Judges Defy the Elements
The winter storms that blanketed parts of the country last week were no match for the National Best of NAMA judges. Many waited hours at airports to board their flights to take them to the judging on February 17 in Kansas City. While a couple of judges simply couldn’t overcome the transportation challenges, most made it in for the event that took place at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center.
This year’s judging featured some fine tuning designed to make the judging process simpler. Judges evaluated 500 national entries, the cream of the crop, so to speak. A first and merit award will be presented in 69 categories and three Best of Show Awards will be given out in the areas of Advertising, Public Relations and Specialty Categories.
Special thanks to this year’s national Best of NAMA judges:
Phil Johnson, Colle+McVoy
Keith Canfield, PIC
Mark Moore, Charleston|Orwig
Joy Watson, BASF
Catherine Wang, Gibbs & Soell
Jill Greene, The Meyocks Group
Mike Butler, archer>malmo
Gerri Lein, AdFarm
Carol Anderson, Anderson Kisner Fallon LLC
Illinois Blasdel, Blasdel Cleaver Schwalbe
Linda Monslow, Osborn & Barr Communications
Greg Smith, Padilla Speer Beardsley
Bob Shriner, Bader Rutter
Janell Aust, McCormick Company
Steve Rhea, Rhea & Kaiser
Eric Baumgartner, VML
Mike Gustafson, John Deere
Special thanks also goes to Pioneer Hi-Bred, Intl., Inc. for sponsoring the national Best of NAMA Judges’ Luncheon.
Over 50 students and professionals of the Arizona State University student chapter and the Desert Southwest NAMA Chapter met January 25th to hear Jim Irwin, recently retired vice president of North American agricultural business for Case IH. The meeting was hosted by the student chapter at the agribusiness center on the ASU East Campus. Jim encouraged the attendees to keep a strong customer focus, citing that the “purpose of business is to acquire and maintain customers.” He noted that the merger of Case and New Holland, into CNH, Inc., resulted in gaining market share and gained the recognition for the highest customer satisfaction ever for the company.
Jim also taught that “execution beats strategy.” He was quick to note that strategy is very important, but that no matter how powerful the strategy, poor execution will block success. Looking forward, Jim emphasized that companies must continue to “think global,” and that technology will continue to play a key role. Successful companies will “know their customers better than the customers know themselves,” concluded Irwin. Jim Irwin was honored as the 2005 Agribusiness Leader of the Year at the NAMA Agri-Marketing Conference last April.
At the 2006 ABEF Golf Tournament, Tuesday April 18, 2006, you’ll not only get in a great round of golf, but you’ll also get an adventure! That’s because WinterStone Golf Course is the only golf course in America that sits above an active limestone mine. Around 3:00 p.m. you’ll hear and feel a rumbling from underground as miners blast the limestone that will be hauled out of the ground for processing. But have no fear, the rumbling will not impact your game. Sign up now for this unique golfing experience.