The deadline for nominating someone you know for a Professional Development Award of Excellence is September 1.

These awards honor NAMA members based on outstanding achievement in each of the Professional Development Areas (PDA): (1) Marketing Communications; (2) Product/Species Management; (3) Public Relations; and (4) Sales. Nominees must be NAMA members. Nominators should target individuals with direct planning and execution responsibilities in the respective Professional Development Area from agribusiness and related companies.

The awards will be presented at the 2009 Trends in Agriculture fall meeting, November 10-11, at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City.

Past Awards of Excellence recipients include the following and the company they were with at the time of receiving the award:

Marketing Communications

2008 – Paul Redhage, FMC Agricultural Products
2007 – Pete Kovac, Nicholson Kovac, Inc.
2006 – Steve Engle, Woodruff Sweitzer
2005 – Bev Larson, NK Brand/Syngenta Seeds
2004 – Neil DeStefano, FMC Corporation
2003 – Sarah Vacek, Monsanto Company
2002 – Ken Anderson, NC+ Hybrids
2001 – Doug Headley, John Deere

Product/Species Management

2008 – No award was given in this area in 2008
2007 – Klaas Okkinga, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica
2006 – No award was given in this area in 2006
2005 – Dennis Gehler, CROPLAN GENETICS/Land O’ Lakes
2004 – Wendy Elliott, Pfizer Animal Health
2003 – Brian Markwardt, Golden Acres Genetics, Ltd.
2002 – Tony Klemm, Dow AgroSciences
2001 – Tony Solon, AGCO Corporation

Public Relations

2008 – Beth Andersen, Charleston/Orwig
2007 – Greg Smith, Padilla Speer Beardsley
2006 – Barry Nelson, John Deere
2005 – Janice Person, Delta & Pine Land Company
2004 – Kendal Frazier, Natl. Cattlemen’s Beef Association
2003 – Mike Ricciuto, DuPont Agriculture & Nutrition
2002 – David Buchholz, David & Associates
2001 – Ken Gordon, Syngenta

Sales

2008 – Vernon Benes, Beck Ag, Inc.
2007 – Bill Heffron, Bock & Associates
2006 – Anita Vanderwert, Brownfield Network
2005 – Margaret Wallace Oldham, Beck Ag Com, Inc.
2004 – Allen Barkve, Primedia Business Magazines & Media
2003 – Cliff Becker, Vance Publishing, Food Systems Group
2002 – Bob Deiss, Farm Progress Companies
2001 – Tom Taylor, High Plains Journal

If you have any questions regarding these awards, please contact Jenny Pickett at [email protected].

To download the nomination form in an Adobe .PDF format, visit http://www.nama.org/awards/PDAapplication.pdf.

You can also fill out the form on-line at http://www.nama.org/awards/pdaonlineform.htm.

Registration is now open for Trends In Agriculture, November 10-11, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City.

This year’s topic for Trends In Agriculture is Connecting with the New Ag Community.

Sessions will help define the forces that are expanding the need and ability of farmers to reach outside their previously small sphere of influence. Farmers and livestock producers will describe what it means to live and work in this new market environment. And experienced marketers will share successful efforts to leverage traditional and new media to build trust and become welcome citizens of the new ag community.

Please plan to join us to learn more about how these trends affect your customers purchase decisions and to network with your colleagues.

Register now for Trends In Agriculture at http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=5.

Sponsorships Available!

If you are interested in sponsoring a session at the 2009 Trends In Agriculture event, please contact Jenny Pickett at 913-491-6500 or via email at [email protected].

Are you ready to take home a Best of Show award at the 2010 Best of NAMA Ceremony? Well you’ll have to wait just a few more weeks to begin your climb to be the best of the best.

The Best of NAMA Call for Entries will be available on the NAMA web site at the end of August and will be mailed by September 14.

All entries must be received in the NAMA Office by Friday, October 16, 2009.

The Best of NAMA awards program honors the best work in agricultural communications. Actually, the best of the best, since companies/agencies must first qualify through regional competition in order to advance to the national level. The national awards ceremony will take place April 21, at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City.

Best of NAMA operates on a regional judging format. Entries are sent directly to the national NAMA office and judged by industry professionals at a regional level for possible advancement to national competition. A minimum point standard will be used at the regional level. If you place first or merit at the regional competition and score above the minimum point standard, you are eligible to advance to the national competition.

Stay tuned to your email inbox for notification of the Call for Entries on the NAMA web site!

The Southwest Chapter held a chapter breakfast meeting on Tuesday, August 4, in conjunction with the Ag Media Summit in Fort Worth, Texas.

Approximately 20 members participated in the meeting during which officers were elected.  In addition, initial programming plans for the year were determined.  Quarterly meetings will kick off in September with a tour of the State Fair Grounds.

Some of the other options that will be pursued include:  tours of a cheese factory, a Texas Wine Country tour and/or the Southwest Airlines headquarters.  Attendance at a livestock auction is also being considered.  In addition to tours and chapter meetings, the chapter will continue their involvement with the student chapters in both Texas and New Mexico.  This includes helping the student chapter prepare for the marketing competition in April each year.

The NAMA Boot Camp is about a week away! Don’t miss out, there’s still time to register!

Whether you’ve just entered the rough working world or one who’s been through the NAMA Boot Camp drill before, sign up for this program today to learn more about the agri-marketing industry. Join us for the 6th annual NAMA Boot Camp, August 18-20, 2009, in Kansas City.

Once again the MoKan NAMA Chapter is hosting an Ag Tour prior to the start of Boot Camp on Tuesday, August 18. Scheduled stops include a trip to seed production facility, NECO Seeds, in Garden City, MO with a lunch stop at The Farm, a family owned and operated facility associated with NECO Seeds. The afternoon will feature a trip to Kurzweil Farm for a tour of a cattle and hog operation. Attendees will tour the hog confinement and also visit the meat store and learn how they process and market their own meat.

To register for the NAMA Boot Camp or the MoKan Ag Tour visit http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=3.

Nominate someone you know for the Professional Development Awards of Excellence. These awards will be presented at the 2009 Trends in Agriculture fall meeting, November 10-11, at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City.

These awards honor NAMA members based on outstanding achievement in each of the Professional Development Areas (PDA): (1) Marketing Communications; (2) Product/Species Management; (3) Public Relations; and (4) Sales. Nominees must be NAMA members. Nominators should target individuals with direct planning and execution responsibilities in the respective Professional Development Area from agribusiness and related companies.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Select a nominee. This nominee should excel in one of the four professional development areas. Consult the eligibility requirements closely.
2. Fill out the application and then address the three Areas of Excellence. Include your contact information, if NAMA has questions regarding the application, the nominator will be contacted.
3. Send the application and narrative to NAMA by September 1, 2009.

Nominees will be judged solely on their write-ups. Please do not send any other appendices, video-tapes, or samples. There are no entry fees.

Judging Criteria for the awards is as follows:

Achievement (40 points): Describe the nominee’s accomplishments on the basis of innovation, Professional Development Area knowledge/expertise and overall industry impact. How has the nominee distinguished themselves among industry peers in the same PDA? Primary emphasis should be placed on achievement within the past 18 months.

Professional Development Area (PDA) Responsibility (40 points): Describe the nominee’s responsibility for the respective PDA. Reveal how the nominee has capitalized on opportunities for success in the respective PDA. How has the nominee’s excellence in the respective PDA enhanced their skills and increased networks and relationships for their organization?

NAMA Involvement (20 points): Describe how the nominee’s service has had a significant, positive impact on NAMA. Provide details regarding the nominee’s consistent participation and commitment to NAMA. How have the nominee’s activities served to enhance the image or to foster improvements of NAMA?

If you have any questions regarding these awards, please contact Jenny Pickett at .[email protected].

To download the nomination form in an Adobe .PDF format, visit http://www.nama.org/awards/PDAapplication.pdf.

You can also fill out the form on-line at http://www.nama.org/awards/pdaonlineform.htm.

The Trends In Agriculture fall meeting will take place November 10-11 at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City.

With a goal of exploring the changing nature of the agri-marketing industry, NAMA’s 2009 Trends in Agriculture conference will focus on how sociological, technological, and political forces are changing the traditional ag community and on practical ideas agri-marketers can apply to stay engaged in the new marketplace.

Our theme this year is Connecting with the New Ag Community. The conference takes place November 10-11, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City – just before and overlapping the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Annual Meeting. Sessions will help define the forces that are expanding the need and ability of farmers to reach outside their previously small sphere of influence. Farmers and livestock producers will describe what it means to live and work in this new market environment. And experienced marketers will share successful efforts to leverage traditional and new media to build trust and become welcome citizens of the new ag community.

Please plan to join us to learn more about how these trends affect your customers purchase decisions and to network with your colleagues.

Sessions for Trends In Agriculture are below:

Defining the New Ag Community

Dr. David M. Kohl, Professor Emeritus, Agricultural Finance and Small Business Management, Virginia Tech University, and President, AgriVisions, LLC

Changes that are forcing and enabling U.S. farmers and livestock producers to reach out beyond their traditional communities to ensure the success of their enterprises are taking place. Ownership is passing to a new generation. Growth requires diversification or expansion to new communities. Powerful detractors are drawing producers and agri-businesses into public debate about agriculture. New technology including smart phones and social media are opening new doors to collaboration and business opportunities. Drawing from years of academic and personal experience, Dr. David M. Kohl will discuss how these forces are changing the way producers choose their suppliers and define how marketers must adjust to the new ag community to keep and win business.

Living and Working in the New Ag Community Panel

A diverse panel of four farmers and livestock producers will share specific examples of how success and growth today require more than good agronomic practices. The scheduled panelists include an influential specialty crop grower from California’s bellwether farming environment, a dairy producer building a new operation outside his home state, a southern producer diversifying the operation, and a row crop grower looking to expand. By better understanding their customers’ challenges and goals, agri-marketers have a better chance to build trust and connect with the new community.

How Marketers are Building New Community Ties

3G-enabled smart phones, the “Tweeting Farmer,” and unusual partnerships are all part of the new ag community. This general session will feature practical case studies from marketers inside and outside of agriculture that have forged new links with their customers using new media and non-traditional collaboration.  Mike Wehrs, President & Chief Executive Officer, Mobile Marketing Association, Leslie Bradshaw, a farm kid and University of Chicago educated Communications Manager with New Media Strategies in Washington, D.C., and others will share their experiences.

Distribution Chain Reaction

Growers and producers have always had a strong loyalty to the businesses in their local community. Yet as farming enterprises have consolidated and changed, the competitive environment for retailers – and in turn the entire distribution chain – has grown more intense. Some retailers have responded successfully by grafting innovative sales and service offerings onto their community roots. Representatives from farm supply chain companies will share how their organizations have embraced the opportunity to meet the changing needs of their customer base.

Panel Discussion: Speaking for Agriculture

At last year’s Trends in Agriculture conference, NAMA examined the remarkable impact of “Rural Lifestylers” on agri-marketing. Part of that meeting examined the potential conflict in our rural communities created by the divergent views of established producers and the newcomers. Complicating the picture is the distance between most Americans and the farms that produce their food. It is a gap being filled more and more by media-savvy, sophisticated detractors that “have demonized farmers and ranchers for being ‘giant agribusinesses.’”* As a result, producers, their suppliers, and the greater agricultural industry are trying to raise awareness of the truth about American agriculture.

NAMA and NAFB will bring together C-Suite executives and agricultural stakeholders in this joint session to update agri-marketers and broadcasters about these efforts and to stimulate innovative approaches to this growing challenge to the new ag community.

The panel includes:

Larry Combest, former Congressman, President of Combest, Sell Associates and Key Spokesperson for The Hand That Feeds US (Invited); Tami Craig Schilling, Director of Strategic Communications, Monsanto; Charlie Arnot, CEO, Center for Food Integrity;  and Gary Baise, Principal Attorney at the noted Washington, D.C., firm of Olsson  Frank Weeda (invited).

*The Hand That Feeds US, www.thehandthatfeedsUS.org

Sponsorships for Trends In Agriculture are now available. Please contact Jenny Pickett at [email protected] or call 913-491-6500 to convey your interest in sponsorship.