PVGA posted record attendance at the 2017 Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention with paid attendance surpassing 1,000 for the first time. This year’s paid attendance for PVGA was 1,091 in preliminary counts. That is about 120 more than the record set last year when paid PVGA attendance was 972. With about another 850 persons registered with the four fruit-grower organizations, total paid attendance at the Convention was about 1,940. With exhibitors, speakers, students, extension personnel and other guests, total attendance reaches 2,500 or more.
Once again, a full schedule of pre-convention workshops plus the third annual farm-market bus tour brought several hundred people to the Hershey Lodge the day before the actual Convention opened. Workshops included Hops Production, FSMA Food Safety Training, Tree Fruit Hands-on Grafting, Greenhouse Vegetable Production, Vegetable Grafting, Recall Readiness, and Pennsylvania Pesticide Applicators License Training.