The first annual Country Living Olympics took place this afternoon here at the American Royal complex and it was a big success. The competition was fierce.
This guy was actually the winner of the feed bag moving competition. Contestants had to move 10 feed bags from one pallet to another and the person who did it fastest won.
You can see pictures of all the action in the photo album.
Our after hours entertainment at the Country Living Association activities was the PBR Bull Riding Competition in Kemper Arena. It’s hard to get a good stop motion picture from up in a suite but I tried.
These guys are just plain crazy. It’s one thing to be walking through a pasture and get chased by a bull or to be working them in a cattle operation. It’s quite another to get up on top of one on purpose.
It was fun to watch though and I think there’s more tonight. I kept looking around for a Pabst Blue Ribbon but didn’t find any. I guess that’s not part of the branding for the event.
Courtney Yuskis, pictured here on the right of some of the corporate partners of the Country Living Association, gave some closing remarks at the Country Living Outlook Conference that included a summary of the organization’s first year to date.
They started on January 1 and have over 11,000 members. She says that CLA is meant to be a community for like-minded people who share a passion for country living. They’ve held three clinics so far in three states with two more coming up next month. They’re working on developing their website so that it will be the authoritative site for country living information.
She also thanked the founding sponsors and corporate partners which include: Nationwide Agribusiness and Allied Insurance, John Deere, Fastline Publications, Land O’ Lakes, Purina Feed, Tractor Supply Company, PBI Gordon, Farm Safety 4 Just Kids and official publication, Living The Country Life.
You can listen to Courtney’s closing comments here: cla-07-courtney-close.mp3
This may be Courtney’s wrapup comments but I’ve got more to come from the Country Living Activities so keep your eyes and ears open.
Last night the Livestock Publications Council held their annual Gala at the American Royal and it was a big success with attendance well above last year. Diane Johnson did her usual excellent job of making sure that everyone had a good time.
I was there for a while and will post some pictures of the LPC Headliner and Hall of Fame inductees when I get some more information from Diane.
Pictures from the event are also in the photo set I’m working on for the Country Living Association.
One of our speakers at the Country Living Outlook Conference was Susan Spaulding, Market Directions. She was part of a panel that discussed “What’s Going on in the Country.”
Susan says her company has done some significant research on the rural lifestyle market. Some of the things they’ve found about the people who live the country life include:
Everyone wants to understand just who these people are but it’s obvious that we’re dealing with a very diverse target market.
You can listen to my interview with Susan here: cla-07-spaulding.mp3
The American Royal is in full swing here in Kansas City. In fact, it’s the venue for today’s Country Living Olympics which I’ll be attending this afternoon. During yesterday’s Country Living Outlook Conference I could hear a lot of noise in Kemper Arena so I snuck out on a break to see what was going on. It must have been kids day because there were a lot of them in the stands.
This guy was giving them a bullwhip demonstration which included snapping off the ends of flowers sticking out of his mouth. Not something I’d recommend trying at home.
Since there’s a lot of activity going on you’ll find photos like these in the set I’m building from the Country Living Association activities taking place.
The Executive Vice President of RFD-TV is Mike Hansen. He was our luncheon keynote speaker at the Country Living Outlook Conference. With a company/tv network that has a name like RFD you know they’ve got to be reaching rural lifestyle people right?
Mike talked to us about the 8 year old network and says that they were reaching these rural lifestylers before we really even knew they were a viable market. He says that they’ve now got 3 programs focusing on rural lifestyle with 2 more starting after the first of the year. He says that businesses are stepping up to the plate to support their new programming in a big way.
After the first of the year they’ll be broadcasting HD programming. For that reason anyone wanting to produce video for RFD-TV ought to start doing their production in HD.
You can listen to my interview with Mike here: cla-07-hansen.mp3
Our program moderator here at the Country Living Outlook Conference is Courtney Yuskis, Director of the Country Living Association. She’s been keeping us on schedule.
I’m set up in the side of Replay’s here in Kemper Arena with a pretty slow connection using my Sprint card. That’s why things have been a little slow on the posting front today. But I have been busy getting interviews and taking pictures. So we’ll be learning more about living the country life over the next couple days.
The first person on the program at the Country Living Outlook Conference is Betsy Freese, Editor-in-Chief of Living The Country Life. Betsy talked about who these rural lifestyle people are and based her comments on research her company has done as well as her personal contact with her audience. Some quick facts she gave came from the magazine’s subscription cards and includes:
Average Age: 51.9
Average Income: $81,911
Average Home Value: $116,479
Married: 89%
When it comes to reaching people living in the country she says they take a 360 degree approach using their magazine, a tv show on RFD-TV, a radio show and their website on which she’s now got a blog started. She says it’s a growing audience. From direct feedback with her audience she says they want a lot of information on various types of projects with questions about ponds being at the top of the list.
You can listen to my interview with Betsy here: cla-07-freese.mp3
The Country Living Outlook Conference is underway here in Kansas City at Replay’s in Kemper Arena. We’ve got 60 people attending from a pretty broad range of company types including real estate, media, research and agribusiness.
There are a number of speakers as you can see from my earlier post with the agenda. I’m going to try to have interviews posted with them all by the end of the weekend.
