The CUTC is officially underway now that our keynote session and reception is over. It’s a very quiet media room as yours truly is the only one here. At least the internet access is sort of working. It won’t let me upload to Flickr but I guess that’ll have to wait until later.

Post Update: Here’s some photos: CUTC Photo Album

First up on the program was NCGA First Vice President, Bob Dickey. He welcomed everyone and introduced the keynote speaker, USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Tom Dorr. I spoke to him before things got going. He says there’s a contingent of foreign visitors here and although he doesn’t have attendance figures yet he’s hoping for a good crowd. I asked him how things were going with corn planting after seeing that we’re finally nearing completion and he said that he’s hoping for a normal amount of heat units during the next couple months. I can understand that with all the rain we’ve been having in the midwest.

I also recorded his welcoming remarks and am posting them for you here too.

Here’s my interview with Bob: cutc-08-dickey.mp3

You can use this link to download the audio file: Bob Dickey Interview (2 minutes)

Here’s Bob’s welcoming remarks: cutc-08-dickey-welcome.mp3

You can use this link to download the audio file: Bob Dickey Welcome Remarks (3 minutes)