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Editor's Corner

This month we are taking a holiday from articles about food (we figured with Thanksgiving and Eid-ul-Fitr, the three-day feast of the fast-breaking at the end of Ramadan, most of our readers have had their fill of food for awhile). Instead, we're featuring articles on everything from farm-based entertainment (agritainment) to leisure time to those unsafe soft foam children's play areas that are cropping up in enclosed malls.

Now that the outdoor season is over, our agritainment clients are making plans for next year. Earlier this month I visited our 10-year agritainment client, Davis' Farmland & MegaMaze in Massachusetts to help them plan new attractions and management improvements for the coming year. I then went down to Pennsylvania to visit Cherry-Crest Farms in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country to evaluate how to improve operations with a new layout (see story in this eNewsletter). In December, I am traveling to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to visit the Santa Fe Horse Park to evaluate the possibility of developing a children's agritainment (perhaps we should call it equestrian-tainment) attraction. Then later in the month I will be visiting Brown's Berry Patch in upstate New York, another one of our agritainment clients, to assist them in planning expansion.

Our business with agricultural clients is on a growth curve along with the industry (see Old MacDonald story in this issue). In February, I will be speaking at the North American Farmer's Direct Marketing Associations' (the primary trade association representing agritainment) annual conference in Boston and in March at the annual The MAiZE® Site Owner's Conference in Chicago.

In this issue, we also have a short article about the new pizza buffet/entertainment center concept we have been developing for a number of our clients.

Next month, we will be reviewing any 'finds' from the massive IAAPA Convention and Trade Show that was held in Orlando, Florida earlier this month. We'll let you know if we found anything new we thought had legs.

Randy White
Editor

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