Annual Dairy Convention

The 2021 Northeast Dairy Convention was held August 18 to 20 at the beautiful Chautauqua Harbor Hotel in Celeron, New York, on the edge of Chautauqua Lake. The three-day event offered attendees new and exciting networking opportunities and informative business sessions to hear more about what is going on in different facets of the dairy industry, along with some down time, relaxation and fun. This was also the first year that the New York State Cheese Manufacturers Association joined with the Northeast Dairy Foods Association, the Northeast Dairy Suppliers Association and the Pennsylvania Association of Milk Dealers to host the annual fall conference, resulting in 180 people in attendance.

Wednesday evening opened with a wonderful cocktail hour and dinner, providing a chance for many dairy industry colleagues to socialize after not being able to see one another in-person for such a long time. Chautauqua is the home of the National Comedy Center – and the home to Lucile Ball. Appropriately, the associations invited a comedian to entertain the audience after the first night’s dinner. Tony Deyo provided some really good laughs in an hour-long stand-up performance. Deyo is a retired musician who gave up his music career to pursue comedy. He now tours the country with his comedy act and was even a guest on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

Thursday was a jam-packed day, as the business sessions started off with guest speaker Ed Gallagher, president of risk management for Dairy Farmers of America. Gallagher provided a very detailed and informative review on how dairy product demand has fared since the onset of the pandemic and also discussed factors that contributed to demand changes. He also gave some very interesting economic insight as to why Class III and IV prices diverged so much and discussed the market outlook over the next few months, as well as how Class III and IV price relationships look in the future. Gallagher’s presentation provided an excellent segue into topics discussed at the business session later in the week.

Later that day, attendees were able to explore the area near the resort with an afternoon of relaxing and fun-filled events. The golf tournament was a popular attraction attended by many, as was the Chautauqua Belle bus/boat tour, which took guests on a cruise around the beautiful lake. Others took part in a self-guided tour of the Comedy Center and the Lucille Ball Museum. There was something for everyone!

On Thursday evening, everyone gathered back at the Harbor Hotel for the cocktail reception and a unique speed networking event, which turned out to be a huge success. Similar to “speed dating,” it was an opportunity for suppliers to meet with processors and manufacturers one-on-one for just a few minutes – but that was enough time to make a connection and provide information on themselves, their companies and what service they provide. This will certainly be a recurring event at future conventions based off of feedback the associations received.

The final day of the convention brought the business session discussions full circle. Leading off the morning was New York State Sen. Michelle Hinchey, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture. Hinchey provided a recap of what activities the NYS legislature has been involved in over the past year as pertains to the dairy industry, as well