Aug 19, 2025
Rooted in community, growing with purpose
Great Lakes EXPO 2025 brings refreshed roundtables, local food trucks and stronger networking
With more than 5,000 attendees, 800-plus booth opportunities and over 400 vendors, the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market EXPO and Michigan Greenhouse Growers EXPO make it easy to meet the decision makers on the show floor. The show takes place Dec. 9-11 at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Connection and community at EXPO Social
At the Great Lakes EXPO 2024, the show hosted its inaugural EXPO Social — a complimentary event for all attendees. A custom Michigan-made grazing table was prepared for the EXPO Social, with items locally sourced and grown in Michigan. The show offered Michigan craft beer, including a non-alcoholic beer produced in Hastings, with a dedicated hard cider bar sponsored by the Michigan Cider Association. Guests enjoyed dedicated networking time along with a presentation of awards and more.
“The space was at full capacity and filled with friends and family, while the air was full of meaningful conversation and laughter. Looking around the room, all you could see were smiles,” Olivia Crum, registration manager at the Great Lakes EXPO, said.
The Great Lakes EXPO is excited to announce that the EXPO Social will return for 2025 with improvements to the overall floor plan to allow the flow of traffic and lines to remain accessible. Additionally, two new awards will be presented during the Social. The Michigan Agritourism Association will recognize one outstanding member and the EXPO will recognize the winner of the EXPO trade show booth competition.
Bringing flavor and connection to the EXPO
In 2024, the Great Lakes EXPO introduced food trucks to the show as an opportunity to support local businesses while providing an area for attendees to connect.
“In an effort to support local and provide some different food options for Expo guests on site, we partnered with Good Times Griddles and Union Station Smoke House to offer up some delicious options for our guests,” Judy Snyder, trade show manager at the Great Lakes EXPO, said.
According to Snyder, attendees enjoyed new food options and a gathering area where they could sit and network with fellow attendees while enjoying lunch on-site.
In 2025, the Great Lakes EXPO will offer three food trucks to attendees, including vegetarian options.
“We appreciate our guests having an open mind regarding the food trucks and have taken your comments into great consideration as we build on this area to make it mutually successful and beneficial,” Snyder said.
2025 roundtables
Derek Plotowski, fruit Extension educator for Southeast Michigan with MSU Extension and Garret Ziegler, coordinator for the 2025 roundtable sessions and community food systems educator with MSU Extension, serve as coordinators for this year’s roundtable session.
This year’s roundtable session will be on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
“With the roundtable being the first item on the agenda, farm market track attendees will be able to get a reading on what their fellow farm marketers are thinking about for next season,” Plotowski said. “The roundtable is one of farm market managers’ favorite events of the EXPO because it allows them the opportunity to pick the brains of other farmers working in the industry and share their own experiences.”
This year, EXPO plans to include a round-up of topics early on, improving the time management of the session and ensuring each topic is covered. This approach gives people the chance to share ideas and make large group discussions more efficient. In the past, topics were typically addressed on a first-come, first-serve basis, which sometimes left little time for other topics.
“I’m looking forward to the topic roundup at the beginning, because it will give us a chance to have a broad view of the main topics of interest,” Plotowski said. “Some topics come up every year, but this discussion to set the stage will allow for some less frequently talked about issues to be brought up.”
Learn more about this year’s show and more at glexpo.com.
