Goals for 2025

Here is a summary of the 2007 Strategic Plan that I have been following for the last 3 years.  There was a revisit in 2018, but I didn’t see any significant changes to the plan.

Business objectives

1. Expand the demographic for the target attendee to include more “upscale” regional attendees as well as more urban visitors.

2. Expand and revise the concept of sponsorships to result in revenue from this source of at least $200.K/year (I 0% of long-term annual revenue target).

3. Upgrade and expand the Fairgrounds facilities to be able to accommodate 100,000 visitors each year during Fair season and multiple thousands during the rest of the year.

4. Realize a minimum of $100K annually in non-Fair-season usage of the Fairgrounds.

5. Work with the Fair boards for Boone County (Belvidere) and DeKalb County

6. Audit the by-laws of the Fair board and analyze the make-up of the board, as well as

the Fair staff, to ensure that it is appropriate for a $2MM organization.

Marketing objectives

1. Develop a brand and associated identification (logo, etc.) for the Fair.

2. Create a more year-round image for the Fair/Fairgrounds in area communities.

3. Create a seasonal image for the Fair in targeted urban and metropolitan areas.

4. Develop a pricing structure for revenue-generating activities to ensure that costs are

Implementation of those goals.  Some of these are continuations of what we have been doing and new ideas to include.  Some of these will be for 2025 and some will be held off for 2026 or beyond.  I have included my notes regarding the strategic plan in italics.

  1. Expand the demographic for the target attendee to include more “upscale” regional attendees as well as more urban visitors. (The conferences have really emphasized that the trends to reach this demographic would be agritourism, experiences that engage all senses, commercial layouts to be diverse and Disney like experience, digital engagement)
    1. Agritourism & Agriculture Education
      1. Everyday Ag Program from WY State Fair
        1. Farm Bureau will be using this to create the banners, Passport booklet and stickers (those will replace our scavenger hunt)
        1. SCFA will be using it to create a script for physical tours as well as a self guided tour with a recorded audio.
      1. Continue Planter signage but add ones at each barn to welcome visitors to tour the barn and schedules of the shows (replacing the yard signs)
      1. Request that the Pork Producers and Beef to have educational signage at their buildings
      1. Create an Ag-Town (someday)
      1. Ag Day Camps during the fair
        1. Ann is working on this
      1. Commody education
        1. Such as signs for Fuel for Tractor Pull?
        1. Recipe Trail around the barns that use commodities from that barn
      1. Scrips for the rings
        1. This would be listing of activities that will be happening after the show to encourage people to visit the rest of the grounds
      1. Tomorrow’s farmer display (drone, virtual experience)
        1. Can we find an implement dealer who could do some kind of demonstrations about the future of ag?
      1. Hands on interaction with animals (see the ambassador program to accomplish this)
      1. Farm education displays around the grounds
        1. Example,  hay vs straw display
      1. Gather groups together to cooperate in these initiatives
        1. FFA, 4H, U of I Extension, HCE, Ag in the Classroom, etc
      1. Start a Fair Ambassador program for the livestock families
        1. Need at least one family per barn
        1. Decorate their pen/stall with educational information based on the animal (maybe place the new signage there?)
        1. Be willing to interact with visitors at the barn at set hours that we will advertise.  Have a hands on activity they can do at your booth such as:
          1. Dairy/Beef, Brush a cow/steer
          1. Rabbits, Feed & water the rabbits in the evening
          1. Dairy goats, milk a couple squirts
          1. Sheep, feel raw wool and learn how to comb it out, see how to spin it into yarn.
          1. Other ideas?
        1. Be willing to bring an animal to an outreach event, when appropriate
        1. Pre-Fair social media in-depth “get to know you” posts to encourage them to see you at the fair
      1. Big Farmer Breakfast
      1. Cutouts of animals at each barn
      1. Goat Fashion Show
      1. Silent Goat Disco
      1. Moos & Brews
      1. Oxen or draft pull
      1. VR immersive reality, tour a cheese plant via VR
      1. Try the Farmer’s market again
      1. Continue Goat Yoga
      1. Continue Rabbit Races
      1. Beef Bingo
      1. Animal Parade
      1. Combine for Kids, prefair promotion
      1. Scavenger Hunt will be replaced by the booklet that Farm Bureau will make
      1. Continue Mobile Dairy Classroom
      1. Continue Chicken Scrambles
      1. Continue Mutton Busting
      1. Continue Pig Scrambles
      1. Continue All for one goat show, poultry pals
        1. Need to reach out to schools in April to get them to sign up
      1. Continue Farm to Fair Events, This had a rough start last year, but I still think there is hope to continue it
        1. Farmer’s breakfast
        1. Happy Hour Charcuterie Platter
        1. P
    1. Launch online ticketing, including barcode entry
      1. Lots of advertising money will be allocated to this
    1. Building Community Engagement
      1. Continue Jr Fair Volunteers
      1. Continue Library engagement
        1. Read for rides program
        1. Story time and crafts at the fair
      1. Continue Community groups to run the gates
        1. Refine the gates with 8 employees and adoptable ticket booths, get all the ticket booths adopted and grow our trusted employees to 8 people over the age of 18.
      1. Continue School Spirit Stand & Eat Tables
      1. Continue Faith at the Fair?
      1. Partner with a local Brewery for a fair beer
      1. Participate in 40 community/networking events in 2025
      1. Increase exhibitors by 8%, 700, Increase entries by 10%, 5800
        1. Meet with school representatives to encourage the students to enter into the fair with art projects the teacher will be doing in the classroom.
        1. Continue to promote the make & takes that will qualify as fair entries
        1. Post blue ribbons Non-livestock winners from 2024 (over 100 pictures collected)
        1. Post the champion winners that were sent to me for 2024
      1. Continue Grow Social media by at least 10%
        1. Facebook, From 11,970- 12,000
        1. Instagram, from 123-200
      1. Live broadcast from the fairgrounds via JCWifi with signage and advertising
    1. Commercial Goals
      1. Promote & refine the food vendors
        1. Continue Taste the Fair
        1. Continue Unique Food Contest
          1. Refine the unique food and tasting Thursday posters, social media and passport
        1. Create a good database/spreadsheet of the products from each vendor
        1. Schedule audits of the menu during the fair
        1. Focus on more single item vendors
        1. Curate the menus better
        1. Vendor for Breakfast
      1. Build Commercial by 20%, $50,000
        1. Do this with increased on-site activation booths
        1. Recruit 10 more community organizations for the rotating days
      1. Create the indoor commercial to be a mixed use venue as well as commercial
        1. 10×20 CHOM booth near the ice cream or the center, set up for crawling babies that is gated
        1. Add more picnic tables, or tables & chairs
        1. Music
        1. Balloon artist
        1. Continue Pottery and other artisan demonstrations
        1. Maybe a specialty food vendor
        1. All those above to be opened into the open center “entertainment”
      1. Create a Traffic Flow for outside layout
        1. Create a curated flow, with 5+ neighborhoods with numbers/colors, dashed lines to direct on a map and signage as well.
        1. Add entertainment
      1. Reach out and call all vendors in Feb and talk about what went right or wrong, also cover these items
        1. Branded items in the store or the coupon book
        1. No political, CBD, drug paraphernalia
        1. Food vendor promotions
        1. New layouts
        1. March 28th deadline
    1. Entertainment
      1. Popup Events
      1. Fower Arranging (Schlachter Farm Flowers)
      1. Lots of notes
      1. Antique Car Cruise in
      1. Tractor drive
      1. Disney Princess
      1. Face Painting
      1. Balloons
      1. Inflatables
      1. Corn pit with digging tools/tractor
      1. Flowers in a bag
      1. Rock Painting
    1. Live contests at the fair
      1. Pie Eating
      1. Hot Dog Eating
      1. Cake walk
      1. Bag’s Tournament
      1. Bingo
      1. Kiddie Tractor Pull
      1. Kid’s games, watermelon eating contact
      1. Ag Olympics
      1. Welding
      1. Battle of the bands
      1. Talent Show
      1. Cupcake Decorating
      1. Pinewood Derby Races
    1. Engaging workshops/demonstrations
      1. State police to bring their crash dummy demonstration
      1. Fishing tank, DNR
      1. Dance Camp
      1. Make & Takes
      1. Hoo Haven
      1. Pony Rides, free
      1. Fire department obstacle course
      1. Smoke House
      1. Junior Police Academy
      1. Farm Safety Trailer
      1. Ice Cream making
      1. 4H fashion show
      1. 4H Robotics demonstration
      1. Dance demonstrations
      1. First responder’s demonstration
      1. Canvas painting
      1. Martial Arts activities
      1. Humane Society Adoption Event
      1. Artisan Demonstrations
        1. Pottery
        1. Glass blowing
        1. Spinning
        1. Weaving
        1. Word turning
        1. Blacksmith
    1. Customer Satisfaction
      1. Baby Care Station
      1. Water Station
      1. Hand sanitation
      1. Bathroom condition
      1. Garbage Removal
        1. Create cute sidewalls for the garbage trailer
  2. Expand and revise the concept of sponsorships to result in revenue from this source of at least $200.K/year (10% of long-term annual revenue target). (Let’s add grants under this heading.  I would venture to say that sponsorship should be more like 20%, we are currently at 15% in 2024)
    1. Create a written sponsorship sales plan
      1. Using the IAFE toolkit
    1. Sponsorship revamp for better organization
      1. Sponsors should get an average 15-20% of deliverables for their sponsorship.
    1. Make a list of current assets for sponsorship
      1. Buildings
      1. Banners
      1. Trophies
    1. Memorial options to improve the grounds
      1. Benches
      1. Pens/stalls, purchasing new metal ones
      1. Trees for shade
    1. Apply to at least 5 grants
      1. Get set up with the State of Illinois as pre-approved for grants
      1. Farm Credit for 4H or FFA, $500
      1. Identify several projects that would be easy grants to obtain
        1. Military Appreciation Tent
        1. Pavilion
        1. Bathrooms
        1. Concert
        1. Resurfacing the concrete near the grandstands
  3. Upgrade and expand the Fairgrounds facilities to be able to accommodate 100,000 visitors each year during Fair season and multiple thousands during the rest of the year.  (I would suggest that we refine this to simply upgrade and maintain the facilities that we have until we demonstrate a clear need to expand.)
    1. Build new props & signage
      1. Polaroid frames for selfie stations
      1. Live broadcast display
      1. Moveable planters for signs
        1. 8, Dairy, Beef, Sheep, Swine, Rabbits/Poultry, Dairy Goat, Meat Goat, Horse
        1. 1, Heritage Hall
        1. 1, Home Ec Building
        1. One per neighborhood
      1. Signage for camping spots
    1. Plant more flowers and strategically placed flower beds
  4. Realize a minimum of $100K annually in non-Fair-season usage of the Fairgrounds. (We were within $300 of this goal in 2024, $99,773!  I would like to increase that to $150,000 by 2027)
    1. Increase Camping at the Fairgrounds to $20,000 total
      1. Start Camp Spot
      1. Market the Campground
    1. Increase electronic sign ads
    1. New off season events
      1. Recycling event
      1. Holiday lights
      1. Online auction
      1. Monster Trucks
      1. Rodeo
      1. Ag Breakfast in June
        1. Contact previous organizers, Darren Musser, Jay Kempel, Farm Bureau, Kim Plager
        1. Make sure it also has good Coffee Cakes 😊
    1. Continue off season events
      1. Animal swap
      1. Multi-Cultural Fest
    1. Increase Private Events
      1. Fill in all the available Saturdays
      1. Increase add-ons for the private events
        1. Tables, chairs, refrigerator, games, large decorations, lights, ect
  5. Work with the Fair boards for Boone County (Belvidere) and DeKalb County (Although I have had conversations with them, this is not something that we have begun to investigate)
  6. Audit the by-laws of the Fair board and analyze the make-up of the board, as well as the Fair staff, to ensure that it is appropriate for a $2MM organization. (Reading the details of the plan, this basically encourages the fair to be more professional in their business practices and outsource professionals if we are not able to have it internally)
    1. Create a detailed month by month calendar for the Fairgrounds, add it to the business plan
      1. Start a listing of what needs to be done as we accomplish it every month
      1. Have a easily accessible binder to jot things down as they come up
    1. Update the business plan and finish it, schedule in days to refine it and add to it.
    1. Update select building with roll up doors
    1. Replace or install fans in several buildings
    1. Update displays and other items in the Home Ec building

Goals not directly related to the Strategic Plan

  • Refine the gates with 8 employees and adoptable ticket booths, get all the ticket booths adopted and grow our trusted employees to 8 people over the age of 18.
    • Grow presales of season passes to be 40% of gate sales ($60,000)
    • Find 8 employees to run gates
    • Set up a marketing campaign for adoption
    • Write up a sign up sheet for churches/organizations
    • Incorporate Saffire & Clover
    • United Way for volunteers?
    • Packages
      • Carnival
      • Families
      • Company deals
      • Discounts
        • Free Veterans on Tuesday (done)
        • 10am-4pm Senior Discount?
        • Nursing Homes
        • Day Cares
        • Fieldtrips to the fair
        • Boys & Girl’s Club
  • Complete Heritage Hall and have a big reveal.
    • Complete the historical templates
    • Print a banner that runs the exterior of the building
  • Build on the advertising from last year
    • More locations for tri-folds
    • Disposable cups for restaurants
    • Many more banners in more locations
    • Permanent structure to hold banners at several locations on the grounds at the road.
  • Restrict beer to only the pits
    • Turn this into an advantage?
    • Can we upgrade the area to serve as more of a “Beer Tent” sort of environment?
    • Can we make it larger to incorporate more people?