OTTUMWA — This year’s Wapello County 4-H Expo was better because of last year’s 4-H Expo.

“We knew what we were doing this year — It went a lot smoother,” said Randy Conrad, the Wapello County expo board president.

The lessons they learned came in 2007, the first Wapello County 4-H Expo to be held indoors at Bridge View Center.

This year, Jacob Swanson, 16, had two roles at the expo. He was both a 4-H participant and vice president of the youth council that helped put on the event. Between those roles, Swanson has been at the event every day. He showed rabbits, poultry, pigs, even his dog. His animals won several awards.

But Saturday night, he was on Bridge View Center’s back terrace helping serve barbecue. He said he and his fellow council members had been going wherever they were needed. And that running around has been easier in the BVC facility.

“We’re more used to Bridge View,” said Swanson. “We know the rules better [and] Bridge View takes care of us pretty well!”

Nearby, two diners who heard Swanson talking about the expo whispered to him to mention air conditioning. And yes, both Swanson and Conrad said they’d heard plenty of such comments. People like attending the expo indoors because of the air-conditioned comfort.

“It’s definitely cooler compared to the lagoons,” Swanson said. “It’s more compact and visitor friendly.”

“It went good. We had good crowds,” said Conrad.

Iowa State Extension official Himar Hernandez said neither extension nor 4-H members really keep tabs on how many guests attend. But he and Conrad felt attendance looked at least equal to last year’s.

ISU Extension intern Kala Barre said participation in events by 4-H kids was up in some areas, down in others, and overall, appeared about even compared to last year.

There were some changes, though, for 2008.

“Taste of Iowa is new, and it looks pretty successful to me,” said Barre, who herself was standing in line to try some of the food samples set up by vendors.

A newly required hand-washing station ordered by government mandate was actually seeing a lot of use in the animal-stall area.

And Hernandez was pleased with the turnout for a fairly new event: the salsa competition.