Mike Dwyer is Director of Global Policy Analysis, Office of Global Analysis, Foreign Agriculture Service/USDA. He was a keynote speaker at the National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar.
Everyone wants to know what the markets will be like in the future. Mike’s job was to tell us what he thought export markets would be like in the next ten years. He says that the main message he had was that the current prosperity in American agriculture is not a “flash in the pan.” Demand in other areas of the world like China is expected to continue to increase which will keep prices higher in the next ten years than the last ten years. Mike Dwyer Interview
2011 National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar Photo Album
My session number one on Social Media: New Marketing Tools has concluded at the National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar. This afternoon I’ll be conducting round two which is a how-to session to get into specifics and help attendees create and start managing their social networking accounts and answer questions.
We had a good crowd this morning. Most are on Facebook, at least personally. However, very few on Twitter or any other social media platform. I showed how that is evident when you do some online searching for NSA. Their website comes up and there’s lots of great information on it. Now I think it’s time to get some social networking going to attract, engage and point people to all that information. I want to thank everyone who sent in a tweet to us during the session. It really helps to see “live” activity in these types of presentations.
2011 National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar Photo Album
The educational part of the National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar is underway. The first session is dealing with “Reversing the Trend of Declining Acres: Will We Have the Tools?” This panel includes scientists from USDA and North Dakota State University as well as representatives of the NSA. They are speaking a language that I don’t have but what I’m getting out of this so far is that research is the key to finding genetic lines that provide more flexibility in planting and production which will make sunflowers a more attractive crop. I’ll try to get an interview with one of them before the day is out.
My session on social media is coming up after our break so I better get ready.
2011 National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar Photo Album
The Summer Seminar for the National Sunflower Association got started with a wonderful evening of fun and fellowship. The evening ended with the Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship Fundraiser. These guys were ticket sellers.
I have not participated in a fundraiser quite like this. Prizes were purchased and laid out on three tables. We could purchase tickets for a chance to be drawn to “pick a prize.” So tickets were sold for one table at a time. Then once tickets were drawn and the winner of that ticket made their choice of prizes we continued until all the prizes on that table were gone. Then tickets were sold for the next table. Interesting way to do it.
To learn more about the Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship I spoke with Steve Kent. Steve says that Curtis was a “great ambassador” for the sunflower industry. People appreciated it and they wanted to find a way to memorialize him. So they now have a fund to provide a scholarship to a student who wants to pursue a career or work in the sunflower industry. This year will be the second scholarship awarded. So if you couldn’t be here Steve says to make out a check to the Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship Fund and send it to the National Sunflower Association office. Steve Kent Interview
I’ve got some photos uploaded already and you can find them here: 2011 National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar Photo Album
Welcome to Deadwood, SD, “Where Western Legends Were Born.” I’m here for the 2011 National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar. Maybe we’ll create some legends of our own before we’re done!
The very first person I met after checking in to the Lodge at Deadwood was Larry Kleingartner, Executive Director, National Sunflower Association. Larry provided a preview of this year’s Seminar. He says that they do a “little bit of learning, have a little bit of fun and a little bit of networking.” There will be about 200 attendees coming from the support industry. That includes seed and chemical company reps, processor reps and grower leaders. NSA membership is wherever sunflowers are grown so we’ll have people here from many states and Canada. Larry says research is the big topic and key to helping make the crop as competitive as possible. Larry Kleingartner Interview
The first item on our agenda is an evening social, dinner and fundraiser for the Curtis Stern Memorial Scholarship. I’ll be attending and have some photos to share by tomorrow morning.
If you would like to let these sunflower growers and support industry folks know what you think about the value and uses of social media, please use the conference Twitter hashtag, #NSASS11, in tweets tomorrow morning. I’ll be conducting a session on this topic and would love to show them some outside perspective.
Next week I get to do something I love to do. Get up on stage and talk about social media and networking. The venue will be the National Sunflower Association Summer Seminar in Deadwood, SD.
The National Sunflower Association (NSA) is a non-profit commodity organization working on problems and opportunities for the improvement of all members. Membership in the NSA includes growers and the support industry. There are four general categories of NSA activities: Market Development and Promotion; Production Research; Education and Policy Issues.
I’ll be conducting two sessions. The first one will provide an overview of social media and examples of how it is being used by agribusiness today. Then I’ll conduct a session that will be a “how-to” and hopefully attendees that don’t have social media accounts will have them by the time we’re done!
You’ll be seeing the #NSASS11 hashtag in my tweets next week. If you’re there please feel free to add it to your tweets too. Also, if any of you are sunflower growers, let me know your social networking identity so I can feature you in my presentations!
In this week's program you can listen in to my conversation with Bill Howard, Fastline, about their new mobile game app, AgRacer.
