The ICF Annual Conference lands in Madison on July 21, and as of this week we're six weeks out. If you've been putting off registration because last summer you weren't sure your creamery would still be open by conference season, we understand — and we've noticed the numbers this year look different from that.
Early registrations are running ahead of where they sat at this point in 2025. Some of that is simple math: fewer members closed their doors this spring than last, and the ones who stayed are, by and large, in a position to travel again. Some of it is probably relief. National milk price forecasts have been sliding through the spring rather than spiking, and for once that's read as good news around here — a market that's easing off rather than one that's still climbing out of a hole.
What's on the program
This year's flagship competition returns with a full slate of categories, and the Awards & Competition Committee tells us entry volume is tracking close to pre-2025 levels. If you're weighing whether to enter, the deadline sits well before the conference itself — check the entry portal rather than guessing at the date from memory, because it moved slightly from last year's cycle.
Alongside the competition floor, the program leans into a theme we've heard from members all spring: succession. Sessions on transferring a creamery to a family member or a longtime employee, on what a buyer actually looks for in a small operation's books, and on the paperwork nobody warns you about until you're mid-negotiation. If 2025 was the year creameries closed, 2026 is shaping up to be the year some of them changed hands instead — a quieter, better outcome, and one the program committee built the schedule around.
There's also a full day dedicated to the traceability recordkeeping requirements that took effect at the start of this year. We know plenty of members are still working through what those actually require of a small operation day to day, and the sessions are built to be walked-through, not lectured-at — bring your current recordkeeping setup and expect to leave with a marked-up version of it.
Booking now versus later
Hotel blocks near the conference venue tend to fill by late June, well before the early registration deadline closes. If you're bringing a second staff member this year — and we're hearing that more members are, now that travel budgets have some room in them again — book the room block early rather than the conference ticket. The ticket you can always upgrade; the room block, once it's gone, is gone.
For members who exhibited or sponsored a booth last year, your renewal window on the same spot closes two weeks before general exhibitor registration opens. If you're on the fence, reach out to the Events Committee rather than letting the window pass — they've been flexible about extending it for members who ask early.
We'll have more on session scheduling as July gets closer. For now: register, book the room, and if you're entering the competition, don't wait until the deadline week to pull your make sheet together.
The International Cheese Federation (ICF) and More Cheese are entirely fictional. This post is demonstration content created for MemberJunction. All people, organizations, events, courses, certifications, figures, and quotations in it are invented, and nothing here represents a real association, a real business, a real person, or real professional advice.