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.

In addition, please also consider investing in sponsorship opportunities at Trends In Agriculture. It’s a great way to get your company in front of other NAMA members and non-members!

All of the speakers for Trends In Agriculture have been confirmed, visit http://www.nama.org/trends/sessions.htm to view our confirmed speakers and session descriptions.

To register for Trends In Agriculture visit http://www.nama.org/ConferenceRegistration/Default.aspx?confid=5.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of Trends In Agriculture visit http://www.nama.org/trends/sponsorship.htm or contact Jenny Pickett at [email protected].

Mark your calendars for a chapter event near you!

October 1 ~ Badger NAMA at the World Dairy Expo

Badger NAMA is hosting a networking and social event in conjunction with World Dairy Expo – Thursday, October 1 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the Exhibitors’ Lounge, Alliant Energy Center in Madison, WI. This is open to all NAMA members and non-members.

Complimentary hors d’oeuvres, wine and soda will be served.  Kentucky Ale will be provided courtesy of Alltech.

Please contact Andrea Brossard Martin with any questions:  [email protected].

October 6 ~ Southwest NAMA Celebrates Ag Awareness Day at the State Fair

October 6 is Ag Awareness Day at the State Fair of Texas (formally Youth Leadership Day) and we have been invited to share in the experience!  This will also be a great opportunity for those who have not met our new president, Cheri Knoy, to get to know her.

The event is as follows:

10:30 am — Arrive at State Fair and look at Ag Exhibits
12:30 pm — Enjoy the food the Fair has to offer
2:00 pm — NAMA Meeting
3:00 pm — Conclude day with remarks from Ag Commissioner Staples and speeches from the four finalists in the State Fair of Texas Public Speaking Contest

If you have any questions or need any additional information please feel free to contact Kelly Bogard at [email protected].

For Fair information and directions go to www.bigtex.com.

October 7 ~ Eastern NAMA at John Bowne High School

Eastern Chapter members will go to John Bowne High School in New York on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 3:00 pm to help the school chapter prepare for FFA competition.

2009 marks the first year that the John Bowne High School FFA chapter in NY is advancing to the Marketing Competition at the National FFA Convention. The FFA students approached the chapter for assistance in evaluating their presentation and business skills.  They want to take full advantage of the fountain of marketing knowledge that resides among the NAMA chapter membership.

Help the chapter show its support for the FFA students and help them win the competition!  If interested in helping, contact Catherine Wang, Chapter President, at [email protected].

October 22 ~ The Andersons Tour with Ohio NAMA

What began as a single grain elevator and one man’s dream has grown into a publicly traded company with diverse interests that include agribusinesses such as grain and plant nutrients as well as railcar leasing and repair, industrial products formulation, turf products, retailing and most recently, ethanol operations.

Join Ohio NAMA on this tour beginning at 10:00 a.m. followed by a luncheon meeting. For catering purposes, please RSVP by October 14 to Mike Krouse at [email protected] or to Becky Anway at [email protected].

Is anyone interested in helping students learn more about what it takes to be in agri-marketing? We are looking for a few good professionals to match with students in a job shadowing program. This is a specific request from students involved in the Illinois State University student NAMA chapter, who are being trained for our industry, yet do not have any real world experience.

This activity would occur sometime in October or November (to be determined by the professional and student) and involves allowing a student to shadow you for a day or two.  Although it’s being promoted as a “shadowing” experience, it would seem logical to assign students tasks to involve them in a project, to take advantage of their shadowing function and further enriching their educational experience. The goal is to give them a realistic look at what’s involved in our positions and how we do what we do.

Please respond to Amy Bradford at [email protected] if you’re interested in participating in this program. We will then work with the ISU student NAMA chapter to identify the students to participate. Once we have the professionals/students identified, we’ll count on you to coordinate with the student the day(s) that work for both of you.

Although it is not yet a formal program, it may be something we offer annually to students in our membership territory. I can see benefits to both the students and our professional members: students receive first person experience and professionals benefit by showcasing your company and getting a first look at potential future interns or employees. Thanks for your consideration.

On a somewhat related matter, if you/your company is seeking interns or have positions open that students may be able to fill, get in touch with Rick Whitacre or Aslihan Spaulding at ISU – the advisors for the student chapter. You can reach Rick at [email protected]; Aslihan at [email protected].

Also, watch your email for upcoming programming information. We have some good things in the works for this fall!

Midlands NAMA chapter members and guests held their September meeting at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska. The meeting topic focused on Harvesting Online Intelligence – What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You. Jennifer Windrum, public relations manager at Swanson Russell, presented to the group about online conversations and methods on how businesses can become part of the dialogue.

People now turn to the Web to not only consume information, but to contribute to it. Blogs, social media networks, online forums and product reviews serve as a means for guiding consumer purchase decisions. This paradigm shift is causing businesses to re-evaluate their communication plan and strategy and to start monitoring what is being said online – a practice referred to as conversation mining. Jennifer provided insight into the reasons that conversation mining is important and why businesses should participate in the conversation. The presentation provided methods on how to track online conversations and how to analyze the content to help businesses monitor product and brand perceptions, industry trends and competitive information. The presentation was received very well by the group as many businesses understand the need to implement social media and online conversations into their communications plan.

The white paper, Harvesting Online Intelligence – What You Don’t Know Could Hurt You, is available compliments of Swanson Russell. Please click here to download.

Thanks to Jennifer Windrum at Swanson Russell for addressing the group and providing insight into conversation mining and how it applies to the agriculture industry.

The first North Central NAMA meeting on September 24 included a presentation on the commodity markets by Ward Nefstead, University of Minnesota, Applied Economics Professor.

Ward Nefstead gave an outlook on the livestock and grain markets covering the factors that are influencing price. Ward also discussed some of the challenges facing the ag industry which included farm bill provisions, credit and finance, technology, social movements, and land prices. The next North Central NAMA meeting is October 22nd, so mark your calendars!

While not everyone has the desire to step foot onto a real golf course, everyone can have fun playing miniature golf.  This was evident at the first ever MO-KAN Miniature Golf Outing on September 23.

A pretty good crowd turned out to show off their skills at putting a golf ball through an outhouse, over rocks, through the woods and finishing just in time for another adult beverage.  Almost everyone came away a winner at this outing as they were awarded cash for scoring a hole-in-one during their 18 holes of miniature golf (all of the players that made a hole-in-one can be considered professional miniature golfers).

Based on all the feedback received, we are sure this event will return next year and hopefully will become an annual event.

Check out what the Student NAMA Chapters have been up to!

Illinois State University

It’s been a busy summer and fall for the Illinois State University NAMA chapter.  This summer, ISU NAMA provided refreshments to participants on one of the tours conducted as part of the 2009 International Farm Management Congress which was held at Illinois State University in July.  NAMA members distributed juice, pastries and fruit to IFMA members as they toured local grain farms.

Over forty students attended an ISU NAMA-sponsored panel discussion by four human resource specialists.  These specialists, representing GROWMARK, Farm Credit Services, Land O’Lakes, and Farm Bureau, provided students a wealth of information about participating in a career day, resume writing and interviewing.  This career development activity was designed to prepare students for the upcoming NAMA-sponsored Illinois State University Department of Agriculture Career Day.

Kansas State University

It has been an exciting five months since National Competition last spring. Immediately after returning from Atlanta in April, we got to work looking forward to the 2009-2010 school year. In evaluating our 2008-2009 chapter we decided we could make a few changes to our program to improve our club and make the process of preparing for National Competition smoother and easier for the team, as well as more beneficial to all members.

Our first challenge when school began this fall was recruitment at the K-State College of Agriculture’s Watermelon Feed. We had an impressive amount of interest resulting from our display and NAMA officers and members being available to talk to students throughout the evening. We are also excited to have some new members from disciplines outside the College of Agriculture, primarily in the College of Business Administration.

With a couple new changes, including creating a class at K-State to help give the marketing team a head start on the process of choosing a product, developing an Executive Summary and preparing a presentation for Nationals, our marketing team is off to a great start for the fall! We are currently working to narrow down our choices to choose our final product for competition during our class meetings.

We have a lively NAMA chapter this year which, as a whole, is looking forward to a very successful year and excited about the improvements we have made to our chapter, thus far. We look forward to seeing everyone at competition in Kansas City in the spring!

Iowa State University

Another year is under way and ISU NAMA is excited to be “Thinking Outside the Barn.”  The ISU chapter has many goals and high expectations for the year and to get things moving, they came up with their own marketing campaign “Thinking Outside the Barn” to recruit new members to the club.  The theme will be incorporated throughout the year in club promotions and activities.

To kick off recruitment, the club participated in the Ag Freshman/Transfer BBQ and Club Fest with hopes of informing students on the ISU campus of the opportunities available through NAMA. On August 27^th the first meeting was held with a large turnout of both new and returning members.  An ice cream social was enjoyed while attendees listened to a presentation from Stephanie Vinton, the current Iowa NAMA professional chapter President.  For the September meeting, a guest speaker is planned as well as a scavenger hunt.

Mississippi State University

The Mississippi State University NAMA team has hit the ground running for the 2009-2010 year.  MSU NAMA participated in on-campus recruiting activities to encourage membership growth.  MSU’s NAMA Team has also diversified and now includes members from various Mississippi State majors.  The Club has also been responsible for creating the brand-new Agricultural and Environmental Economics Club, which has the ultimate goal of getting more Ag students involved in on and off-campus activities.  One of MSU NAMA’s ultimate goals for this year is to get more students involved.

The Team has also elected a new Vice President and Secretary-Treasurer.  Another selection the Team has made for the year includes a new and unique product to be marketed at this year’s competition.  The Club has begun researching this product’s market potential and profit outlooks.  This product promises to be exciting and a strong competitor in the Spring Competition.

MSU NAMA has also become involved in volunteer work.  Team members have contributed over 50 hours to the Mississippi State-sponsored Habitat For Humanity House.  MSU NAMA feels that philanthropy is a great way to not only help the local community, but also develop critical teamwork and communication skills.

North Carolina State University

The Agribusiness/NAMA club at NC State held a welcome back meeting on August 31^st, 2009.  At this meeting, the officers introduced themselves, the fall meetings dates were given out, and a social event was announced.  Our next meeting was on September 14^th.  We had professors from our Agriculture and Resource Economics department come and speak to us about graduate schools and professional schools.

We will be having a social on Tuesday, September 22^nd at Bada Wings.  Some of the officers are helping with CALS Tailgate this Saturday, September 19^th.  The ARE department will have a booth to represent the department.  The officers will be able to share with alumni about the club and what events we are doing.

This semester we will have speakers from a variety of companies.  Some of those companies include Coastal AgroBusiness, Duplin Winery, John Deere, and Cape Fear Farm Credit.  We will also be participating in the Milk Booth at the NC State Fair in October.

New Mexico State University

The New Mexico State University NAMA Chapter has started their Fall semester off in full throttle!  Our students had an exciting summer by traveling to the 19^th Annual International Food and Agribusiness Management Association Symposium in Budapest, Hungary in June.  We had several students present papers and compete in the case study competition.  Our members were privileged with the opportunity to network with numerous professionals and students from around the world while touring several European countries.

The chapter has been working on new recruitment efforts with incoming freshmen and has planned many fun events for the semester.  We started the semester with a very successful interview workshop with one of our former NAMA presidents, Jacob Penn.  Our events for the Fall semester include Alumni tailgating, a scavenger hunt, intramurals, meetings with agriculture business representatives, community service, bowling, Aggie Week, and working on our marketing plan.

North Dakota State University

The North Dakota State University Student Chapter of NAMA is off to another great start this year.  Building upon the successes of last year, our chapter is already making great strides towards overall chapter improvement.  With last year’s students taking fifth place in the national marketing competition, we have been able to spark a growing level of interest in our activities across campus.  We hope that this, along with expanded recruiting efforts, will help our chapter continue to grow.

This year we are also embarking upon a new strategy regarding involvement with our professional chapter.  The Northern Prairie Chapter of NAMA and NDSU NAMA are working hand in hand to develop and implement activities that will benefit both chapters.  By coordinating our efforts, we are working to improve the overall awareness of our groups as well as help each other recruit members and sponsors.

A recent example of this was the Big Iron After Hours event which followed the Big Iron Farm Show on September 15^th 2009.  The event was much like a typical after hours event, except it was geared towards promoting interaction between students and professionals.  NDSU NAMA members brought fellow non-member students and professionals invited fellow industry representatives.  Big Iron Exhibitors were also invited to attend.  NDSU NAMA students helped plan the overall event with our professional chapter and handed out booth drops during the show.  In all, there were about 25 students and around 75 industry representatives present.  The event has created networking opportunities for both the students and professionals and allows us to also recruit new members.  This, along with other recruiting tactics, will help our chapters grow throughout the year and be successful into the future.  We look forward to sharing more great news as another exciting year progresses.

Texas A&M-Kingsville

At Texas A&M University-Kingsville, our NAMA chapter started off the school year with many new faces and several fresh ideas.  We selected our officers for this year, who are Alinna Umphres-Lopez as President, Leanne Wiley, and Payton Neessen as Vice President.

We held one of our meetings at a local restaurant to discuss our possible marketing projects and to get acquainted with the new members in our chapter.  We are very excited about this year’s competition and are anxiously waiting to see everyone and their products.  Good Luck to all NAMA Chapters.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Nebraska NAMA got off to a busy–and entertaining–start this fall. They hosted their first ever impromptu marketing competition and rounded out the first three weeks of the semester by participating in recruitment and campus-wide events.

The “So You Think You Can Market!” competition was featured on the NAMA display at the Fall Club Fair on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus where members Cassidy Robinson and Brenda Walla got students excited about the competition and handed out business card size announcements.  Over 25 students (divided into teams) competed in the event, which involved a quick review of marketing guidelines, seven minutes of preparation time, and presentations by the teams. Judges gave feedback to each team, chose winners and awarded prizes.  NAMA members are taking the competition to Nebraska DECA’s state-wide fall conference as part of a fun and educational workshop where high school students will learn more about Agri-Marketing.

NAMA members gave a presentation at the Department of Agricultural Economics Fall Kick-Off Dinner and invited new and current students to join NAMA.  They also co-hosted a campus seminar given by nationally-known trade expert Doug Bereuter, who spoke to College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) students on Chinese-American trade relations.

University of Wisconsin-Madison

The NAMA members at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have started the semester off with a bang.  New brochures were developed for recruitment at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Fall Picnic and attendance at the September meeting was outstanding.

Fundraising efforts are already underway as members are picking grapes at Botham Vineyards in nearby Barneveld, WI as a way to raise funds for the chapter.  Study tours at area agribusinesses are being scheduled for mid-October and a NAMA picnic is scheduled to directly follow the CALS Career Fair on October 8^th.  Recruiters will be encouraged to attend the picnic and socialize with NAMA students.

The chapter is also gearing up for World Dairy Expo at the end of September.  Members will help industry professionals staff their booths at the Expo. This is a great opportunity for chapter fundraising, but also a chance for members to network with professionals.  Students will also attend a workshop on social media at World Dairy Expo and attend a Badger Pro-NAMA event.

For questions about the University of Wisconsin-Madison NAMA, contact President Alyssa Sandore, [email protected].

Virginia Tech

The Virginia Tech Ag Econ/NAMA Club has gotten into to full swing this semester!  We have hosted many events including the Back to the Books Picnic in which students, faculty, and staff from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics came together and enjoyed good food, fellowship, and good talks about hot topics in agriculture.  We are also getting geared up to go to the Virginia State Fair September 24^th – October 4^th where we will be teaching children about the top five grains in Virginia while making grain jars (similar to sand art).

We also have many projects in the works to develop our marketing skills in preparation for the NAMA Competition.  Currently, a group of students are setting the foundation for a student-run business that will work with agribusinesses throughout Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region to formulate business and marketing plans.  We also have many guest speakers scheduled throughout the semester.  Fall 2009 is shaping up to be a great semester for Virginia Tech’s Ag.Econ/NAMA Club!