By: Kendra Elder ’20
The Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course has a rich tradition in the programs originating from the Department of Animal Science at Texas A&M University.
Associate Professor and Extension Beef Cattle Specialist Jason Cleere, Ph.D., said the event has taken place in Aggieland for 66 years.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to move the 2020 Texas A&M Beef Short Course to a virtual event,” Cleere explained.
According to data collected from this year’s beef short course, the number of participants increased by 300 with a total of 1,833 people in attendance online. Beef producers aged 20-80 were disheartened to hear about the sudden change to the event, but adjusted accordingly to watching virtually from their homes.
History
Dating back as far as 1942, professor John K. Riggs started the first short course to discuss the results of beef cattle research from the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station with beef producers.
According to the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course website, since its inception 65 beef short courses have taken place on an annual basis.
“Dr. Larry Boleman, Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, took over the planning of the Beef Cattle Short Course in 1990 and served as Conference Coordinator for 15 years,” Cleere said.
Boleman’s goal was to approach people from all beef agencies, organizations and associations to help re-make the traditional beef short course. He reached this goal in 1995 when over 2,000 participants attended the short course from all over the United States and internationally.
Ten years later, in 2005, Dr. Jason Cleere became the Conference Coordinator for the Beef Short Course. He said his goals were to attract producers with herds of one cow to 1,000 cows.
“The beef short course is a two-and-a-half-day program that implements 20-25 different educational sessions to help improve sustainability and profitability for a producers ranch,” Cleere said. “There normally is a half day of live demonstrations as well.”
Cleere said in his first five years he started observing how he and his staff could do things differently to make an event that has a great atmosphere and a successful trade show.
“The short course has 140-150 vendors in the trade show,” Cleere said. “The trade show has helped the short course take another step in making the event larger than it is.”
Each year, the staff attendees and participants look forward to the annual prime rib dinner.
“Nearly 1,900 people attend the dinner that takes place at the MSC Ballroom each year,” Cleere said. “They look forward to eating the five-star prime rib cooked by Dr.Griffin from the TAMU Meat Science Department.”
Moving Virtual
Cleere said after 65 years of the beef short course taking place, he never thought he would be hopping on a call that would soon lead to his staff moving the BSC entirely virtual.
“As event coordinator, I had always worried about things that could cause cancellation,” Cleere said. “I never would have thought a pandemic would be the reason for reformatting the entire event.”
After making the final decision, Cleere called Rachel Cutrer with Ranch House Designs to formulate a strong marketing plan to effectively reach beef producers across social platforms. He said to always surround yourself with smart people and you will look smart.
“She was a big help with building advertisements, rebuilding the website and sending out email blasts,” Cleere said.
Cleere and Ranch House Designs created a marketing strategy to give away a Nolan Ryan Smoked Rib to the first 100 registrants. After solidifying the marketing plan, he looked into a proper virtual event management software that could host a large event like beef cattle short course.
“We concluded that we needed a convention platform to host the entire conference,” Cleere said. “We contracted a registration service called Cvent.”
Cvent Event Management Software is flexible enough to meet the needs of a complex user conference. Cleere said he wanted everything, from audio to visual picture, to be spot on for beef producers. Luckily, attending the short course virtually was easily accessible for producers across the country.
Martha Hollida Garrett ‘80, owner of Hollida Marketing Company, has been attending the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course for more than 30 years. She said for her age, it was easy to access the conference online.
“I was pleased with my virtual experience,” Garrett said. “As a writer, it was much easier to follow speakers virtually than it would be at the actual event.”
She thought the quality of audio and video was great and did not have any trouble logging onto her account.
“I liked that I still have access to the site where I can go back weeks after to watch the recordings of different sessions to refresh my mind,” Garrett said.
Cleere said that it was important to make the transition from an in person event to a virtual event look professional.
“We wanted to capitalize going virtual by conducting live demonstrations,” Cleere said. “We had a branding demonstration, built a fence near the beef center and even had Dr. Griffins smoke a prime rib in front of Kyle Field.”
The staff thought it was vitally important to go live in all of the 50 short course demonstrations because beef producers appreciate it more.
“Along with doing it live, we can include a typed Q&A in the comments like a webinar,” Cleere said.
Cleere and staff decided to stay with the original beef cattle short course schedule to make the entire conference feel similar to years past. One con of hosting a virtual conference was the lack of social connection.
“Feedback tells us people liked the virtual experience,” Cleere said. “Majority of the attendees hope for a live version for 2021. A good amount also explained their wants and needs for a virtual option as well.”
Socially Connected
Garrett said the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course is one of her favorite educational events to attend. The information is fresh, there is a wide array of topics and she always loves finding her way back to Aggieland.
“Though I enjoyed the virtual conference, I missed connecting with my life-long friends and customers,” Garrett said. “It has always been so fun to reconnect with old Aggies.”
She expressed her disappointment when she found out the event was moved online because she would miss interacting with other participants.
“After experiencing both a virtual and in person beef short course, I think there are ways to grow the conference using both options,” Garrett said.
Come August 2021, you will find Garrett back in Aggieland attending the beef short course if allowed.
Cleere believes once things get back to normal people will want to get out and attend events for socialization and in-person learning. Next year’s beef short course will be hybrid in hopes of increasing attendance both virtually and in-person.
“I believe the future of Texas A&M Short Courses is huge,” Cleere said.
