The North Dakota State Fair has been nine long, action-packed days for its new marketing director, Shannon Pearson, who has conquered the event with two cells phones in one hand and green notebook in the other.
Having traded in her high heels for flip-flops and a golf cart, she's been all over the fairgrounds, making sure the free stages and special events come off without a hitch. Ideas for improvements, thoughts on events and names of people to contact go into the notebook that's become the center of her fair life.
She's also learned to live on fast food like corn dogs and Hawaiian shaved ice.
"I couldn't sleep before the fair started because I was so nervous," she said. "It's like the anticipation before it hits."
She hasn't been able to catch up on her sleep since the fair started July 18. Her job puts her in charge of getting the people operating the free stages and special events what they need to run their shows and ensuring the the crowd finds its way to the shows. She would have liked to watch all the free shows that she's been assisting but didn't get a chance despite being at the fair from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. or midnight each day.
"You don't have enough time to take it all in," she said. "I wish there would have been more hours in the day."
This year's State Fair has been a smooth-running affair, said Pearson, who speaks from the vantage point of someone who generally is upbeat and unflappable anyway. She said it helps that many of the people running the fair shows are veterans who do a good job without much need for assistance.
Mother Nature also has cooperated, raining only at night and keeping temperatures at a reasonable level. Pearson said the rain early Wednesday morning knocked out power to the carnival and came faster than the culverts could handle. However, by the time the fair opened, the water had drained away and operations were back to normal.
A Burlington native, Pearson grew up hanging out at the fair with family and friends. She worked at the fair as a marketing intern last summer and became marketing director in May after earning her master's degree in business from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. She said she thought she knew what to expect but discovered her predecessor had been doing more than she had let on to her interns.
"It was what I expected times 10," she said.
On Saturday, she was wheeling around in her golf cart to take care of the final paperwork with the entertainers. She coaxed one of her interns into helping grease pigs for an afternoon contest and checked in on the cell phone text-messaging event run by Wired Verizon Wireless. Staci Skeldum of Minot won the $1,000 first-place prize, while Matt Maurer of Grand Forks was second and Hope Baker of New Town was third.
Pearson said she's had to develop skill at working with the media, particularly talking her way through a television interview.
"My grandma said I need to slow down," she said. "When I get real excited I talk super fast, and I am excited about the fair."
Pearson has a pile of news clipping about the fair to sort through this next week as she assesses how the marketing went this year.
Pearson hopes to gain a new marketing tool next year in the videos that fair-goers were urged to shoot this year. People could check out flash video cameras capable of shooting up to 30-minutes of action to document their time at the fair. Fair staff edited each submission into five-minute clips for posting at (www.You Tube.com/nd statefair). Some of the video could appear in future fair marketing. Twelve videos were on the site as of Saturday.
As the fair wound to a close Saturday, Pearson was feeling a twinge of sadness, even if it has meant long days.
"It's all worth it when it pays off. It's worth every minute of working overtime or working late," she said. "It's just fun being a part of this."
