Fair Warning

Why it matters: The Florida State Fair in Tampa, in a highly competitive world for entertainment dollars, aims to become a bigger attraction.

Cheryl Flood, a fifth-generation Floridian who grew up on a Polk County cattle ranch, brings a lot of history to her role as executive director of the Florida State Fair. She showed cattle at the fair when she was a kid, part of the Frostproof Future Farmers of America chapter. Flood, 41, recalls that her mom when to the fair, too, when she was a child.