During our concluding lunch to the 2013 NAMA Fall Conference we celebrated with our new Professional Development Awards of Excellence. Let’s start with Gary Sakin, Monsanto, for Marketing Communications. Gary joined Monsanto in November of 2006, and has made impactful changes to how Monsanto approaches branding, measures marcom impact, and engages with its audiences. Currently, Gary is a key member …
Students at NAMA Fall Conference
The NAMA Fall Conference is a great place for professional improvement for agrimarketers who want to take their career to the next level. It’s also a good place for students to achieve the same thing. At this conference I visited with three students from the University of Illinois, (L-R) Kelley Fornoff, Ben Rakes and Ellen Reeder. I asked them why …
Coach Billick on Elements for Success
A former NFL head coach had no problem waking us up as our morning keynote speaker at the 2013 NAMA Fall Conference. Brian Billick, Super Bowl winning coach for the Baltimore Ravens and now an analyst for Fox Sports, talked to us about “The Essential Elements for Success.” He has lots of sports stories to go along with it. I …
2013 NAMA Fall Conference
The 2013 NAMA Fall Conference is underway in St. Louis and attendance is great with about 200 registered! That’s the most since sometime way back when it was the Issues Forum and held in Washington, DC. How many of you remember that? The Chair of the Fall Conference Committee is Sara Steever, Paulsen Marketing. We sat down at the end …
NAMA Exec. Comm. Meets
The executive committee of the National Agri-Marketing Association held its quarterly meeting this afternoon in advance of the full board meeting tomorrow. We’re continuing to work on the strategic plan to grow and expand NAMA. The board meeting will precede the start of the annual NAMA Fall Conference which is taking place here in Clayton, MO. We’ve got a full …
Get Ready for 2014 IFAJ Congress
On to Scotland! It’s the 2014 Congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. I got my passport and I see that Karen Simon has hers. She’s pictured with 2014 Pre-Congress Joint-Chair Adrian Bell. The Congress is being hosted by the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists for an unprecedented sixth time. The them is “Innovations from a Small Island” and …
New iPhones for Agvocating Professionals
You know times have changed when a smartphone has become a “farm tool!” Of course not every farmer will use one and not every farmer with a smartphone will use an iPhone. But a lot do and this week we got the announcement of the next generation of iPhones like this iPhone 5S in the image. This post is not …
Wrapping Up 2013 IFAJ Congress
Cindy and I are close to wrapping up our coverage of the 2013 IFAJ Congress in Argentina but not quite done. As we arrived at the airport in Buenos Aires to return home I spent a few minutes with Marcus Rediger, President, IFAJ. Marcus is pictured on the left with Congress President, Carlos Curci Gonzalez. Marcus says he was already …
2013 Best of NAMA Call for Entries
It is time once again for the Best of NAMA Call for Entries. The balloon head guy says, “Let it go to your head.” So here’s the information: The Best of NAMA awards program honors the best work in agricultural communications. Actually, the best of the best, since companies/agencies must first qualify through regional competition in order to advance to …
Projected Growth in Precision Ag Market
Looks like precision agriculture has a bright future according to a new report by Markets and Markets that says that the market will be worth $3,721.27 Million by 2018. The title of the report is, “Precision Farming Market by Technology (GPS/GNSS, GIS, Remote Sensing & VRT), Components (Automation & Control, Sensors, FMS), Applications (Yield Monitoring, VRA, Mapping, Soil Monitoring, Scouting) …