Three major produce expos are coming up in March and April, starting with the popular Southern Exposure from the Southeast Produce Council at the Swan & Dolphin Resort in Orlando March 3-5, followed by the Canadian Produce Marketing Association’s 96th annual Convention and Trade Show April 507 in Montreal and capping off with the Texas Corridor’s Viva Fresh April 21-23 at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine.
Of course, onions are well-represented at each event, with exhibitor lists available on the events’ sites. Among the exhibitors at Southern Exposure are Onions 52, Wada Farms, Eagle Eye Produce, G&R Farms, Generation Farms, Keystone Fruit Marketing, L.G. Herndon, Minkus Family Farms, Peri & Sons, RPE, Vidalia Onion Committee, and Vidalia Sweet Produce. CPMA exhibitors include Eagle Eye Produce, Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee, and Keystone Fruit Marketing. And Viva Fresh’s membership and exhibitors also include several onion operations and associated businesses.
Other particulars on each of the shows can be also found at:
https://seproducecouncil.com/events-networking/southern-exposure/
https://convention.cpma.ca/home/
https://vivafreshexpo.com/
The theme of this year’s Southern Exposure is The Marvel of Produce, with “the next generation of superheroes” to be celebrated during the show. The packed agenda includes the Tom Page Golf Classic, committee meetings, receptions, special invitation-only gatherings, educational sessions and roundtables, luncheons, and the expo.
Keynote speaker for 2022 is former pro football quarterback and pro baseball player Tim Tebow. Tim, who is now a college football analyst on ESPN, is also the author of four New York Times Best Selling books; Through My Eyes, which was named the #1 sports and religion book of 2011, Shaken: “Discovering your True Identity in the Midst of Life’s Storms” which released in 2016 and won the 2017 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Book of the Year, and This Is the Day, in September of 2018.
The Tim Tebow Foundation was established in 2010 with the goal to bring Faith, Hope, and Love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need. The foundation fulfills this mission every day by making dreams come true for children with life-threatening illnesses, building Timmy’s Playrooms in children’s hospitals, providing life-changing surgeries to children of the Philippines through the Tebow CURE Hospital, sponsoring Night to Shine, a nationwide prom and worldwide movement for people with special needs, providing care for orphans in six countries and adoption aid grants for families who choose to adopt an international child with special needs.
The venue for CPMA’s 2022 show is the Palais des Congrès, and the agenda includes networking opportunities at multiple receptions, breakfasts, luncheons as well as business sessions, the trade show itself and the banquet.
Delivering the keynote speech will be Dr. Nick Bontis, a leading strategy and management expert who works with individuals and organizations to “navigate the new world of digital technology, industry disruption, and information bombardment.” He is an award-winning tenured professor of strategic management at McMaster University and has won more than 12 major teaching awards and has been recognized as “faculty researcher of the year,” “one of the school’s most popular professors” by Maclean’s magazine, and “one of the top 10 lecturers in Ontario” by TVO.
Bontis is also a 3M National Teaching Fellow and director of the Institute for Intellectual Capital Research, a leading strategic-management consulting firm. His services have been sought after by leading organizations, including the United Nations, Microsoft, Health Canada, Royal Bank, Telus, and IBM.
Viva Fresh, which “started in 2015 as a small regional tradeshow with the goal of shining a light on the importance of the Lower Rio Grande Valley as an emerging trade corridor and production zone” is now considered an important industry trade show. The event is hosted by the Texas International Produce Association and features the popular Viva Fresh Open golf tourney as well as receptions, educational sessions, exhibit,s and keynote luncheon.
The keynote speech will be given by Dave McGillivray, who is renowned as a race director for the Boston Marathon as well as a philanthropist, motivational speaker, accomplished athlete, businessman, author and a “professional with a purpose.”
In addition to directing the Boston, Dave has also “logged more than 150,000 miles, completed 161 marathons, which include 48 consecutive Patriots’ Day marathons (33 run at night after his race director duties of the Boston Marathon are fulfilled).” He’s run coast to coast, completed ironmans and the Seven Marathon, Seven Continents, Seven Day Challenge all while raising millions of dollars for charities.”
The owner of DMSE sports, McGillivray has helped organizations and communities execute more than 1400 events and road races across the country and solve problems as they occur – including what to do when a bomb goes off during the Boston Marathon, how to pivot your business during COVID, and even how his business and experience in logistics would leave him overseeing the setup and logistics of Boston area COVID vaccine clinics.
The 67-year-old McGillivray celebrates each birthday by running his age in miles and in August did so again, a habit that dates back to his teens.
