The Center at the Fair

CAE reaches out with sponsorships and appearances at the Minnesota State Fair.

American Experiment brought a highly visible presence to the 2016 Minnesota State Fair, in part by sponsoring WCCO radio at the fair on Labor Day. The sponsorship included hourly announcements and 30-second ads. CAE staffers greeted visitors from a table alongside the time-honored WCCO booth. They distributed thousands of copies of the just-off-the-presses fall edition of Thinking Minnesota.

Fairgoers registered for giveaways of CAE-branded merchandise.

CAE also sponsored a full week of 1280 the Patriot (WWTC-AM) at the fair. Center President John Hinderaker cohosted one morning with Ed Morrissey, one of the station’s popular program hosts. That sponsorship included a full complement of ads and other promotions throughout the week.

Hinderaker proposed the State Fair activities as part of an overall strategy to introduce policy discussions to Minnesotans across the state.

Other outreach activities have included a series of town hall meetings, the wildly popular quarterly speakers’ series, and an expanded schedule of public speaking for the Center’s senior policy fellows.

“We should never be content to limit our reach to the legislature or to editorial pages,” Hinderaker said. “We talk about important issues that are relevant to each and every Minnesotan.”

Hinderaker said he has been delighted by the strong public reception to the Center’s outreach efforts: “It should surprise none of us that people care about public policy.”