Bonus Short: NAHBE 2027 - Call for Speakers & New Educational Opportunities

2027 North American Honey Bee Expo Call for Speakers & New Educational Opportunities

Jeff Ott

Welcome to Beekeeping Today Podcast Shorts, your quick dive into the latest buzz in beekeeping.

Becky Masterman

In 20 minutes or less, we'll bring you one important story, keeping you informed and up to date.

Jeff Ott

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Becky Masterman

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Jeff Ott

Hey everybody, welcome to this Beekeeping Today podcast short. Becky, this is gonna be fun.

Becky Masterman

I think we can guarantee fun with this little short episode. Oh, ow.

Jeff Ott

And with that note, Kamon, welcome to the to the short episode

Kamon Reynolds

That's right. Well, I was fixing to say it's great to be here with you, but we're off to a rocky start here.

Becky Masterman

Kamon in my defense, it they're called be keeping today short episodes. That literally that's been the name for at least a year now.

Kamon Reynolds

It doesn't bother me.

Jeff Ott

It I don't know what you're talking about. Good, good, good. So Caitlin, we've invited you here today to talk about the 2027 North American Honey Bee Expo. What's going on with that? I heard there's something happening in January

Kamon Reynolds

There's a lot of things happening, but the main thing I'd like to talk about right now is we are opening up a few new rooms for more speakers, more education. And our goal is to have more sub-genres that we aren't able to hit every year or some of them we've never hit before. And so we're putting out a call for just anybody. It could be some researchers who would like to present in front of a ton of beekeepers. It could be commercial beekeepers. It could be sideliners that are running 10, 15, 20 hives.

It could be folks that are specializing in top bar hives, or maybe they're really good at honey shows and they want to teach other people how they can be better at them. We have One gentleman in our sites who instead of making kombucha, like a lot of people enjoy, and it's good for you, he's making what's called June. And of course it's with honey and it's obviously better because there's honey in there. Of course he brought some to the last bee accent. bone and I've had it several times before.

There's a place in Hawaii that they sell at the farmer's market and they just sell gallons of it every day they're open and I think do quite well with it. And it's a lot of its water, so you're making your honey go further And th they're adding like raspberry, freeze-dried raspberries and strawberries and all these different things. It's delicious. These are the sub genres that we really want to t tap into, research that we're not able to to get in the haven't been able to get in the past.

and get all these other topics so that folks who are interested in that can gain that knowledge at the show. But we don't know what all is available. I'm just one person. So anybody who has a recommendation of a speaker Anyone who thinks they have something to add, this form, they can fill it out and let us know. And we have dozens of more opportunities. And one of the best things is that we've decided that the Beekeeping Today podcast can come back again this year after much deliberation and some arguments and some No uh arguments.

Becky Masterman

Were there any actual protests?

Kamon Reynolds

I was just talking amongst myself.

Jeff Ott

Okay, okay.

Kamon Reynolds

Yes, as a Lord of the Rings fan, there was maybe some Golem and Smeagol conversations about the Beekeeping Today podcast. No. So w we knew you guys were coming back, but you guys have agreed to to work on a a short course. We're here we are back to sh more short things back in the world.

Becky Masterman

You started at this time, Kamon. This one was this was on you.

Kamon Reynolds

The uh we're gonna have a tall course for beginners.

Becky Masterman

Fantastic. I will wear my heels.

Kamon Reynolds

That's it. Oh thank you. So we this is gonna be great because we've never offered this before. And we continually get more new beekeepers who their mentors are like, hey, come to the show. You can try on bee suits, you can buy gear for your first or second year at the show and we need to make sure that we are able to give them that entry level education so they're just not going into a lecture about how to raise queens and and missing out on What do I need to do for my first year of beekeeping?

And, you know, what's the difference between a deep frame and a shallow frame and a medium frame and all this stuff? And so You guys have a project going on right now, and I think you guys are in a really good position for this

Becky Masterman

We're we're excited because when it's it's paired with the Bee Expo, there are also sorts of opportunities to take advantage of a higher level of education because it won't just be the introductory course sessions, but we will be able to guide those those newer beekeepers to make sure that they go to the honey show, to make sure that they go to certain presentations by the vast array of speakers that you have. So it's going to be quite an exceptional short talk course.

Kamon Reynolds

originally and still today with the expo is inspiration. Because and and community. They really go hand in hand because there are a lot of people who don't have a lot of beekeepers close by or maybe they don't have a good bee club or they can't get access to a mentor. And there are some that can and that's fantastic. But some folks cannot. And so they're able to come to the expo, they're able to find community, they're able to maybe get this short course. And then also look around at stuff beyond beginner beekeeping to see maybe what their future could look like.

Like you said, go to the honey show and go, wow. This really suits me because we have people that come to the show and they're already really good at quilting or crocheting and then they'll they'll enter the honey show because that's already something that they love. Or maybe it's something that they've always wanted to try. And so I think beekeeping's a lot more diverse than a lot of times What we realize and at the show when you get to meet these cool people that are doing all these unique things, it's inspiring and I find myself often wishing I had more time that I could try some things myself.

I bet.

Jeff Ott

If we see you, you're moving fast. You're they're always busy.

Kamon Reynolds

Well, you know, there's high maintenance people You know, Jeff Ott last year. These these podcasting celebrities, they just think that they deserve a red carpet rollout.

Jeff Ott

Come on, just one more glass of mead. I promise

Kamon Reynolds

We'll have to cut you off. That's the show is supposed to be fun as well. Education is important to us. We want to have great education, and so we have great educators, but we also want it to be in a fun environment, uh, a low pressure environment. And I think that we're accomplishing that. And so this year we just want to grow all those things and do a better job, offer more to more people. We are already just about half of where we were last year on ticket sales.

We've only been open a a couple of weeks. So we don't know long term what that could mean. But if things continue to trend well, we could be looking at four thousand beekeepers. Last year we had about thirty six hundred. And then that with you include all the beekeepers like yourself that are in the vendor area or that are educators, we could be looking at anywhere between forty-five and five, forty five hundred and five thousand beekeeping folks. And We've extended Thursday as well this year. We've only done half a day in the past with Thursday.

So that's gonna offer more opportunities for lectures and c classes and beginner courses. So yeah. Um other than that, there's not a lot going on right now. We are just We are in our earth period. Robbing has started and we're yeah, we're pulling honey and we'll be feeding bees, uh, the those small splits. Really right now. So yay.

Jeff Ott

Uh back to the expo real quick. I mean the the dearth and honey robbing is important, although we just started our honey flow right now, but that's a different issue.

Kamon Reynolds

That is.

Jeff Ott

The 4500 Attendees, vendors, and beekeepers are like, how's the hotel situation holding up?

Kamon Reynolds

Well, one hotel sold out. So some of the hotels are bigger than others. Some of them only have between sixty and eighty rooms. Most of them are in that range And so a couple of those are almost filled and one of them is completely sold out. I can't remember. Chris really has done a phenomenal job taking this off of me and taking it off of Laurel. And so she's been able to focus on other things like micromanaging me. I need it. And the Crown Plaza, which is our host hotel, it's about 55% right now, just a little over 50%.

And one of the things that we have encouraged people is to go through our room blocks. It's a great price that you get through our rune blocks, but as we've focused more on trying to do things the traditional way, I've in the past I've tried to just you know kind of do a hands-off approach. I don't like marketing things. Hey, join us here. Do all these things. But it really actually does help because back when we weren't doing that, they would only give us a block or so at a time.

And what would happen is we'd end up where a third of the hotel is non beekeepers and it's harder for us to get what we want whether that's the restaurants are o opening up earlier or later. Uh whenever you're booking the whole hotel, you within reason you can get a lot of nice things. And so this year Because we did that last year, we were able to get the Crown Pop Plaza basically just for us. And we almost completely sold it out last year. And this year we basically are gonna sell the whole darn thing.

So it's just going to be concentrated and that was fun. Last year I got to talk to Becky after hours. That was one of my favorite parts.

Becky Masterman

Oh, thank you, Kamon. That was That was I I kept looking at how tired you were and your your wife would come down and check on you and make sure I wasn't underneath the couch or like it already like just settled settled down for the night in the lobby.

Kamon Reynolds

Well see that's what it was fun. Fun part for me. I love going to to be conferences and meetings And when I get to have the most fun is typically where I'm speaking to other ones because they're dealing with all the responsible stuff and I get to have fun and so for me getting to spend a few hours after the show's over and we you know I was talking to you, I was talking to David Peck, we ran into Ray Olivarez and Eric Oliver, Randy Oliver's son, and and several others.

So That's my favorite part of the show is getting to meet a lot of my friends and colleagues who I learn a lot about what they're up to and I get educated at the show as well. So I'm trying to offload all this work onto Chris and Josh and everybody else. So I can basically just do whatever the heck I want.

Becky Masterman

You could just have all those conversations throughout the entire three days instead of couple of hours at the very end.

Jeff Ott

Right, till two AM in the morning. Well speaking of shows, you will be out in Washington State In October. Might as well make sure that's in the short.

Kamon Reynolds

I have never been to Washington, so I'm looking forward to that and And it's always fun doing these types of meetings. Um I've yet to go to one that I didn't enjoy, but I'm a people person, so it's easy for me. And uh I'm looking forward to that. There's also a couple other really good speakers going to be there and so it's it's fun to get to learn and see what they're up to. So it's just gonna be a blast. And anyone who's in that region that can drive or heck fly, uh come hang out.

It's more fun to meet me at those types of shows anyways, because I'm more free to hang out.

Jeff Ott

Yeah. Well, I think it's a great opportunity for those beekeepers in in western Montana or northern Idaho and those areas that really don't get a whole A lot of different beekeeping meetings to come out and meet you, meet Dr. David Peck, Frederick Dunn, uh the and and uh Frederick Dunn.

Kamon Reynolds

Yep Oh man. And here I thought we were going to be able to I was going to be the the biggest cut-up. Fred's a bigger cut-up than I am.

Jeff Ott

Well that means that the attendees will have a great time. They will. That's what that means

Becky Masterman

Kamon, what do you know what you're going to talk about at the Washington meeting?

Kamon Reynolds

Yes, but I can't remember. Is it is it

Becky Masterman

But is is it is it management related? Yeah. Oh, it's always management related. It's always managed. Because I I think people know you as as the expo guy and they know you from of course from YouTube and everything. But boy, it's fun to hear you talk. with an audience about keeping bees?

Kamon Reynolds

I definitely have a different way of approaching it a lecture and it I've learned that there's not just one way of doing a a lecture, because I would love to be Bob Benny if I got to pick He's just such a wise person. He's calm and I he just he looks wise and I've always wanted to to be able to be that. I've come to realize that will never be me. Well he's tall too. And he's old. Yeah, well okay.

Becky Masterman

That's official, Bob. Then he's never coming on the podcast.

Kamon Reynolds

Yeah, he'll never be so wonderful to have and he's General person, uh a generous person and such a just kind individual. And he doesn't care if you have three hives or thirty thousand, he just treats you the same way and he has so many good experiences. He's really the wise grandfather of of beekeeping in my opinion. So I've always wanted to be that. I never will. I'm a cut up. And was when I get up there, I want folks to enjoy my lectures. I want to keep them engaged as well, but I'm also talking about serious things as well.

I like to kill varomites. I like to have healthy bees. I don't like to buy bees. I'm a production-minded individual. And even though I'm a goofball, when I turn that off, it's all very serious. Hey, let's work on the expo. Let's work on the bees. Most people never get to see that side of me. And I really don't enjoy being serious, if I'm being honest. I want to be a goofball. And So when I get on stage, there is going to be some some shenanigans, but there also is going to be some really tough information on, hey, you need to get your stuff together and add another fifteen to twenty percent more work so that you can Get your bees not only through winter, but have very powerful colonies going through winter.

And you can be sustainable and very Very focused on that. So but it's whatever they want me to talk about. I can't remember the exact titles that we've discussed, but I just know it's going to be the best they've ever had. And the very best. The very best. Absolutely. And you know, David will do a great job. Dav Dr. David Peck is one of my rivals. He's trying to catch up with me right now. And you know, maybe if he had another. What's the metric? Yeah.

Well

Becky Masterman

Hair is killing it.

Kamon Reynolds

Uh researchers, uh well, PhDs rather. And of course he works with Batterby, but He's he's a very smart person, but he's also really gifted in his ability to present. Yeah. He does it in a way that's not boring and I hate a boring lecture. David's not boring at all. He's also got a a fun personality to be on a round table with. And and he's a very passionate person. And there's not a lot of guys my age in that same circuit as as I am, that's uh super likable.

And so David's one of those guys, he's he's he's not me, but He's he's who's working on it.

Becky Masterman

He's he's hey, I let's just bring this full circle because we've established that you y you're amazing when we get when you get up and you you you have the audience in mind, you want them entertained, but you also want them educated. So for this request for speakers to show up at the bee Expo and and apply to be able to to be a speaker. Are you looking for entertaining and educating at the same time?

Kamon Reynolds

If I can get it, absolutely. But I also know that Some people don't like my style, and that's okay. Um I've had several people on YouTube and Facebook tell me how much they just don't like my style of things. And but it's it's okay. You know, there's a couple of guys who have told me that they really don't prefer uh you know some of Bob's or Fred's videos and when they have really high level content. and many times better than what I have. And so a lot of it comes down to personal preference.

And so w we're definitely not looking for more K-Routs because first of all, our conference would implode. And but we are looking for that is uh one of the things that we're looking for. And so there's three things that I'm looking for when I pick a speaker. And so I'm not looking at anything other than do you have something really good to provide that we think a decent bit of people will pick? I can't go okay only ten this is probably something ten people are interested in.

We can't do that with the show our size so I've got to go okay I there's gonna at least gonna be a couple hundred people that are probably gonna be interested in this This is an interesting topic, and we're gonna pick what whatever we think is the most important. And then we are going to pick someone who can speak well. And it doesn't have to be entertaining, but it needs to be Clear and organized enough. And so we're going to look online if we can. A lot of times the Beekeeping Today podcast is one of my actual go-tos to determine how well some of these people present.

And it really matters. And then the last thing is entertainment value. So education, entertainment. We're looking for the trifecta. And it's really hard to always find that. But whenever you can, that's what we're looking for. You know, Maggie Gill is definitely not as goofy as I am, and I think that's a a good thing. Uh but she also is a very good presenter. Now she has some really pertinent information on tropical apps. Right. She's really a good beekeeper and and researcher. So a perfect example of what we're looking for.

Bob is definitely not my style, neither is Fred. And so we definitely aren't looking for just one thing. But if you can be a little bit more entertaining I think education and entertainment is the best way to educate the majority of people. I remember a lot of stuff I learned when I was a kid. And the stuff that stuck with me the best was education with a little bit of entertainment.

Jeff Ott

So where can we find out more information on both the expo and speaker uh if you want to sign up for a speaker or recommend a speaker.

Kamon Reynolds

So the North American Honey Bee Expo website, N-A-H-B-E-X-B-O-E, XBO. com, you know, whatever, just look North American Honey Bee Expo, it'll pop up You know, when it comes to the technical stuff, I'm woefully We'll have it in the show notes too. Thank you for that. And there'll be a form on there. There'll be a couple things, but one of them will be a request for speakers And it doesn't have to be folks from the U. S. We're obviously looking for anybody from anywhere that can add value.

And that's our prerequisite. So You know, if anyone's concerned about that, don't be. Um if all of them end up being girls and like Becky um and you know presenters That that's perfectly fine. We are looking for a bunch of ladies. can be helpful. But we are typically, if I had to say we're looking for one thing over the other, we're looking for what can help beekeepers now. And and so that's where I'm excited we're expanding because we're gonna be able to have more research topics, because we're gonna have more options, but we've always leaned in the past towards fundamental beekeeping, little splitting bees, you different methods of, you know, like snail grove boards.

Demory splits or how you pronounce that. All of those different techniques that are more like how to treat now. I am glad that we're gonna be able to have more room, that we're gonna be able to have more research topics and stuff. We're looking at medicinal honey topics this year and several other things, but w we're truly looking mostly like how can we help our attendees when they walk away from our conference, are they walking away not only encouraged and excited for the next bee year, but do they have more tools to to have the success that they want?

And that's what we're looking for. So we will we we are opening up the subgenres, but that's always a hot topic. How can you help beekeepers keep their bees alive? And obviously genetics and stuff like that, we're looking into those things. So go to the website, fill that out. If you're an Australian beekeeper, we're also this one year. doing fifty dollars tickets for aussies only. And that's because of the whole them getting varroa mites. And so any Australian beekeepers or anyone wanting from Australia to learn about bees $50 ticket, so it's like twenty-five percent of what it normally is just this one year fur because they're really getting thrashed by varroa and and we're gonna have some specific topics.

Because I'm seeing a lot of, and you just don't know, but I saw a Facebook post this morning and they were using oxalic acid strips for their mites as their main treatment. And it wasn't like uh it was homemade ones. And which that happens, but the problem is it's not a knockdown treatment. So if you have a high mite load, oxalic acid, even if it's an approved one or a non-approved they do not knock populations down. And so that's where I think it's important that as many of them that are willing, maybe leaders of their bee clubs and organizations can come.

and bring that information back with them on what American, European, Canadian beekeepers are doing to control these things. And when in doubt, nuke them out. That's going to be a t-shirt. There's my thoughts on throw amites. But you guys are gonna be there with bells on. Um that's what I've I've heard. That he's gonna bring the little elf suit from Christmas.

Becky Masterman

For sure, for sure. It'll be it'll be close enough to Christmas, so I will not have put the elf suit away.

Kamon Reynolds

Okay.

Becky Masterman

That's good to know.

Kamon Reynolds

One thing I'd also like to mention about these new speakers that we're going to be bringing in is that If accepted, we're going to be providing a ticket to you. And so you're going to not have to worry about that. And again, it it could be anybody. It doesn't have to be a PhD. It doesn't have to be a Bob Benny level beekeeper or a social media person. Anything like that. We're just looking for something unique and something useful. So you can be anyone with a handful of hives with a new technique, or maybe you're have a special type of Way of creaming honey, whatever.

We want to learn about it and maybe we'll have you as one of the speakers at the show

Jeff Ott

Fantastic. Well Kamon, we look forward to having you back in the fall. Maybe talk a little bit more about the expo as as things are winding up and uh and of course next January we look forward to being there and uh helping out.

Becky Masterman

Thanks so much for joining us, Kamon.

Kamon Reynolds

Thank you so much. Always a pleasure. We'll see you in the next video.

Jeff Ott

It's a podcast