AgWired

Now that the NAMA Connection Point is over maybe I can find some time to get caught up on my posts. The attendance here is tremendous and the activity level has been at an all time high.

We honored an outstanding leader in agribusiness, David Seehusen, Land ‘O Lakes, with NAMA’s highest honor, the Agribusiness Leader of the Year Award. David has made significant contributions to the industry and made a really fantastic Earth Day speech which I will be adding to this post as soon as I get a copy of it. Dave included a lot of statistics about food production comparing today to years past. He made a great point of saying how new technology can continue to increase food production to feed a growing world population but only if farmers are allowed to use it.

You can now listen to David’s speech below.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
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NAMA toasted the Best of the Best last night at the annual Best of NAMA Awards Ceremony. You can find a complete list of all the winners in AgriMarketing Magazine.

The Best of Show – Advertising went to:

Client: Midwest Dairy Association, St. Paul, MN – Gregg Fogleman
Agency: Sullivan Higdon & Sink, Kansas City, MO – Parc Masterson accepting for agency
Message: To remind consumers that everything is better with cheese on it.
Audience: Mothers 25-54 with children 18-years-old and younger in the Ozark region.

Our other Best of Show winner is for Public Relations.

Client: Dairy Management, Inc., Rosemont, IL – Jolene Griffin
Agency: Weber Shandwick, Minneapolis, MN – Polly O’Grady
Message: To use social media to tell the dairy industry’s story, reinforce and build its positive image and respectfully counter inaccurate or uninformed online commentary about modern farm practices.
Audience: Consumers, age 17-29 and dairy consumers.

Thank you to Denny Eilers for the photos.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

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As the 2010 National Agricultural Marketing Association’s (NAMA) trade show kicked off yesterday, there was a sea of students anxiously waiting to get through the doors. Why? Because they were waiting for the announcement of which teams would make it through the finals for the Student Marketing Competition. On Tuesday, 31 teams from around the country arrived for their chance to win. The team that traveled the farthest for the chance to call themselves marketing geniuses, came from Hawaii. On Wednesday, 31 new products were announced and students presented in 20 minutes or less, why their product was the next “big thing” and how they were going to market it to success.

On Wednesday evening, Curt Blades, with Successful Farming, who has been a champion of the student’s marketing competition for many years, was awarded the Chairman’s award for his role as the Student Committee Chairman. His colleague, Janelle Buxton, was awarded a Horizon Award for her role as Chairwoman of the Membership Committee. Shortly thereafter, Curt took the stage in the trade show hall and began the announcement every student was waiting for. And the finalists are…

• Iowa State
• Illinois State
• University of Minnesota
• New Mexico State University
• CalPoly
• Michigan State

Here is a photo of few of the team members from New Mexico State as they took a brief moment to celebrate before heading back to put the winning touches on their presentation. Congrats to all the finalists and good luck this afternoon. You can see photos from the Student Marketing Competition along with photos from all of NAMA in the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album.

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The students here at NAMA are not just busy trying to win the NAMA Student Marketing Competition. They are also busy selling raffle tickets. For $10, you can get one chance to win a Vizio Flat Screen TV, retailed at more than $2,000. The proceeds from the raffle will benefit the AgriBusiness Educational Foundation (ABEF) which support the NAMA Students Careers Program.

I am proud to say that I bought a raffle ticket from fellow Iowa Stater, Joe (he asked me first) who also secured a sale to one of the Student Marketing Competition Judges.

ABEF and the students thank everyone for their support.

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
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Last night while the judges were relaxing in preparation for today’s Student Marketing Competition, the students were doing a little prepping themselves. All around the Hyatt, you could see members of the 31 competing teams practicing their presentations, Q&A’s and making final tweaks.

Here is a photo of several of the Iowa State students who were making some final changes while the rest of their team made changes on other elements of the presentation. I should confess that I harassed them for a bit, but only because they are from my alma mater. I must have brought them a bit of good luck because they made it, along with 15 other teams into the semi finals this afternoon.

Now, I could be speaking out of turn here, but I believe that the team that traveled the farthest is from Hawaii and I caught them in a happy moment after their presentation today. NAMA couldn’t have a better group of students and advisers representing the state of Hawaii.

I have also been going around and taking photos of all the teams so if you haven’t had your photo taken yet, please find me and visit our 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album where you’ll see photos of all our student competitors.

Good luck to all of the teams! Your hard work and professionalism has not gone unnoticed!

AgWired coverage of the 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference
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