The NAMA Bombers made it to the convention and posed with the autographed movie poster they donated to the ABEF Silent Auction. I know there was good bidding activity on the poster.
From what I understand they drove through some nasty weather and got in a few hours late but safe and sound. I hope they left early today since the forecast here isn’t great. I’m taking a late flight out and hoping nothing is delayed.
We had a surprise reception for Eldon White last night. Kyle Bauer, KFRM, was outside the door for some reason and supposed to let Eldon in when he stopped by the president’s suite. The problem was the key he had didn’t work. So all of the sudden there was violent pounding on the door which we definitely weren’t expecting. Then in came Eldon.
We toasted him, the staff wrote a nice limerick and Eldon made a short speech. If you weren’t there you can watch it here:
I’m really not sure if Bob Brunker, J. L. Farmakis, is praying or just what but you’re welcome to speculate in the comments. He couldn’t afford to pay me enough not to post this.
We had armadillo races in the NAMA Connection Point and Bob was a racer. He lost by the way if I remember right. The think I didn’t fully understand was the part about blowing on the armadillo’s tail. You’ll have to ask Bob about that if you really want to know.
Here’s a video clip of a different race if you want the full effect:
I don’t know. It just struck me as ironic when I saw this going on in our booth at the NAMA convention.
Here’s Ned Arthur, Truffle Media Networks, on the left interviewing Kurt Lancaster, Texas Farm Bureau Network.
I have no idea what they were talking about but if I had the audio I’d link to it.
The NAMA convention chairman is Barry Nelson, John Deere. I got to interview him during a break in the action while we were both in the Connection Point.
Here you can see him announcing drawing winners at one point last night.
Barry says that about 1,100 were here and that’s better than last year in Kansas City I think. I know trade show traffic was much better this year and I’m a happy exhibitor. Thank you to everyone who stopped by.
Barry says that he had a great team who helped him with the planning for this year’s NAMA convention. He didn’t seem to want to be “chairperson for life” though.
You can listen to my interview with Barry here:
nama-convention-07-nelson.mp3
Seriously, you’ve got to like an organization that gives you cash. That’s what Kathi Conrad, NAMA staff, was doing before the first general session yesterday. It all made sense when conference chairperson, Barry Nelson, talked about positive thoughts and getting a dollar for each one and how many we’d have in our pocket at the end of the event. Actually, did I hear him say at one point, ” . . . a dollar full of pockets.”? Hmm.
Anyway, I’m at the airport waiting on a flight so I have no idea how many posts I’ll get done. Whatever doesn’t get done today will get done tomorrow now won’t it? Don’t forget that I’ve also been posting onto the NAMA Blog so you can find posts there too.
I learned that someone at the NAMA Convention is engaged to be married.
So to add some fun to your Friday afternoon I’m going to let you guess who. The first person to post the correct name of who’s hand this is will get a pair of ZimmComm retractable ear buds.
Just use the comment feature at the bottom of the post. We do have it back in place and working.
Post Update: Dave Anderson, Alpha Scouts, is the first person to comment correctly that the hand and the ring belong to Sally Behringer, Nicholson Kovac. He’ll receive his prize via mail this coming week.
Here’s the winner of the ZimmComm New Media/Truffle Media Networks iPhone drawing. She’s Paige Gilligan, Agrestic Solutions & Innovations. Pictured with her are me to the left and Aaron Gilbertie, Truffle on the right.
The latest buzz is that the iPhones will become available starting in June so we’ll ship Paige her iPhone just as soon as they’re available. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and entered our drawing or enjoyed a Godiva chocolate truffle.
The NAMA Connection Point just closed up and I’ll have more pictures and announcements coming. It’s reception time once again so I thought I’d just get this quick post up before heading out. I’ve got the photo album updated though (over 265 in there so far).
What a day it has been here at the NAMA convention. I’ll have lots of posts over the next couple days so don’t go away.
One of the things I’ve been able to do some more of today is interviews like this one here with Tom Slunecka, Executive Director of EPIC.
My interview with Tom will actually be used for an upcoming episode of the EPIC podcast, “Fill Up Feel Good.”
I’ve received a lot of attention today since I’m using the Golden ZimmComm Microphone. I brought it in honor of the 50 year anniversary of the National Agri-Marketing Association.
The NAMA Marketer of the Year is Phil Johnson, Colle+McVoy, who was golden toga man last night at the Togafication Party held in his honor. He’s seen being toasted here sometime last in the evening.
Besides the toast we also got to see a very cool video about Phil which I am hoping to get a copy to or encourage someone to post to YouTube and send me the link to it.
I promise I’ll post it.
