AgWired

You’ve probably never seen these guys before so if you don’t know who they are I’ll tell you. This is Orion Samuelson, WGN Radio/RFD-TV and below is Max Armstrong, WGN Radio.

They were the masters of ceremonies at the Best of NAMA Awards.

Since the program had to move along faster this year it’s a good thing to have broadcasters handle these duties I think and they did a great job.

I guess if you’re going to Think Big you need to have some big names on stage.

At the start of the show they even had a live on-screen interview with President Bush from the White House (actually an actor). Orion asked him questions and he had all the answers. It was hilarious.

I really like the way the Best of NAMA was handled this year and as an exhibitor in the NAMA Connection Point (trade show) I was happy that it was completed earlier than normal so people could come relax for and visit for a while before going to supper.

Today we’ve got 3 sessions in the trade show so there’ll be a lot more opportunities to meet with some of the over 900 attendees at this year’s conference.

Now this is important stuff and thanks to Carol Anderson, I have the results of the ABEF Golf Tournament.

They are:

Longest Drive: Bob Brunker
Straightest Drive: Jason Weil
Closest to Pin: John Shospak
Longest Putt – Male: Ted Haller
Longest Putt – Female: Leigh Ann Cleaver

Team Awards went to:

First Place:
Roger Reierson
David Lundquist
Matt Herman
Sheri Seger

Second Place:
Will Murphy
Bill Pool
Jim Arnold
Steve Custer

Third Place:
Ted Haller
Bill Farmakis
Bob Brunker
Marvin Kokes

The Best of NAMA Awards were a really well done production again this year. The committee for it was led by Jim Haist (left) and Steve Engle who also handed out the awards. The full list of winners will be published in the April issue of AgriMarketing magazine. They have provided a short list for you though:

Last evening at its annual Best of NAMA celebration held in Dallas, TX, the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) presented 61 first place awards for outstanding ag communications activities during 2006.

* Colle+McVoy-9
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There really is too much going on here at NAMA for one blogger to handle. I’d love to spend a lot more time with the students for example. Maybe next year I’ll get my student blogger intern idea off the ground.

Here’s Gator NAMA, one of several chapters that made it into the finals. I don’t have the full list but I do know that Ohio State’s NAMA chapter also made it. Now isn’t that cool? If you don’t know why then I guess you don’t follow college football and basketball.

Go Gators! (I’m a 1980 grad in case you don’t know that)

The first session of the NAMA convention trade show is history and it was a good one. I’ve got so much to post but it’s going to have to wait until in the morning. Expect quite a few then. In the meantime:

Visit the 2007 NAMA Convention Photo Album.

Here’s the Truffle guys, Aaron Gilbertie (left) and Ned Arthur in our booth right before it really got busy after the Best of NAMA awards program.

Now it’s time for a party at Gilley’s and a Toga party in the hotel. See you later.

At today’s NAMA Chapter Leader’s Workshop participants got to hear from several “experienced” (not old) members who have worked in leadership positions. Greg Ehm, Two Rivers Marketing, for example spoke on leadership succession.

The theme of the workshop was “The Secret Formula of a Successful NAMA Leader” and everyone got a signed copy of Roy Williams book, “The Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.”

Besides Greg, another NAMA leader on the agenda was Frank Timberlake. You know shy Frank. He toughed through it with wit and wisdom. Frank talked about membership and said that programming is all important to the chapter. One of the things he said that I liked was how important a good meal can and should be to a good NAMA program. We’re all in the business of food and fiber after all.

I think there were over 40 people in the session which is very good turn out.

If you come by the ZimmComm/Truffle booth here at the NAMA convention and listen to one of our podcasts you’ll get a set of ZimmComm retractable ear buds.

These are in limited quantity so make sure you stop on by.

It’s Wednesday and today is when the convention kicks into high gear. I’ll be meeting up with Ned and Aaron in the trade show to set up later this morning. I’m going to stroll around and get some more photos and hopefully some interviews to post later.

The NAMA board meets this afternoon and I’ve got to make an appearance there too so there’s lots more to come.

Somebody has to judge the student marketing competition. Here’s a few of them who were gathered together earlier this evening to learn more about what they’ve gotten themselves in to.

They all got to meet for an hour at the top of Reunion Tower here next to the Hyatt Regency.

I wish I had more to report but I was just kind of in and out on my way to dinner a couple levels below.

After dinner tonight with the Ag Media Summit group Ned, Aaron (Truffle Media Networks) and I stopped by the trade show area to check things out.

This is the lower level area in front of the trade show room which you can reach by going down stairs 1 level from the lobby level. Today the down escalator has been out which means stairs or elevator.

I think we’re set up fine but we’ll be working on our booth tomorrow during the day prior to the opening of the trade show after the Best of NAMA Awards.