Kris Blocker, Executive Director, Visit Boone County, July 27, 2026

On our program today, we are visiting with Chris Blocker, 13th through the 23rd, Chris. Yes, we just heard the commercial, didn’t we, for the Iowa State Fair? State Fair, 13th through the 23rd. Seems later. Yes, it is a little… It kind of seems like everything’s running a little later, doesn’t it? Yeah, I think last year or this year, the way Labor Day fell, it’s kind of backed everything out, but it’s okay. We’ll be ready to go. We did not make this full calendar, other people did. Obviously, people are going, okay, Raghbriar’s over, while all that’s going on, I’m sitting there thinking, wait a minute, she’s got State Fair coming, so probably already doing a lot of planning and getting ready for that, but Raghbriar, we’re done moving on, things went pretty well. They did, you know, and even though it’s over, it’s not over for me. There’s a little cleanup and, you know, we got bills to pay and things to organize and put away and… Do they come back and do kind of an assessment with you on how things went? They do, yep, yep, the end of August, they’ll be back and we’ll do a wrap up and talk about what went well and what… We might change for next time and that type of thing, but yeah, so I’m excited. Matt and I got to visit for quite a while on Tuesday night of Raghbriar when he got to town and I will tell you, he was absolutely thrilled, he was absolutely thrilled. He’s like, you know, one thing I absolutely hate is when I can’t get down through the path and I’m bumping into everybody and he’s like, but on the same token, that is such a good thing that it was full and mission accomplished. He was very excited for the way everything went. So I saw some of the analysis like his fifth year, you know, of doing this, heading up Raghbriar. And he kind of says, look, I got about a two to three, two to three year plan looking down the road and people are saying, well, do you look for more climbs and more distance? He goes, no, I look for good roads. And, you know, that’s the bottom line is you want to have everybody have a good trip. Right, right. Have a safe time. And I will tell you, after talking to Chief, I actually haven’t talked to him, but we’ve texted a little bit and he said, no arrests, no issues. So he was really thrilled with the way the day went as well. So a lot of… Well, that and the fact that it was a lot cooler. It was. It helped immensely. Well, it did help the weather gave us a break and what they endured on Sunday and Monday of that last week. And it was hot and kind of like what we’re seeing right now. And then, and then we got a break on Tuesday. Outside of having to set up in a thunderstorm and a big downpour. And I mean, big downpour. Yeah. It rained hard there for a while. Yeah. But otherwise, you guys, that was really the little thing that slowed it up. There was the setup on Monday night. Because you had a lot of volunteers turned out and some were still, I know on social media going, how do I volunteer? How do I get out here and do this? And I don’t know why they didn’t do it like two weeks earlier. But, you know. Right. Yeah. You’re right, Jim. You know, Monday night was a little brutal. Thankfully Monday, we did have a just a lot of volunteers that they gave us their time. And we so appreciate that. So we did a lot of setup, pre-work on Monday. Knowing this storm was coming in and that we were probably going to get hit with it. We had lunch at La Coretta on Monday and all discussed it, what this looked like. And, you know, that we were probably going to have to take a little time off and keep all of our volunteers safe. And we did that. And then got back after, as soon as the rain let up Monday night, we were back at it. I had to re look at the route to make sure our signage was all still there. And honestly, it was, it was all still pretty much good. And so, so setup went really well and then finished up a few things on Tuesday morning before we met our first riders. Well, it turned out well. And I know people, yeah. One of them was, do we have enough people that are hosting and so, and yeah, it turned out to be fine. It did. A lot of people just did it. They just can’t set up. They just didn’t bother to let you know that we have these people that are going to stay here. Right. And I still had volunteers to your point earlier that were messaging me through Facebook Messenger on Tuesday at noon, one o’clock, like, oh my goodness, this looks so fun. Can I come out and help still volunteer tonight? And I’m like, absolutely. Yes. Show up and Andy Bartlett put them to work. So. Oh, yeah. He, he found a spot for them and, and we, we ended up having a great turnout. Well, next up is state fair. Yes. Here we go. This is an annual, this is an annual thing. You have a pretty good, I think you’ve got a core group of people that volunteer every year for this, but you always need more to help fill it out. Correct. Yeah. So we do always have a core group and they’ve already started to fill in the, the gaps on sign up for the state fair booth. We do have the largest tourism booth down at the Iowa state fair. So you cannot miss us. We’re in the Northwest corner right inside the doors of 40 foot booth. And so in the very industry’s building. So if we have heat like this, you’re going to get in the air condition. Air condition comfort in there. Yes, it is. And you’ll get to meet and kind of like Reg, Brian, you know, you just get to have conversations with a lot of fun people that, that just want to tell you some story of their life. And they stopped by and maybe mentioned something about Boone County that’s special to them. And so, so we’re still looking for more volunteers and it’s always that evening shift. That’s probably the hardest to fill. It’s that five to eight. So it’s a little shorter. The state fair after the pandemic closed down the varied industries building now at eight o’clock ahead of back in the years that used to be nine o’clock. So that shift is a little bit shorter, but it’s fun. You get to see a lot of the concert goers because they’re the people that are milling around before the concert start. So anyway, yeah, both this year, any significant changes, any other updates, any things that you got, you’re going to be adding for it. So people, if they do come down, we’ll stop by and take a look. Right. We’ll look. Last year, we didn’t have the little train. The Boone and scenic Valley railroad didn’t bring the little train. They were a little struggling to find some volunteers. As you can imagine, that’s extremely heavy. So to load it in and then load it out, but Travis hasn’t for me. The train will be back this year. And I say all the time, it’s the absolute cheapest thing that you will find for your children to do at the Iowa State Fair. It’s a whopping quarter. And it goes for probably a minute at least. So the little train will be back in our booth this year. If you’re bringing kids down here with, here’s a ride, an inexpensive ride. Yes. Yes. You get to jump on the train for a quarter. So we’ll have our TV down there. Like always, it will have some of our videos running. And then our backdrop, lots of brochures and guides. And so, yeah, it’ll look a lot the same from back in the day. So you still have a lot of people will come in and say, well, about rail explorers or, you know, you got seven Oaks. Yes. When the river’s down and they got floats going in, which they do. They do. So, I mean, you know, things like that. There’s treehouse village. Yes. Lots of things to talk about. And that’s what I encourage our volunteers to just read through the guide. Get familiar with all of the attractions. We don’t want to highlight just, right. We have a lot of people that stop and want to know the schedule for the Boone and Scenic Fowler Railroad. Sure. And we love that. That is a large attraction for Boone County. And we do love that. And people say, oh, well, we wanted to grab a dinner train and they’re sold out. Or even rail explorers, right? Like, I say it all the time. You have to book early because they are big attractions that do sell out. But they’re usually not booked through the week. So rearrange your schedule and be able to plan your trip accordingly. Right. Yep. Yep. And the Legis State Park, I always say, if you don’t make a trip through the Legis, which I get it. The surfacing is happening. And we’re going to have to work around their schedule. But on the back end of that, it’s going to be so much better when it’s done. When we hit September. Right. And colors? We know colors are going to be coming. Just in time for fall. Yep. That’s right. I mean, there’s a lot of things you can do. As far as the getting ready for going down to the fair, I know you normally do kind of an organizational meeting and kind of an introductory for those new volunteers. Yep. So should they just make contact with you to find out about all this? And I’ll tell you, that’s a little different this year. So anybody who signs up, they’ll sign up. They’ll have to put in their address, their email, all that information. Because even then, like once the state fair is over, when we have our annual banquet, we want to recognize those volunteers. We love to recognize all those people that have given of their time. So fill out your address, your phone number, your email. And this year is going to be a little different. We’re not going to do that one night where we do training. I’m putting together a video and we will submit a video to everybody that is going to volunteer. And it’ll show in the video, like early setup. If you’re the nine to one shift, what you do from that shift and how you get set up. And then if you’re closing down what you do that’s different than the morning shift. So we’ll have a walk through video that you’ll just watch the video. And it should give you good direction on how to go about volunteering. I’ll make contact with the people or mail them their tickets. So they get a ticket into the fair that day. So they go online to sign up, right? Yep. Yep. It’s a sign up genius link. So they can either contact me, we’re planning to publish that here real soon. We’ve had it out, but just haven’t made it public. So we’ve made sure that our volunteers that have had their normal spots in the past, they had a chance to sign up for those. Well, they know where to go and what to do. They do. They do. So visit Boone County website or Facebook, right? Right. Correct. Yep. Yep. Either or. Yep. Yep. We’ll have all that published and ready to go. So we’ll get that done. And then, of course, you’re going to throw in one Friday night anyway on the green before you had before everything. When do you move everything down though? Is it before the fair? We do. So on Monday, the Monday, Tuesday of the fair. So it starts at 13. So 10th, 10th, 11th, 11th. So yep. Yep. Well, Travis and I go down and we start getting it all set up. It takes us a good half day to get it all set up and usually takes a few trips down to get everything loaded. Believe it or not, I go through probably little over 2100 visitor guides. So I believe it. Yeah, that that does not all fit in my vehicle in one trip. So anyway, yeah, we’ll go down, get set up and then open up the fair on the 13th. Ready to go. Ready to go. Our Friday night on the green. So we are going to have one on the 7th. Correct. Yeah. So we’re going to celebrate America as late as we can have it. Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. So celebrate America is our theme. The Farm Progress Show is our sponsor. So we’re excited about that. And then September will be over Labor Day. So September 4th, we’ll come back and we’ll have our final one and D max our sponsor that night. And that is new this year. We’re going to do a chili cookoff and Cornhole tournament. So yeah, so we’ve already gotten some people signed up and we’ve already launched that site. And so you can sign up to be part of the contest. We’re only taken 20. So for our first year, so we’ll have judges and then we’ll also allow that we’ll have some little mini cups for the public. So they’ll get to judge as well. So we’ll give away two different prices for the chili winner this year. So that that will be fun. All right. So in the Cornhole tournament, it’s always big. We always have a plan going forward too. Yes. And you mentioned, of course, having a farm progress show as a sponsor. Yep. Obviously farm progress. I mean, you’re coming back with a fourth out of Friday night. But you got the this first, second and third, which is actually going to be the farm. The farm progress show out at the Central Iowa Expo. That’s right. And if you drive by there on highway 17, you’ll already start to see some tents go up. And you’ll see a lot of moving parts out there happening already. So Rick Wilde, the show director is made his way into town. He stays on site. He came about the 20th of July. So he’ll be here now until October. So you’ll see a lot of different things moving and happening out there and anticipating a really good show again this year. I know they’ve, well, now that the overpass is there and everything else that they breathe a sigh of relief over traffic, that’s been one of the, one of the things that. Yeah. Right. Having that, that three lanes wide. The state patrol does like that. They love it. They love it. They can get people in a little quicker and, and make sure we’re keeping people on the highway safe. They’ve already announced again from the farm progress show about their concert. They’re going to have another big concert out there. Yes. So Wednesday after the show when it closes, yeah, they’ll have a concert and then, and then they’ll go into a drone show. So they’re really excited to partner with PGI and, and put on a drone show again this year and, and that will be fun to see and have them back. Well, after having PGI here and seeing, well, the drone show part of it was, that was one thing, but all their fireworks was another, but to have them come back and do that. That’s, yeah, I figure, you know, here’s, here’s what we had and it was awesome. Yes. And they are well aware. They are. Van Wall absolutely loved that and that’s been a good partnership. And so they’re, they’re sponsoring that piece of it and they’re going to, they’re going to bring it back. So farm progress is really excited to have this new addition. So. Well, again, that’s all set. And again, that’s all, this one, that kind of shifts out of your realm, but you, you have to host. Correct. We still get a lot of calls about it, right? Like people want to know about their golf carts and, and how to get tickets. And so even though it’s not ours, I’m still really involved with it because a lot of these vendors that are on site are also vendors to the central Iowa expo. So taking off my tourism hat and putting on my central Iowa expo hat, you know, I work closely with these vendors all year long. We have contract agreements with them. Those that have rock lots or those that have buildings on site. So, so great partnerships that we get to get to, you know, get to see them because we don’t, we, we just don’t have them in person very often. But during the show, it’s fun to get to, get to go spend some time with them. So anyway, it’s going to be, but it doesn’t really slow down for you, does it? It really does not, Jim. When everybody was saying, oh, you’ll get some relief until the, until the farm progress show. We have 11 days at the Iowa State Fair to fill. So we have a lot and not only that, but in the midst of, of planning for, for Reg Brite, we redid the billboard. So the new billboard went up. And so I was working diligently to get that design done and get that all taken care of. And that, that was exciting to see that done. And not only that, but other things behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t know or don’t recognize is we have some bus tours that are coming to town. So I have some bus operators that I’m working with to establish their itineraries and get them all squared away. So we have a few of those coming up and then influencers. I have a two or three influencers that I’m working with to come and do. And so I’m working with their itineraries and trying to put together, what can they all do and see when they’re here? And so that takes a lot of time of coordinating all that and getting them, you know, tickets to, to what attractions they want to see and making sure they’re fed at the local establishments and those types of things. So, so a lot of, a lot of things still happen. And even though we have these big events that are kind of like, when are we there? Yes. When they show it when they came. Yes. So a lot of coordination behind the scenes. A lot of coordination. Yeah. I know. And actually, I know even from our tourism show that we run on the air on Saturday mornings, they talk to some of the travelers that they go different places. They were just finishing up rag brie. Yes. So again, it draws a lot of attention. It does. It does. And honestly, I just think, you know, some things that we don’t understand and I explained this to my board here this last month. We just don’t understand how, what a broad reach we have. So I gave the example to my board this last month that we hosted or we organized the Our Iowa. We always advertise in the Our Iowa magazine and they reached out to me back at last October and wanted us, us to put together the winning package this year for the Christmas giveaway. So they, they asked people to write in and tell a story and then they judge these, these articles. And so this gal from California wrote in about how she would love to come to Iowa because her grandma’s roots are here in Iowa and she just always wanted to come and see what Iowa was all about and what her grandma raved about. And so she was selected. So I got the opportunity about three weeks ago. I met her, Hannah’s her name and she and her grandma got to make the special trip back to Iowa from California. And it was just incredible, Jim. I met him after church at a, at a restaurant and, and we just got to sit and visit. And then she came back on Wednesday and she, they rode the train, they spent the night at the cobblestone and they had a lot of gift certificates and I provided them with t-shirts from Visit Boone County and it so touched my heart. I could not tell the story to my board without shedding a few tears because it just so touched my heart, right? Like we don’t understand what our reach is. So from Boone, Iowa to California, we had visitors that were here because of the opportunity of getting to ride the train and she won the package and got to, to go to a lot of other attractions and eat at our local establishments because that’s the package we put together. Let’s jump, stick a little bit with Central Iowa Expo because I know at the same time, you know, even though farm progress is coming up, you’re already looking well in the next year. Correct. Have you got different groups, different things that potentially might be paying visits out here that we don’t know about yet, but getting an announcement about? Jim, we’re always in the works. We are working on some, some events that are potential for next year and always reaching for that next big event and, and we, we are in conversation with some, some groups and organizations that could potentially pan out for next summer. So again, because we look to keep the place active, even though it’s not a farm progress show. Yeah. Right. When it’s not, there’s a lot of activity that happens out there that a lot of people don’t understand or don’t realize. A lot of training happens out there. A lot of local and regional. If people wonder about seeing the patrol out there or the sheriff’s cars out there, yeah, there’s a reason. There’s a reason. If you hear sirens, they’re, they’re not picking somebody up, but they’re, they’re training. It’s just, it’s an area that it works for. It does. It does. They love it because there’s buildings. They can simulate, you know, some, some activity and do some, some training in a lot of different ways other than the streets. Busy place. So it is. We have a lot of things coming up. Folks, if you are interested in helping along with the state fair, yes, get online, get signed up. Call me. Yeah. Whatever you need to do, make contact and get ready to be part of it because it’s coming up the 13th through the 23rd, which is as late as it can go because school’s starting right away Monday on the 24. Yeah. Well, yeah. And away we go. Right. Away we go. We’re off to a new school year. Busy time. Yeah. If you’re interested in volunteering, we, we love your help. You, it’s so much fun. Honestly, just getting to talk about all the great things that Boone County has to offer. All right. Chris Blocker, our guest on the program today. Thanks so much for coming in and joining us. Thank you so much, Jim.