Wes Allison is a Texas
Panhandle native. He grew up in
Stratford, Texas where his mother was a school teacher and his father was a
county extension agent. After graduation
from Texas A&M University in 1993, Wes spent his time managing a ranch in
Coleman, TX. He joined the Texas
Agricultural Extension Service in 1996 and served as county agent in Walker and
Armstrong counties. In 2000, Wes took
over the duties of Livestock Show Manager for the Houston Livestock Show and
Rodeo. After learning a lot about the
fair industry, Wes assumed the responsibilities of President and CEO for the
Extraco Events Center Home of the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo in 2002. Currently the Center hosts over 225 events
per ranging from large equine events to antique shows to concerts. The annual Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo
has an attendance of 220,000 and award over $225,000 in scholarships and
premiums to Texas Youth. The Fair also
produces the All American ProRodeo Finals.
Wes is married to Jennifer, who is the Executive Director for the Texas
Association of Fairs & Events and the Texas Festival & Events
Association. The lights of their lives
are their daughters Bailey and Brinley.
In this episode, Wes
talks about how volunteers make the Heart O’ Texas Fair so successful! He
explains their self-funded program for incentivizing volunteers to pre-sell
tickets and sponsorships to the fair, and how this has changed and improved the
organization significantly. He also talks about the need to use ROI to make
decisions – sometimes difficult ones - about events and their viability because
“everything should make money!” The challenge for fairs as Wes sees it? Making
the experience different enough each time to keep people coming back year after
year!