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.