The International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE), held January 28–30 in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world’s largest gathering of poultry and egg, meat and animal food industry professionals. Sarah Novak, chief operating officer for the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), said with nearly 1,400 exhibitors and an array of educational opportunities, attendees can explore innovative solutions, network with decision-makers and discover new trends that can help shape your business’s path for 2025.
IPPE is one of the top 25 largest trade shows in the United States, featuring almost 600,000 square feet of exhibit space, TECHTalks theaters and both free and fee-based programs on issues critical to the global animal food and protein industries, like sustainability, federal regulations and biosecurity.
IPPE’s wide range of solutions draws leaders worldwide for insights on business development, industry best practices, operations innovations and gaining a competitive edge. IPPE allows attendees to build relationships, find new suppliers and vendors and connect with colleagues.
The 2024 IPPE drew more than 31,353 registered attendees, including 9,063 international visitors, representing 133 countries. The roles of IPPE attendees include C-level management, sales and marketing, plant/live operations, engineering, and research and development.
Novak emphasized how IPPE is perfectly timed for attendees to take the industry knowledge and contacts gained at the show to help develop strategies and priorities for the year ahead.
“You’re starting out your year, let’s look for those solutions to help your business,” Novak said. “My internal tagline for IPPE is ‘New year, new solutions.’”
Visit www.ippexpo.org for more information and to register.
Transcript of Feed & Grain Chat with Sarah Novak, chief operating officer, AFIA:
Elise Schafer, editor, Feed & Grain: Hi, everyone, and welcome to Feed & Grain Chat. I’m your host Elise Schafer, editor of Feed & Grain. This edition of Feed & Grain Chat is brought to you by WATT Global Media and FeedandGrain.com. FeedandGrain.com is your source for the latest news, product and equipment information for the grain handling and feed manufacturing industries.
Today, I’m joined by Sarah Novak, chief operating officer for the American Feed Industry Association. She’s here to share what’s in store at this year’s International Production and Processing Expo, taking place January 28th to 30th in Atlanta. Hi Sarah, thanks for joining me today.
Sarah Novak, chief operating officer, AFIA: Hey, thanks, Elise.
Schafer: IPPE is the world’s largest gathering of feed, poultry and meat industry professionals. What unique opportunities does this provide attendees that they can’t find at any other industry event?
Novak: I always like to think of IPPE, since we’re at the end of January, as kind of that 'New Year, new solutions.' You’re starting out your year — let’s look for those solutions to help your business. My internal tagline for IPPE is ‘New year, new solutions.’ We have a ton of exhibitors, almost 1,400 exhibitors, spreading across nearly 600,000 square feet of space, or about 10 and a half football fields, which I always go to since we’re coming up on the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, my team’s not in it, but I still think football time, so about 10 and a half football fields full of solutions.
What’s really different about IPPE is not only do we bring in over 30,000 people typically, and between about eight to 9,000 of those are international attendees from well over 100 countries, but these people are decision makers — like 90%. Last year when we did a survey, 90% were either authorized decision makers, recommended buying decisions or part of buying teams. 40% of them were from the C-suite management roles, so we really bring in that key group of individuals who are making those decisions. I think it’s a great event to go to to really get your year started out right.
Schafer: Now as you mentioned, IPPE draws tens of thousands of people each year. Can you highlight some of the most valuable events or opportunities there are on the trade show floor for feed industry professionals?
Novak: For sure. Besides visiting all the exhibitors — they all have great products, services and opportunities for our members — I would spend at least a solid day walking the floor. Wear comfortable shoes and bring lots of business cards are always the tips I tell first-timers because you will put in probably 15,000 steps just walking around the floor talking to those exhibitors.
But beyond the booths, we have two different educational-type things or new opportunities. One is the TECHTalks, so these are free 20-minute technical presentations on the show floor offered by the exhibitors on everything from animal welfare to sustainability, feed production and all sorts. In fact, AFIA is doing three TECHTalks ourselves. One is on our foundation [Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER)]. IFEEDER is releasing some new animal feed consumption statistics, so Lara [Moody] is going to be talking about that. Leah Wilkinson from our team is going to be talking a little bit about the new ingredient approval processes. A lot has changed in that world between AAFCO [Association of American Feed Control Officials] and FDA. And then our third TECHTalk is kind of a passion project of ours. We’re releasing a couple videos on who this feed industry is, the animal food industry, how diverse we are. A lot of people think of animal feed as corn and soybeans, which is true. We feed a lot of corn and soybeans, but there’s so much more to it. So, we’ve been working on this project and Victoria Broehm will be presenting the new videos for us.
So I really encourage people, especially if you need time to just sit down and you want a little break, go into the TECHTalk theaters and listen to those presentations. So definitely go visit the A-Hall, it’s where the feed and the feed ingredients are.
The other one I would encourage people to visit is, go to that B-C [hall] Connector. There’s a New Product Showcase, so this is where there will be videos running of new products and services from exhibitors that are on display there. And it’ll go through those top ones and then we’ll actually be awarding the most creative or newest innovative one on day one. So, it really will showcase what’s going on, what’s new in the industry and things like that. Those are two little hidden gems beyond the traditional walking the floor and visiting the exhibitors.
Schafer: Oh, very exciting! Now beyond the TECHTalks, AFIA always provides educational programs at IPPE. So can you give us a glimpse into the critical issues or trends that the educational program will focus on at IPPE '25?
Novak: Certainly. We have several programs that we’re supporting and helping. The first one is probably our Pet Food Conference, so if you’re in the pet food industry, that is a great program on Tuesday, January 28th. It’s an all-day program. There is a registration fee for that one.
The second program we have is What’s Keeping the Feed Industry Awake at Night? That’s on Wednesday morning from 10-12. Again, there is a registration fee for that one, but it’s really talking about HPAI and the dairy industry where now we’re seeing it. Ongoing battles with ASF, the African swine fever. What are the things — and a lot of it revolves around biosecurity, animal health — what’s going on there that’s keeping us, as an industry, awake at night? It’s a great program to hop into.
We have two free programs that we’re offering. Our AFIA Feed Education Program, and that’s Wednesday morning from 8 to 10. This is where you can hear a little about what’s going on with Department of Labor, Department of Transportation, EPA, FDA, OSHA. As you know, we have a new administration in town here in Washington, D.C., and a lot of things will be changing at a federal level, and it’ll give you a glimpse at what some of those expectations are. In addition, we’ve got a speaker talking on AI there, so [I’m] really excited for that one. That one’s been put together by our production compliance committee.
And then we’re a part of a program on Tuesday morning from 9 to noon with our partners of IPV, the US Poultry and Egg Association and the Meat Institute. We do an Animal Agricultural Sustainability Summit. That’s a really neat program. If you’re involved in sustainability, we’ve got a panel from some consumer food companies talking about what their needs are from the animal industry in terms of sustainability, as well as Lara from our foundation IFEEDER talking about some of the LCA tools that we’ve been working on and developing for the industry.
Schafer: Well, Sarah, thank you so much for sharing what folks can look forward to in Atlanta at IPPE this week.
Novak: You are most welcome, and I look forward to seeing everyone there. Stop by the AFIA booth. We’re booth 8209. We’re in the back-far corner, but there’s always staff there if you’ve got any questions come see us, and we look forward to seeing everyone in Atlanta.
Schafer: Absolutely. That's all for today's Feed & Grain Chat! If you'd like to see more videos like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel, sign up for the Industry Watch Daily eNewsletter, or go to Feedandgrain.com and search for videos. Thank you again for joining and we hope to see you next time!