Feedstuffs in Focus
Feedstuffs in Focus is a weekly look at the hot issues in the livestock, poultry, grain and feed industries. Join us as we talk with industry influencers, experts and leaders about trends and more. Feedstuffs in Focus is produced by the team at Feedstuffs.
Feedstuffs in Focus
IPPE 2025: What you need to know before you go
It’s the world’s largest annual poultry, feed and meat technology exposition and it’s coming up January 28-30 in Atlanta, Ga.
Known as the International Production and Processing Expo, it offers a vast show floor highlighting the latest in technology, products and services, along with extensive networking and education opportunities for all.
Joining us to talk about IPPE 2025 is Sarah Novak, Chief Operating Officer of the American Feed Industry Association.
For more information, visit https://www.ippexpo.org
Welcome to Feedstuffs in Focus, our podcast taking a look at the big issues affecting the livestock, poultry, grain and animal feed industries. I'm your host, Sarah Muirhead. Joining us today to talk about the International Production and Processing Expo, also called IPPE, is Sarah Novak, Chief Operating Officer of the American Feed Industry Association. So, Sarah, let's start by looking at that big picture. You've been involved in IPPE for a number of years, so you must have kind of that bumper sticker for describing what IPPE is and, of course, why folks should attend.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, for sure. I've been working with IPPE for many years. So as we're talking today, it's 2024 and the show is in 2025. So I always like to think of it as it's a new year and new solutions. It's starting out your year, right. Like to think of it as it's a new year and new solutions. It's starting out your year, right. Lots of ways to network, get education, visit with your vendors and your partners and your suppliers and just really start 2025 out year out with a you know a good, with a bang, I guess.
Speaker 1:There you go. So have you guys taken a look at all? I mean, there's so many people, there's so many vendors, there's so much going on at IPPE. Have you taken a look at what maybe that total buying power is, what's represented, when you know, when all these folks come together for IPPE?
Speaker 2:Certainly. We've done some surveys of our attendees and about 87 percent almost 90 percent are what we would call authorized decision makers, so either they're recommending buying decisions or part of buying groups, they're influencers. So a lot of those people who are walking the show floor in the trade show floor are making those decisions on buying. About 40% of our attendees are what we would call C-suite, so management roles, directors, executives within their organization. So they really do have the potential to make some decisions on how their business is going to move forward If it's with new equipment, new ingredients, new suppliers. It's a great group of people that come and attend Expo.
Speaker 1:You mentioned the Expo, the trade show, part of this, of IPPE. What are you looking at this year in terms of total square feet of exhibit space, number of exhibit companies? How do you measure that and what can we expect as we turn out in Atlanta?
Speaker 2:Yes, so we're similar to last year, in 2024. We're in all four halls of the Georgia World Congress Center. We're close to about 600,000 square feet, which, if I put that in football, you know I'm a Green Bay Packer fan, sarah square feet, which if I put that in football, you know I'm a Green Bay Packer fan, Sarah.
Speaker 2:It's about 10.4 football fields of trade show floor. We're really excited. It continues to grow. We have probably about almost 1,400 exhibitors. So I think the exact number as of earlier this week was 1,349, but we're closing in on that 1,400 number of exhibitors.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Well, this Minnesota Vikings fan would like to know if you have any changes to the exhibit floor this year and you know things that folks really should be aware of.
Speaker 2:You know, yes, we're always trying to create some new opportunities, new experiences for our attendees. We used to have a welcome reception. We're actually kind of changing it around a little bit. It's going to be a happy hour on Tuesday afternoon. Last year you remember there was a drum line that walked through. We have something a little different. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but we'll have a little just to create a little excitement and fun.
Speaker 2:On the trade show floor A new one this year. In the B Hall we have what we call our community lounge, which just gives our attendees I mean when you're walking 10 football fields of exhibits. There's times where you want to sit down and take a break and check your email. So we have a community lounge that actually has some corn hole and connect four and checkers games, just to let you take a breath and refresh before you get back up on your feet and walk around in.
Speaker 2:In the A-Hall, where a lot of the feed equipment and feed ingredients are, we have a group called Caring Paws. So it's a group of people that bring in dogs. They're usually really cool dogs dressed. They trim them up to look like lions or elephants or tigers. They'll be on the show floor, I think Tuesday and Wednesday around lunchtime. They're a great program. They take them to hospitals and retirement communities and things like that, so it's always fun to have some pets to help lower your anxiety. I think is really what it's going for, but we're excited to have some of those on the floor.
Speaker 1:That's fun. You know. You got to have those fun things right Just to kind of break up the day and get people excited, especially as you come towards the end of the day, when you might be, as you say, your feet hurt and things are just like, oh my gosh. And then, hey, let's have something happen here and let's, you know, take advantage of these things. So what about in terms of the education program? Is that a big part of uh, ipp? And, and what would you say, are those like? You don't want to miss sessions for 2025.
Speaker 2:certainly. Um, overall, the show puts together about 80 hours of education programs, everything geared towards the poultry production and processing industry, meat processing and the feed industry. And since you and I are here to talk a little bit about feed, I'll give you kind of some hints on some of the programs we're doing with the feed industry. I think it's about our 15th year doing the pet food conference, which is all day on tuesday, january 28th. Um, similar in the past. We have a speaker talking about kind of trends on the industry. Um, the session I really like is the graduate students. So we have graduate students coming from University of Guelph, auburn University and your alma mater, I think, university of Illinois, really talking about graduate students, stuff like what their research is about, what are we looking at in the future, kind of what's that next step in pet nutrition? So very excited to have that group there and give those students an opportunity to kind of showcase their knowledge. Very cool for us our foundation, the Institute for Feed Education Research, is releasing our pet food consumption report at IPPE. So Laura Moody, our executive director, will be there speaking to the pet food conference, kind of looking at some new pet food consumption numbers, and it breaks it down by ingredients and ingredients that are used in pet food. So that's really some cool data that we'll release. And then typically we always have someone from FDA and the AFCO, the Association of American Feed Control Officials talk a little bit about kind of their vision, what they see coming down the pike from a regulatory stance. So pet food conference is a great program.
Speaker 2:The other one that we have that we've done now, I think, two or three years, is we partner with APHIS. So we partner with USDA's animal health plant inspection services. I think I got that right. Their title is called the good, bad and ugly of importing and exporting products. I would tell people if they want to register for this, they need to register really soon because we probably will sell out on this program. But if you're involved in importing or exporting and working with APHIS, 100% you should attend this. We bring in a bunch of the staff from APHIS to attend and the really cool thing in the afternoon is they do topic tables so you can go from table to table talking to different APHIS staff about different issues and problems and learn more from them. And then we also have an industry panel that's talking about the challenges they have faced dealing with with Avis and that program is all day on Wednesday. We have two other programs that we always do Our feed education program.
Speaker 2:Every year we do this Wednesday morning 8 am Feed industry. We're early people so we're up and going by 8 am. I think there's some good stuff there. We'll have someone talking about EPA, osha, fda and kind of what's to come in a new administration. Whenever we have a change in administration there's always a change of priorities and issues and topics. So they're really going to kind of look a little bit about what's going on within the agencies. And then the topic of the day is artificial intelligence. So we have a professor from Iowa State coming to talk about AI in the feed industry. So really excited to have him there.
Speaker 2:And then our last program of the day on Wednesday is what's keeping the feed industry up at night? Our members, the feed industry in general. You know we're always concerned. Probably the biggest one is a lot of animal disease biosecurity. So we have someone speaking from Minnesota on just kind of risk management within the feed industry, someone from Kansas State talking about ASF and then certainly someone from the poultry industry talking about HPAI. It continues to be of concern for our members, our industry, the health of animal agriculture, so we're really excited to have them there. The other one we have is a sustainability program. Laura Moody from iFeeder will be speaking. They just released a new set of tools for companies who want to create LCAs for feed ingredients. So there's a whole set of new tools on kind of the process, what to think about, how to get started in that, and she'll be talking a little bit about those tools that are available to everyone to use. So very helpful for that conversation.
Speaker 1:And we did just have Laura on talking about that here a couple of weeks ago. So anybody who can't make it to IPV and want to learn more, or want to learn more before you go? You can go to our On Demand and check that out. So you mentioned all of these sessions In general. Is there like an extra fee, separate registration? How does all of that work?
Speaker 2:So a few of them do have an extra fee. Our PatFood Conference does, the APHIS program and what keeps you awake at night all have additional fees and you can pay for that when you go through the registration process. Or if you don't know and you get there on site, you can always add that on site at the registration tables. The feed education program, the sustainability program, those are free programs, so anyone can. You don't even need to register ahead of time, you can just show up.
Speaker 2:And this is where I can plug the app. If you haven't downloaded the app, certainly download the app. You can get all the details on all the programs and when they start in the rooms and where they are in the app. So that is one tip I would give people. If it's your first time or your 10th time, download the app. I still use it all the time while I'm there and I'm looking for a booth. I'll put it into the app and it'll tell me exactly where the booth is, what aisle, where it is, and it'll show me on a map how to get there.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's used highly among our team as well. So besides these general sessions, are there some other like learning and education opportunities at Expo, I think I recall like some tech talks maybe, or new product showcase some of those kinds of things that might be going on as well.
Speaker 2:Yep, we do have the new product showcase, so that's some of the exhibitors submit a video of a new product or service that they're offering industry. Those will be on display in the BC Connector and also through the website and the app, so you wanna kind of see what's new, the latest and greatest. That's one quick place to go to. We'll be announcing the winners for the feed section of the new product showcase on Tuesday afternoon, so I'm excited to do that. And then, yes, we have the tech talk. So these are on the trade show floor. They're 20 minute, quick, technical presentations. They're not product sales, they're information that will help you be better in your business. Quite frankly, afia is hosting three of those, so we have one on.
Speaker 2:Leah Wilkinson from our team is talking about changes in the animal food ingredient review process. A lot of things have been going on with FDA and AFCO. Some things are changing, some new additions are coming down the pike, so Leo will be talking a little bit about that. Laura Moody will be talking about the. So, in conjunction with the pet food consumption, we're also doing an animal food report. So we're releasing two reports at IPP. So Laura will be there to talk about animal food consumption report and the ingredients that are used in animal and pet food.
Speaker 2:And then our final presentation is a new project we're working on. Victoria Brain, from our communications team, is going to talk a little bit about video storytelling and how the feed industry is sharing our message through video. So we have a couple of videos that we're releasing right before Expo on who the animal food industry is releasing right before expo on who the animal food industry is, why our ingredients, as the US industry, are of high quality and sustainable. So it's a really it's some very cool videos that really explain what we are. We'll plan on using these videos to kind of talk with government officials, international buyers, regulatory authorities, because a lot of people think when they think animal feed, they think corn and soybeans, and certainly corn and soybeans are important, but there's 600 plus other ingredients out there and how are those manufactured and how are those used? And you know how are we?
Speaker 2:we're not feeding the animals like my grandpa did when he went back in the day, you know there's a lot of technology technology behind it, and these videos try to capture some of that for us excited to see those.
Speaker 1:Those sound, uh, fascinating. So so now, besides wearing comfortable shoes and besides the app that we mentioned, what would be your recommendation for how to how to tackle a trade show this large in actually kind of a short period of time, when you're talking 10 football fields to cover in three days? Basically, how do you do that? What's your strategy? How do you get the most out of the show? You?
Speaker 2:know, definitely spend some time looking at the app before you get there. Kind of map out you know what education programs, what booths you want to visit. My insider tip is get in line early for the Chick-fil-A sandwiches. They will sell out. So if you want Chick-fil-A, get there early. Stand in line for the Chick-fil-A sandwiches. That is a key one. Bring your business cards. Don't forget business cards. People still hand business cards back and forth, so have lots of business cards. Comfortable shoes Internally our staff did a step challenge last year and I think our average steps per day were about 17,000 steps. So you are going to walk a lot. But yes, you know, if there's certain people you want to see at companies, you know, reach out to them ahead of time. Make those appointments, because everyone is super busy down there doing meetings and things like that. But the app, make sure you've got, you know, your Chick-fil-A sandwich for lunch. And comfortable shoes are probably the key ones.
Speaker 1:Very good, you're so right on that Chick-fil-A. I had forgotten about that, but yes, get there early. So, final words, words of advice, key takeaways you want to leave our audience with here today, sarah.
Speaker 2:I mean, really, the show has something for everyone. If you're in the poultry industry, you know raising chickens. If you're in the meat processing industry, if you're manufacturing feed or pet food, animal feed or pet food there is something for everyone, from education to exhibitors to networking. You just, you know, start the new year out on the right foot, with comfortable shoes on, and it's a game changer for you. I think you'll walk away with lots of things that will help your business in a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 1:Comfortable shoes on, app in hand and we're ready to go. So we'll see you in Atlanta, sarah Novak, chief Operating Officer of the American Feed Industry Association. Thank you so much, sarah. Thanks, Sarah. I'm Sarah Muirhead and you've been listening to Feedstuffs In Focus. If you would like to hear more conversations about some of the big issues affecting the livestock, poultry, grain and animal feed industries, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast channel. Until next time, have a great day and thank you for listening.