Business View Magazine | June 2022

169 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 6 INTERNAT IONAL ASSOC I AT ION OF FA I RS AND EXPOS I T IONS on various committees – and guided by a 19-member board of directors – to implement the mission of the Association: To lead in representing and facilitating the evolving interest of agricultural fairs, exhibitions, and show associations. Today, the IAFE has about 1,000 members classified as agricultural fairs from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. An additional 800 members are the businesses and service providers with the items that fairs need today in order to operate – everything from entertainment, ribbons and trophies to insurance and safety services, as well as production equipment and technology services. The membership of the fairs in the IAFE represents the breadth and scope of the industry. About 42% of the members are very small events operated by a dedicated board of directors and volunteers. These county fairs and shows are the heartbeat of their community. Events such as this are typically lasting 1 to 5 days and have less than 25,000 guests and participants. The next tier of fairs – about 40% of the membership – are fairs with 25,000 to 100,000 attendance and some of these fairs may have a small part- time or full-time staff to support the work done by volunteers and board members. From there, fairs range in size all the way up to 2 million plus and represent some of the largest events of any type held in the world. The fair may be state or provincial in scope such as a state fair or may have national – even international – participation such as the Calgary Stampede (Alberta, Canada), the Sydney Royal Easter Show (Sydney, Australia), the Canadian National Exhibition (Toronto, Canada), and the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, among others. The majority of members, however, are county and