2024 Expo

AERO's 50th Anniversary and Annual Local Food & Sustainability Expo

October 4, 2024 - October 6, 2024

Billings, Montana

Registration is Open!

Sponsor Expo 2024

Each year Montanans across the state gather together at the AERO Expo for three days of connection, education, and collaboration. This year marks our 50th anniversary and we’re celebrating by gathering in Billings where it all began in 1974.

Sponsoring Expo puts your organization in front of a dynamic and engaged audience in a variety of digital and print platforms, connecting you and generating good will with hundreds of AERO and Abundant Montana’s supporters and friends from across the state, while also supporting our work to grow a resilient and reliable Montana food system. All sponsorships are tax deductible!

Click the button below to sponsor or contact Mary Baumstark at mary@aeromt.org.

Learn More & Sponsor Here

Welcome to Expo 2024 & AERO's 50th Anniversary!

Friday Oct 04 – Sunday Oct 06 | Billings, MT

FRIDAY: Area Tours | Potluck Dinner & Cake Auction @ Billings First Congregational Church (BFCC)

SATURDAY: Speaker series, panel sessions, workshops | Celebration Dinner & Dance @ Billings First Congregational Church

SUNDAY Morning: Annual Meeting, 33 x 33 Design Session @ Billings First Congregational Church

Our Expo 2024 theme is: #FutureGenMT: Designing a Path for the Well-Being of Montana’s Future Generations.

We chose this theme in honor of AERO’s founders’ clear commitment to foster the development of sustainable communities for today and generations to come, and inspired by the book #FutureGen: Lessons from a Small Country by Jane Davidson. #FutureGen details how Wales passed the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act of 2015, the first country in the world to do so.

As always, we’ll start Friday of the weekend with farm, ranch, and community tours, followed by our traditional Friday night potluck, cake auction (bring your cash, the bidding gets hot!!) and celebratory event launch. If you’ve not yet experienced the joy and delight of our Friday night gatherings, you are in for a treat! Saturday is dedicated to speaker series, panel sessions, and DIY workshops; we’ll end the day with local live music, more great food, and a celebration of AERO’s 50-year legacy. Expo ends Sunday at noon, after a Sunday morning annual member meeting and a 33 x 33 co-design session we hope everyone attends, for the developing campaign alliance committed to getting 33% MT-grown food on all Montana plates by 2033.

Find tour details and Saturday session details below.

Area Tours | Friday, Oct 04

Tour #1: Full Circle Collaborations

Morning: 9-11a BLUE CREEK MARBLED MEAT & PROCESSING: Tour of Blue Creek’s animal processing plant, completed in 2022. Family owned/operated, Blue Creek committed to full control of the process from pasture to plate to ensure they raise their animals responsibly, harvest them humanely, and provide premium beef to Montana markets. Agri Organics collects Blue Creek’s animal remainders for composting.

Afternoon: 1-3p AGRI ORGANICS & SWIFT BUCKETS: Family owned/operated, Agri Organics specializes in custom-blended topsoil, amendments, and STA-certified compost for homeowners and contractors throughout central Montana. They annually divert thousands of tons of organic waste, including Swift Buckets’ home food scraps, and thoughtfully convert it into valued living soil products.

Tour #2: Radical, Regenerative & Resilient

Morning: 9-11a CHARTER RANCH & LIVESTOCK: Multigenerational regenerative cattle ranch committed to holistic resource management practices since the 1980s. Steve Charter will share some of the creative experiments in process on the ranch for sequestering carbon, building soil health, and promoting rehabilitation of a semi-arid rangeland. “We are always working to build resilience in the land, animals and people we work with.”

Afternoon: 1-3p STONE SOUP GARDEN & YELLOWSTONE VALLEY FOOD HUB: Visit a small-scale, regenerative market farm stewarded by young farmers committed to cultivating healthy soil, food, and community. Learn how YVFH, a grower’s cooperative serving central and eastern MT, is building community and possibility with a commitment to “buying local made easy” .

Tour #3: Connecting Community with Food & Education

Morning: 9-11a HEALTHY BY DESIGN: Since 2000 this community health coalition has been working in collaboration with cross-sector partners to promote and improve health for all. In 2011 they launched a Gardeners’ Market to provide food and social connection to residents of Billing’s southside triangle, an area classified as a food desert.

Afternoon: 1-3p SWANKY ROOTS AQUAPONIC GREENHOUSE: Family-owned/operated, Swanky Roots grows fresh leafy greens all year long in their sustainable aquaponics greenhouse, connecting the community with local, healthy food and education. “Swanky Roots is committed to producing our product through sustainable methods.”

Tour #4: Stewarding Our Resources Together

Morning: 9-11a NORTHERN PLAINS RESOURCE COUNCIL: Everyday Montanans working together to secure a clean, healthful environment for all. Come tour their award-winning building and learn about NPRC’s clean energy projects, commitment to building soil health and knowledge, and taking action to ensure sustained, prosperous, and healthful agriculture for generations to come.

Afternoon: 1-3p SUSTAINABILLINGS & FRIENDS: Come meet this enthusiastic crew of young professionals carrying out programs and projects across the city to build a more sustainable, energy-responsible, healthy, and inclusive community.

Speakers & Sessions | Saturday, Oct 05

Keynote | Latrice Tatsey (In-niisk-ka-mah-kii)

Rancher, cultural land ecologist, and Piikani leader, Latrice is an advocate for tribally-directed bison restoration who remains active in her family’s cattle ranching operation at Blackfeet Nation in northwest Montana. Her research focuses on organic matter and carbon in soil, and specifically, the benefits to soil from the reintroduction of bison (iin-ni) to their traditional grazing landscapes on the Blackfeet Nation. Latrice previously worked for Pikuni Lodge Health Institute where she worked with cattle producers on grazing practices that are influenced by cultural science and cultural relationships with the land, and now carries out this work as American Indian Tribal Liaison/Conservationist-Blackfeet, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Track No. 1: Focusing on Nutrition for Generational Well-being

The Role of Local Food Nutrition in Generational Well-being
CASE STUDY: Prairie Grass Ranch and Gruff Grains: what health-giving food can mean for whole family health & well-being
The Economic Impact of Prioritizing Health-Giving Food Production and What it Could Mean for MT Food Growers If We Work Out the Kinks

Track No. 2: Sustainable Energy and Food Production – what does success look like moving forward?

50 years of sustainable energy and food production in MT: Applying lessons learned in a time of changing climates. Reflections by members of AERO’s Energy Task Force, AERO’s Ag Task Force, Repowering Montana co-authors, and MREA (2 sessions)

- Held v. Montana: the next generation speaks up. How well are we listening?
- Exxon-Mobil’s Snowy River Project: Big energy and the allure of “carbon sequestration”. Northern Plains Resource Council
CASE STUDY: Wickens Salt Creek Ranch (2024 Montana Leopold Conservation Awardee): developing the infrastructure for resilient, reliable, and sustainable production, sale, and delivery of quality food to Montana consumers

Track No. 3: Tools for Community Engagement and Action

WORKSHOP – Everyday Storytelling: building engagement through compelling conversations. Taught by Lara Tomov, STORIES for ACTION
CASE STUDIES: Three Paths to Building Community Engagement. Reports from the MFEI community cohorts.

— Helena: Creating the Helena’s Longest Table event and finding a home for sustaining food system action

— Fort Belknap: Building and sharing a Montana-adapted geothermal greenhouse through community collaborations

— Billings: Promoting community engagement and education through a Billings Local Food Trail Map

WORKSHOP – Speaking Up: Introvert-Friendly Tools for Effective Legislative Testimony and Action Today. Taught by Grow MT and Montana Farmers Union.

Track No. 4: Sustainable Health-Giving Food Access – what does success look like moving forward?

58% of Montanans no longer cook from scratch. What does that mean for MT local food growers?
Getting Health-Giving Food into Rural Grocery Stores: more than a distribution issue
Why Teaching Youth How to Grow and Cook Food Matters

Lodging

Hotels/Motels

Billings offers a wide assortment of affordable motels and hotels w/in a 10 min drive of Expo. In 2024, the easiest option is to type in the Billings First Church address (310 N 27th St, Billings) on Google maps and then type in “Hotel” in the “search along the route” pop-up at the top left of the map. You’ll be surprised by the number of options that pop up!

Some recommended downtown options:

Northern Hotel – 19 North Broadway, Billings. tel. 406-867-6767

Best Western Plus Clocktower Inn – 2511 1st Avenue N, Billings. tel. 406-259-5511

Double Tree – 27 N. 27th Street, Billings. tel. 406-252-7400

There are a large number of offerings through AirBnb and VRBO

Camping

Please contact these sites for pricing and to reserve your campsite in advance. These sites currently are listed as open the first weekend in October.

In Billings:

Billings KOA. Tents, campers, RV, cabins. 547 Garden Avenue, Billings. tel. 1-800-562-8546

Yellowstone River Campground. Tents, campers & RV. 309 Garden Ave, Billings. tel. 406-259-0878

In Laurel: (18 miles/20 min from Expo venue)

Riverside Park. Tent, campers & RV. 115 West 1st Street, Laurel. tel. (406) 628-4796

Buy Your Expo Tickets Here!