Nearly 200 attendees participated in the 2005 Agribusiness Forum that was held November 8-9 in Kansas City. This year’s Forum took place just prior to the NAFB Convention and featured industry experts from inside and outside the agricultural community. Individual speakers and panels explored marketing, and the dramatic changes in the rules of business interaction throughout the agricultural value chain.
"This is one of the better groups of speakers I’ve seen in a while," said John Seatvet, High Plains Journal.
Kicking off this year’s Forum was the first annual ABEF Putt Putt Golf Tournament on November 8 which raised over $4,600 for ABEF. The Golf Event consisted of 9 holes of miniature golf and all proceeds from the tournament will benefit the Agri-Business Educational Foundation (ABEF) in support of the NAMA Student Careers Program.
Winners of the putt putt golf tournament are as follows:
1st Place Team: "Patty’s Putters " which included, Sarah Muirhead, Feedstuffs; Steve Goertz, DTN; Patty Travis, 5MetaCom; and Sally Behringer.
2nd Place Team: "Earthly Beef" included Monte Reese, Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board; Chuck Zimmerman, Agwired.com (ZimmComm); Steve Taylor, Missouri Beef Industry Council; and Judi Lampe, Mother Earth News.
3rd Place Team: included Rhonda Ludwig, Farm Progress Companies; Kim Lang, DTN; Lou Ireland, Pioneer Hi-Bred Intl., Inc.; and Vicki Henrickson, Progressive Agriculture Foundation.
Hole-in-One: Monte Reese, Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board.
After the Golf Tournament, the Professional Development Awards of Excellence were presented at a banquet and honored four NAMA members’ achievement in each of the Professional Development Areas. Recipients of the Awards of Excellence included: Bev Larson, NK Brand/Syngenta Seeds, receiving honors in the area of Marketing Communications; Dennis Gehler, CROPLAN GENETICS/Land O’Lakes, who received honors in the Product/Species Management area; Janice Person, Delta and Pine Land Company, receiving honors in the Public Relations area; and Margaret Wallace Oldham, Beck Ag Com, Inc., receiving honors in the Sales area.
Special thanks to all of our ABEF Putt Putt Golf and Agribusiness Forum Sponsors and the Agribusiness Forum Committee, without whom the Forum would not have been possible. For a complete list of the sponsors and the committee visit, http://www.nama.org/forum.
Select “speaker slides and audio” from the Agribusiness Forum are available at https://www.namablog.org/?page_id=70. There is no cost to registered attendees of the forum to access the audio and handouts. If you attended the Forum and have lost the password to access the speaker information, contact Linda Schaefer at the NAMA office at [email protected].
If you were unable to attend the Forum, you may purchase the audio mp3, the audio mp3 plus the slide handout (Adobe .pdf Format), or a pass to get all of the audio and handouts for the forum at the following rates:
Audio (mp3) – Members: $7.00 Non-members $9.00
Audio (mp3) + Handouts (pdf) – Members: $19 Non-members: $29
Pass for all Audio & Handouts: Member: $49 Non-members: $69
To order visit, https://nama.org/forum/audio.htm.
Watch your mailbox at the end of this month for the 2006 Agribusiness Forum brochure. This year’s Forum will take place November 14-15. Once again, the Forum will dovetail the Regional Best of NAMA judging and the NAFB convention. The Forum will take place at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center which is near the NAFB hotel. 
It’s time to begin thinking about who to nominate for the 2006 Professional Development Awards of Excellence. The deadline for submitting nominations is September 1, 2006.