, Hey.
Have you guys thought of this or have you guys you know, what about this crazy idea and it gives us opportunities to innovate on our product because we don't get that feedback in today's avian influenza world and COVID world. We're not able to just to go farm to farm to farm and capture that information and be able to bring that back to our team.
So. So to have my team or have our team on that show floor, just, you know, our engineers, our software developers walking around and seeing what's out there is actually very valuable to us as suppliers to the industry. So that's, that's one of the things I like about it.
Well, I think you look at the we have some exhibitors that are 6, 000 square feet in a blue space.
They have, they have folks from R and D, they have folks from engineering, they have sales people. And you've got. You've got a lot of 10 by 10s, where maybe the owner of a company of a brand new product is there and, and I've heard from exhibitors before that a healthy, you can, you can tell a show is healthy by the number of 10 by 10 boosts that are there because they know that they're going to be there bringing their customers.
Oh, by the way, you need to see this guy across from. There's, there's so much interaction across the exhibitor supplier, the exhibitors know each other and, and, and they're bringing their customers in. We kind of always remember that attendees come to this show or potentially everybody's customer. You may be competitive.
You may have, you know, you're, you're. Competition, but there's so many different areas from, like you said, farm to fork that is needed for producing this food product off the safe food product and keeping folks healthy and things like that and safe. But so there's so many things to see.
Yeah, absolutely.
So with everything going on with the show, what are you most excited about for this year?
I mean, I, I, the largest show ever, our, our largest show was in 2019. And my largest, I mean, the, the, the number of exhibitors, the square footage of the show, the display area we're over 613,000 square feet. We were 603,000 2019.
So if you'd have told me during Covid that we could have come back this quickly, I would've said, you're crazy. There's, there's still so much consolidation going on from the supplier side and from the integrator side. That's, what I, what I also see is some of these boots getting bigger, there's some solidation and they still bring their different brands that are in within that new organization, that new company.
And, and it, it shows the strength of, of, of, of what people can provide and supply for, for our attendees. So I'm excited about the of the size of the show. I'm excited about the potential for also meeting the. The largest number of attendees. Last year we had 27 5 again, coming off of Covid.
Went from 20,000 to 27 5 and we were at 30, almost 33,000, 2019. So we're doing everything we can to make sure we're promoting the show and providing folks with why you, why you should attend, why you should be here,
20,027. And you had a history with 30. Wow. That's. I haven't been there in 30, so I don't, I don't know what that looks like.
I'm excited to experience it this year. I'm going to, I'm going to have to order some more swag for our giveaways, sounds like, because they definitely like their giveaways
there. Well, the other challenge when I say that it's big, we, we are in the full expanse of the Georgia World Commerce Center and you spread that out the density, the perception of the density.
They say, oh, there's not as many people here. They're still 30, 000 or 30, 30 plus. So again, it's face, it's getting the right people there. Even, even during the COVID time folks said, yeah, there wasn't many people here, but the right people here. That's the key is getting the right people here.
Yeah. And it takes work as a supplier ahead of time to understand who's coming to the event by talking to your customers, talking to your farms and just.
Organizing time with them. Cause it's a busy couple of days. Some of them come in on Monday and attend trade events or association events. And by the time they get through Thursday, you know, they're, they're pretty well spent, but I've seen some laser focused customers walk in and go exactly, know exactly where they're going, know exactly who they're going to talk to.
And that makes it, that makes the show all worthwhile to be able to get in front of them. And then. The random, you know, the random folks that you didn't even anticipate being there that you can have a conversation with. That, that's what excites me, that's why we attend. We've got some new products to share this year, so we're pretty excited there.
I do have to ask you,
because if we look at the the amount of time that's been on the show floor, the whole event, I mean, I've, I've often talked about the experience starts when the wheels hit the ground at Hartsfield airport, or when somebody pulls into the city limits of Atlanta, we behind the scenes, we work very hard with the security police departments personally meet with the chief of police.
They know our folks are here. They, they add additional security. We try to make sure that, that restaurants are prepared for us. We engage them. They have some discounts for protein products on their menu. We kind of encourage that through the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau. You know, there's, there's, there's a limited number of hours and we want folks to, to, to feel safe, to be able to get around.
I know traffic is tough in Atlanta but there is a lot of great things to do in Atlanta, great restaurants to explore. Maybe not right there downtown, but they're, they're all over the place. So that, that also goes into the play. We want that whole experience to say, I really enjoyed being there.
And I want to come back. Well, I
felt all of that last year. It was the restaurants talking with a lot of restaurants. They love having the poultry. The poultry event is what they call it in town. It's good for business. A lot of, you know, restaurants are booked solid, you know, months out because of the event, which is awesome.
So if you're going to get. Do you think you want reservations at some of the top stake houses in town? You better get 'em not, they may not be available. They will not be available. Come Jan, the end of January. That's right. And just the added security. We happen to have a place overlooking the uni or the, the Olympic Park.
Mm-Hmm. And just the amount of security there. You know, it's, it's definitely very safe. And lots of, lots of signage all over town, no matter where you're at, you're seeing IPP on the marketing for the town. I mean, you see them hanging on streets, quarters. It's great. I mean, the. Atlanta definitely is a good host for this event.
There's a lot to do there. All right, I do have to ask a question. This is coming. This is something we joked about last time, but, and I've heard it through your, your presentation today, or your discussion today is, you guys use a lot of technology to help your visitors experience the best. Every single day, 10 times a day, I'm getting emails asking me for, do you want the attendee list?
Talk about that. Oh,
the Brandon, I had one yesterday and a lot of my exhibitors send these to me and say, is this real? I mean, as much as we post on our website, watch out for these, don't fall for this. I can't say they're scammers, but they're not representing, they do not have the attendee list. We do not sell the attendee list.
Even one yesterday had. The IPPE logo. On there as misrepresenting and several years ago, we filed suit on the company that was a an inner, you know, an internet hidden place that that did scam our folks at a hotel room and we were awarded a 749, 000 settlement, but they didn't exist. But we made a point scammers on hotel scammers on attendee lists.
There's nothing we can do. We can send them a cease and desist letter, but just don't fall for that. Get your lead retrieval devices, scan the badge and you've got the attendee list that you want. If you want to reach out to us and let us, we've got a separate marketing agency that does have access.
It's called the Nexus. They're a preferred vendor. You'll see them on our website. If you need some marketing help to reach out, what we can do is pull our registration from the key categories, what folks are looking for. And we can say, here's a list of folks that you can reach out to. And we'll send emails and we'll always, the marketing company will send email.
We don't get that information. So as it's an agreement between you and the marketing agency, the only way we'll get it is through. Hey, they, they, they're new registrants and they came to the show and how they've registered that opportunity is there.
All right. We're going to transition here. I want to talk a little bit about how you got to where you got to.
I mean, you're a president of an amazing association that has a huge influence on the industry. So what was your journey like to get you where you're at?
Well, I think it's hard work. It's. Always listening, always learning confide in, in people surround yourself with good people, learn from people learn how to become a people person.
I Mean, I've done, I've done jobs from Hanging Live Chickens in 1983 at Marjack and Gates, it was 105 degrees. I was part of three people doing that. The yard crew, like I've mentioned earlier, and they, and everybody walked off the back dock and they said, we got to get these chickens hung. And I went up there and hung chickens.
This wasn't the day's normal. We had to unstack wooden coops, open coop, pull chickens out, hang chicken. We had to run it, run the chicken. So live hall. I mean, I, I had a year of internship. We're, I've spent two weeks in every department across an integrator. It's always searching those times where you can learn something.
When you, when you grow and develop, you need a wide knowledge of everything that goes on this industry. Like you said, from barn to fork, you work those tough hours. You do those tough jobs to understand. What other people who do those jobs every day are going through and what kind of challenges they have and think about how can I make their jobs better and easier and provide that necessary process for, for developing food products.
So, I mean, you know, it was, it was from the plant to, to live, to genetics, to some equipment. But it was, you know, it's, it goes by fast, but take every opportunity to learn and. Realize that you can continue to learn something every day. Was there anybody
that looking back on your journey? Was there any?
Anybody in particular that stood out to you that helps you along in your journey?
Brandon, there's, there's so many folks. And I, and I think you may be in today's world. Sometimes we all don't respect the authority and the respect the folks that have been where we want to go. I will mention my dad again.
When I got into sales, he told me he said, Nate, there's two types of sales people. There's one that you show up at the door and the guy that you want to see is hiding underneath the desk and he tells his administrator, tell him I'm busy and you know, that's certainly one that you want to become, but be one that, that you can walk in and provide him something of value every time you see it, whether it's something that's going to improve his business, whether it's something in his personal life, build a relationship with it, make people work through people to say Yeah, I'll, I'll, I will sit down and talk to him because he, he always brings me something.
And I, I think that was, that was key. But again, it's building the relationships that all boils down to have a, having a personal connection with customers, with suppliers, with co workers, everybody, you know, build that relationship, make it personal, share personal stories. So that's, that's what I've got to have there.
So when you were Back hanging chickens in that hundred and three hundred and five degree V. Could you imagine your career in front of you? Did you have dreams of doing? What you're doing now.
I'm sure I had bad dreams of that no, that's, I I remember when I went home that night, I was so tired. I took a shower, I lay down on the couch and I remember my mom saying, get up this time to get up.
She was actually calling me up for supper and I thought it was the next morning. I went and jumped in the shower again. I got ready for work and I went upstairs and it's supper time. I thought it was early the next morning. So, you know, I, I, I think the, the thing about it is, you know, these jobs have to get done.
Somebody's got to do these jobs. There's technology that comes along that will help, that may replace these tough tasks, understanding what folks are going through in that, in that situation and trying to make things better for them, make things safe for them and experiencing those tough. Positions because you know what it is.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's hard. And I think there's, there's folks who said I'd never, I would never do this. Oh, obviously I said, I don't want to hang chickens the rest of my life, but I'll, I'll, there was a couple of times I said, I don't know if I want to be in this industry that here I am.
I think it goes to show that when you're hanging that chicken and if you set your mind and look for opportunities to grow and continue to develop. The sky's the limit. I mean, the industry is, is retiring the farmers, the managers, the GMs. There's, there's a natural attrition in the industry that if you work hard and you stand out by getting, working the extra time, learning something new or finding a specialty, like.
Hey, I'm the technology guy. I can work really well with computers. It makes you different than the rest of your team to the point where the opportunities then start to open up. So I see that in our team as, as they continue to grow, it's like, okay, who's got that extra special skill or that drive, that passion to grow.
And those are the people that stand out. Those are the people that end up moving through, moving up in their career. And so that's, it's exciting to know that you can go from high school. So, selling eggs, even down at the elementary level, to President of the U. S. Oatry Association, that's just awesome.
That's just, that's an incredible story.
Well, I think that also Brings forth an opportunity for college skill. We have a college student program. I went through that in 1985 I interviewed with Frank Perdue. I didn't go to work for him, but that opportunity was there We had that we had a female that was unusual in 1985 that wanted to get into the poultry business.
She was a poultry science major She also had a an interview with Frank Perdue and she said I'm going to work for Frank Perdue And she did and ended up having a good career there. We bring in almost 800 students that we have we want them to see the show. We want them to interview for internships, for career opportunities.
We have a space that, I mean, not a lot of people know this goal goes on. We want it to be that part. We don't want interruptions. There's people doing interviews for these, for these kids and creating career opportunities. We'll have a hundred booths in our, one of the big ballrooms, just 10 by 10 areas where recruiters from, from companies across the spectrum of, of, of the industries are coming in to interview these kids.
So, and it, and it, I think the perception of chicken processing has changed because it, it has changed. It's a lot more specialized even the maintenance. Level of maintenance is, is, has increased exponentially because of the technology that's out there. You gotta understand PLCs computerization all those kind of things that that keeps the plants running.
So there's, there's, there's great opportunities for anybody. And, you know, another thing my dad always told me, he said, you know, people always have to eat. And if you look at the numbers they're eating chicken. And he said back in the eighties, hopefully it'll be chicken. Well, if you look at the numbers, it is per capita consumptions, almost a hundred pounds per per person.
So great opportunities.
It is that information for students on, on your
website? yEs, it is. It's there, but it's most of the events are recruited. We work with the with the departments across, you know, especially those that have poultry science departments and, and, and feed and, and animal science and food technology.
I mean, we're working with those that help bring those, those kids in. We provide them. With two nights hotel stay we provide them with free admission and they have their own program and so that's, that's, that's part of our, our mission is trying to help recruit folks into the industry and, and that's where we spend our, our money.
We put money from the show back into the industry through research, through these. Paying for these kids to come to the show through our services that we provide on, like I mentioned, the environmental, the HR, the research, the safety. So is it too
late for me to join? I mean, I'm all for, you know, getting in this industry.
So is it too late?
You're going to talk to your folks about, Hey, I'm going to go interview for another job.
No, I'm joking there. I'm talking about, that's just a great opportunity. I came into this industry years, I mean, I'm on my second career in the industry, so I'm so glad I found it though. It's growing up in the shadow of Herb Brooks in a little town called Saranac, Michigan, not understanding that.
Not even having a clue what the industry is and just now being blessed to be part of it. It's, it's exciting. So as we continue to move through this podcast, the listeners have learned that I like to go a little deeper than just talking about how you got to leadership, how you, you know, what you do, because I think a lot of our.
future leaders are going to go through something in life. So I wanna know what's the most difficult thing you've ever gone through and what did you do to get through it?
Well I think you, you brought it up earlier, it was the, the time of COVID. I mean as I just mentioned, running our association is dependent upon having an RPPE.
We in 2020 we finished our show, we have, we always have a little closing celebration with our vendors and we go upstairs and cut some cake and then get back to work, obviously, but we were all in there and got a an email from the World Health Organization that talked about a global emergency was not a pandemic at that time, but there was a global emergency in which we had heard About COVID happening out there.
I don't think anybody expected, no one would ever believe what we ended up going through as, as a, as a world, as our economy is, is things just shut down everywhere. Not only our show, but there were no trade shows going on period. Think about the economic hardship of industries. You think about these nonprofit organizations that run shows that depend on these events to, to keep their doors open.
Some didn't make it. The, the people that work at the Congress Center that depend on having an event there so they can work and, and, and move Freddie and work in the restaurant you know, it impacted everybody. And then, you know, we figured, okay, this will last a little while. We had to make a decision by October 2020, whether or not we were going to have our 21 event.
It was a very hard decision. It was easy, but it was difficult. You know what I mean? I mean, we knew that safety was a paramount importance. We certainly wanted to have an event. And then we, then we kind of moved in to say, okay, what can we do to replace this? How can we give some people an opportunity? We provided a free online exhibitors.
Send us your profile. We had the event, an online event that was, that was happening during the same time we would have had to show. We had over 9, 000 people that logged on and were attending educational sessions that we had recorded and things like that to just help people stay engaged. And then 22 were able to come back and have an online event, I mean an in person event.
And people were just so grateful that. We were there, we had an event, even though it wasn't greatly attended, and just said, it's just great to be back. And at another, at another executive in the industry said, you know, I always said, yeah, I got to go to the poetry show. And that year we didn't have it.
He said, man, I sure didn't miss it. Cause that's when folks can get together, rekindle old relationship, run into old friends. And, And, and do business and learn. That was a tough time. I'm glad it's behind us and I hope we don't have to go through that again. Was anything
that really helped you get through it?
I mean time, obviously the pandemic fizzled down, but what, what helped you get through it?
There weren't as many cars on the road on the interstate. It was easier to get to work, but, you know, You just had to focus on, we're going to get through this. I mean, there was so much I'm also on the school board and I had to deal with what was happening at, at an education and we didn't shut our schools down.
We, we, we were down for the initial part, but the next year we went back and, and I kept saying, you know, look at what we're doing over here on the school side. We're keeping kids in school. We're going to get through this. And I think you got to, you had, you had to say, we're going to get through this.
We're going to come back. We were thinking it might take four or five years to get back. After some other significant economic events in the past, it did take four or five years to come back. We're, we're, we're back. We, we know we're back. Look at the size of the floor. We're going to see what the attendance is.
But you just had to, you just had to keep the positive attitude. Now, now, did things change yet? Absolutely. The way, the way we work in, in the United States has changed work from home flexible hours things like that are, are different than they were in the past. Probably some good came from it. We still have these Zoom meetings like we're having today.
You know, we can communicate there's nothing that replaces face to face, but we're still able to communicate across all these different technological opportunities that are provided for us.
For sure. So, in the last 12 months, so, After COVID, what is some of the, what is one of the greatest learnings you've had?
I think in the new role, it's just learning new things that you haven't had to worry about. You know, am I going to, we're going to put our benefits package together? Is this the best benefits package for our employees? And that's, and that's a good thing. We've got, I've got good employees. I've got good department leaders.
That that make it easy. I mean, you know, they, they worked well before. And like I said earlier, it's empower them to do their job. I'm here to help you. But you know, it's all the things that it's just like when I exhibited at the show until you, until you get into a show and see what all is done behind the scenes, you have no idea.
I mean, it takes. full year to put this event together. And you know, when you're exhibiting or attending, you just show up, it's there, it happens, you go home. And it's, it's, it's similar to any business. I mean, you know, you, you know what goes on and then you're, you're in the seat to have to make some of those decisions and learn those new things and buck stops here.
It's like what they say, but you know, it's it's every, every, every opportunity learning and learning something new. It's just, just great.
What is the vision of IPP past 23? What do you, you know, in 5, 10 years, what do you see your organization being doing differently than it would do today?
As we were in COVID, there were people that said trade shows are not going to come back as they were.
It will be replaced by online events. It, it just, it's not. People wanting to get together, it's an industry like the poultry, and the meat, and the feed, and the egg, and, and, you know, everybody that's creating a protein food product, it's, it's, it's, it's learning from each other, it's how to do things better, it's also, we're doing something noble, we're, we're, we're creating a food product that, that can feed the world.
And some people say that's, that's just a little bit of a trite expression, but it's, but it's not, it's true. And I, I, I think that there's, it, it, will IPVE change? Yes. I think it always, we always think about things that we can do better, engage more attendees. What can we do to help you? I mean. We provide the venue, we provide the schedule, but it's still up to those exhibitors to the market, to invite, to entertain, to provide hospitality, to provide learning opportunities at, at their booth.
So we're, we're open to change the technology now that we talked about before the mobile apps where you used to have to pull out a big map and unfold it and say, you know, direction am I looking at? I'm where am I standing? You know, it's, it's not easy, but It's those things that I think are going to continue to bring in those new potential leaders, to bring in those new candidates for working in our industry from the college student program.
I think we can grow there. So we want to, we want to make sure we're providing that value to the industry, to our members and to the people that can come in and work with us. Excellent.
Excellent. Is there any question that I didn't ask that you want to share with our listeners?
Brandon, I really don't know of any.
Different question. I think we covered a lot of things. I'm sure there was some things that I would, you know, wish I would have said after the fact, but it's always, it's great to have an industry that supports folks and is challenged. There's all kind of challenge with HPAI out there right now. It's challenging.
It's tough. With, with some of the activist groups that that just don't wanna see animal protein, it's, it's, it's challenging. This industry is full of, of good people that are always doing things for the right reason. And, I mean, I can think of the, the pioneers back, the Jesse Jewels of the world.
Don Tyson's, the folks that, that really built this integration would be proud of where we are. The genetic improvements, the husbandry improvements, the facility improvements have really been able to produce a, a, a, a more economical product for, for everybody. Excellent. How
does someone get in contact with you?
I'm available on our, our website. Let's see. InMorris at ufpoultry. org is my email address. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook. It's more for personal side on my Facebook, so, but US poultry, we have a website, IPVE as a website, and it's IPP xpo.org. IPP xpo.org and us poultry.org is is our company's website.
We, we are on, we have Facebook pages, we have LinkedIn pages, we have Instagram pages. We'll also feature some new chatting opportunities for folks coming to the show, you'll see some opportunities to scan a QR code and say, you know, where's, where's the nearest bathroom where's the tech talk theater what's going on at 10 o'clock.
So, you know, some of those things, again, reaching people, I'm always available and anybody would like to reach out, invite you to if you're not exhibiting, I don't have a whole lot of booths left. We will reconvene in 2025 and please. Coming to attend the show and I'll like you will be glad you did.
Well, thank you, Nate, for your time today. Really appreciate it. I know our listeners are going to absolutely enjoy this episode. So I encourage you listeners to share this episode with your friends, anybody who's in the industry that wants to grow. And also make sure that you get on the website and attend and register and attend for the show.
I look forward to seeing you at the show. And again, thank you, Nate, for your time. Thank you, Brennan. So one last question that I may or may not. Before we go, I need to take a moment to thank our sponsor, Prism Controls. Without them, this podcast wouldn't exist. They have been partnering with the poultry producers like you for over 40 years and are leading the way to provide technology to farmers that solve real problems.
To find out more information, they can be reached at 1 844 4 PRISM4 or their website www. prismcontrols. com