Jim Lenz:
In this episode of Whole Grain, we’ll provide an on the ground report from Sao Paulo, brazil, home of the recent Latin American event in which GEAPS partnered with Victam International. All that and more coming up next. Welcome Grain Professionals to this episode of Whole Grain. My name is Jim Lenz, your host of the Whole Grain show and the director of Global Training and Education at GEAPS, where the mission of the Grain Elevator and Processing Society is to champion, connect and serve the global grain industry and our members. At GEAPS, we work to be the global community and thought leader for the grain industry, which feeds and fuels the world. Our guest for today is Austin Carpenter. Austin has been a GEAPS member since 2010 and currently serves as the first vice president of the Jeeps International Board. He’s been active in the Hoosier chapter and the Great Lakes Regional Conference Planning Committee and serves on the Exchange Futures Committee. Austin is also the sales manager at Clear Creek and Associates Incorporated of Crown Point, Indiana. CCA is an engineering firm that designs grain elevators, export and trans-loading facilities and utilizes 3D scanning technology to lay out new mill expansions or reworks. CCA performs field inspections on aging facilities with questionable structures and, if repairable, supplies drawings for the repair or modification Now. Victam International hosted its first ever event in South America. The event took place October 3rd through the 5th of 2023 in São Paulo, brazil. Austin Carpenter, Deb Most, our Jeeps member and chapters manager and I headed south to Victam Latin America. In addition to the expansive trade show floor, jeeps offered two days of educational sessions. Austin shares his initial impressions of Victam Latin America a description of the event, the global representation at the event, the education and networking available at Victam Latin America, as well as the themes and trends he observed on the trade show floor. Let’s get started All right. Our guest for today’s episode is a special one for a number of reasons. This is Austin Carpenter. He has been a Jeeves member since 2010. He is a very active member. In 2018, he was elected to the associate international board of Jeeves and he is currently serving as the first vice president of Jeeves. He is also the sales manager at Clear Creek and associates incorporated. Austin, welcome to the show.
Austin Carpenter:
Thanks for having me.
Jim Lenz:
Now, Austin, this is. The listeners here can probably hear some ambient noise like they normally don’t hear in shows, but you are hearing this because we are at Vict am LatA m for Latin America. We’re in Brazil, Sao Paulo, and we are on day three, just ending day three of the three-day event. So, Austin, it’s gonna talk a little bit about what’s going on here today. But, Austin, just before we begin with that discussion, if people have not met you and you are a big leader in the green industry, a great networker I tell everybody about you, what you do and your role with Clear Creek and associates.
Austin Carpenter:
Yeah, austin Carpenter, like he said, been in the green industry since 2008, looking at 15 years. Now I’m the sales manager for Clear Creek handle and everything prior to contracts being signed. So the, the dinners, the fun stuff, the trade shows on the sidewalks, everything on the on the front side. You know, one thing I always love to tell about is my family. I’ve got a wife and wife, jennifer, and two girls, addison and Arya, that are diehard competitive cheerleaders. So that keeps them busy. My free time.
Jim Lenz:
I know your family means a lot to talk about them and that’s wonderful. It’s a great supporting network. They have sort of big Tam. We’re in Sao Paulo, brazil, we’re just about to conclude this. This is the first time Jeep’s has sort of dedicated event here in Brazil, at least been part of one. So now, kind of big picture wise to start off, what are your feelings and thoughts? You know, being here and and meeting a lot of people and just experiencing this, you know the experience has been exciting.
Austin Carpenter:
We’re talking here, right in the center of the show. There’s people going around us with bags of goodies. They’ve Visited the vendors. They’ve. They’ve come here to learn about processing equipment, grain storage, innovations uh, they’ve, uh, and I think they’ve left with with her bags full. There’s, uh. There was a lot of good education that took place, I think for the first victim show with jeeps involvement down here in Brazil. I’d say it kicked off with the success.
Jim Lenz:
Yeah, it’s. Uh, it’s been a great experience, a lot of connections been made. I mean, you literally were just telling me Uh, a gentleman came up to our jeeps food, asked a question, and I think it’d be good. Just a little short story, you know there’s a uh.
Austin Carpenter:
There’s a member from Kansas that has a booth here. He Was looking for some support here in the Sao Paulo area or in Brazil, explained to me what he needed and Instantly he was able to connect him with another vendor here that provided the services he was looking for, and it’s that’s. That’s the jeeps network. That’s what it’s what really pays to be a member, knowing the right people to ask, and then we would talk to. So good experience for that member he’s he’s gonna leave with with an excellent contact and a way to successfully do business here in Brazil.
Jim Lenz:
Yeah, we have educational offerings, of course, with jeeps, online and in person. We offer a lot of other things. But you know, if you could be as concise as you can to what jeeps means and so many people State, in summary, kind of what you said and, and I like to say, it makes the green industry smaller. Your network becomes greater. You have a question, you have a comment, you have a problem on a? Solve If you don’t know someone, someone else will know and they’ll help you out. So that’s a good example there. All right, so Maybe you’re listening to show and you’ve attended this big Sao Paulo here in brazil, but of course many or most people over listeners did not attend. That would not be able to do that. But if you could Describe in words, create sort of a sensory or feeling, what’s the experience like? Kind of Well.
Austin Carpenter:
I’m not going to start with the palm trees that are outside, the beautiful weather or the great facility that I walked into I think I’m gonna lead with. I walked into a train to the floor that Looks like a mall. I mean it’s. It is built up like nothing I’ve attended in the past. I’ve done a number of shows in the US. This is my first victam show to attend, but the booths feel like you’re walking through a mall. I mean, everything is well done. It’s a large show floor. There’s lots of equipment to see. There’s not a lot of empty space either. It’s a full venue. You know, food-wise, they’ve got food trucks in the corner that provided a bacon burger. That’s something I’ll probably keep talking about. It was fantastic. They had Asahi bowls. They have a couple of. You’ve heard of this Brazilian coffee, but it’s something to write home about. Just the overall venue itself and how it was put together. Really happy to see the blue area in the trade show floor is actually all the Jeep series where people signed up.
Jim Lenz:
That’s a great description of this, austin. Thanks for doing that. You can help our listeners understand a little bit more, but let’s provide our listeners a little bit more information about global representation.
Austin Carpenter:
Well, gentlemen, since it’s not confirmed yet, we’ve got roughly 30 countries that are represented here in Sao Paulo at Victam. We have one country in particular, the USA. We’ve got several states represented. What I counted was Iowa, indiana, texas, wisconsin, florida, kansas, michigan and Nebraska. Quite a representation of the first show, I think.
Jim Lenz:
Yeah, great to see. Just spoke not too long ago with a gentleman from Columbia and what is for sure is that there are opportunities for networking to really support each other and continue growing and challenging and exciting industry. A lot of need for education opportunities as well.
Austin Carpenter:
A couple of things on the network and education. We’ve had a lot of interest here at the Jeep Spooth with people that are looking for education. That’s one of the biggest things that has been asked for. They’re looking for ways to tap into our education and get it to their people. So it’s been very neat to see that here. You and Deb have done a great job talking with the potential membership down here and promoting Jeeps and what all we offer. One that comes to mind instantly is a gentleman here looking at joining in India. I know India is a market that’s been very large. Our Jeep’s presence there is minimal at the moment and you guys are in talks with someone over there to look at a chapter, see what can develop, and a chapter takes 25 members and from the sound of it, that will be a problem. On the education side, I attended a few of the sessions that they were full Translators did a fantastic job. The first one I sat through was Portuguese. I did my best to understand it, picked up a couple of words, none of which I could repeat, so that was helpful. The second one I went to, I did use the translation headphones and it worked really well. I was able to follow what the presentation was. The voice was great.
Jim Lenz:
And I think, just going to piggyback on that, I think there are some great opportunities for customization of languages to support those from around the world. Alright, let’s move to the trade show floor, austin. What are some of those themes that you are seeing?
Austin Carpenter:
So high capacity process storage. You know that’s the 60,000 foot view if you were flying over it looking down. But a couple of things to really talk about. I saw more style of manufacturers here than I had seen previously at other shows, a couple of brands I wasn’t used to and some that I’d seen that actually tend to change and exhibit. So that was neat to see the high speed. There’s a desperate need for high capacity. I’m here at numbers like 2,500 tons, metric tons per hour. That’s moving, that’s big. And there’s product lines. Maxilift launched a product that’s got special for this industry. It’s 12 inches of projection and it’s set up to work on some of the elevators that are down here. So I’m seeing customization for this market down here. I’m seeing the need for higher speed, higher capacity. That was fascinating. One company that did DEM analysis on conveyor transfers, receiving pits, loadouts, you name it. Their specialty is analyzing friction and damage and helping products move in a natural form. So that was really cool to see. The other thing they saw there’s a ton of what I would call large equipment Extruders, unloaders, exam systems that are full bagging line here that somebody dump a product into and then watch it get bagged. I cut it open and do it all over again. So just this sheer amount of equipment and quality of the of the displays is neat here on the show floor.
Jim Lenz:
Also that’s a good summary of the trends that you’re seeing out there on the trade show floor. It meant a lot that you traveled all the way here. I know you have a lot of commitments and it was a really appreciated. He did a great job representing Jeeps, represented the International Board, and I know the board really appreciates it, and the staff at the Green Elevator Process Society is also very thankful. So there’s some great takeaways and again we have an opportunity to really serve others in the green handling and processing industry. It was an exciting opportunity and once again, thank you so much.
Austin Carpenter:
One last thing I’d like to share. Chuck Kunisch was supposed to make the trip. I would have enjoyed seeing him down here. I know he would have enjoyed exploring the trade show floor and talking with everybody. Some health issues kept him from traveling. We wish him the best and I feel honored to have been down here and been able to stand here in his place.
Jim Lenz:
Yes, and Chuck, I agree, and everybody knows Chuck Kunisch, so we asked the episode if you’ve heard him already. But they haven’t met him. He is a one kind soul and this means a lot to him and Jeeps means so much to the Jeeps family. So thank you for recognizing him. We thank you, our listeners, for making the whole green show part of your day. It’s now been about a year since the launch of the show to support the green handling and processing industry. With your support, we’ve gained listeners from 54 countries. The show is easily accessible and can be found in your favorite podcast app and on the Jeeps website at com/. geaps. com Whole Grain. The Whole Grain show is a production of Jeeps the Grain Elevator and Processing Society. The Grain Elevator and Processing Society is the largest organization dedicated to advancing the grain handling and processing industry. Be sure to check out www. GEAPS. com. Make it a great day and thanks for Whole Grain.
