The president of the National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) is thrilled with this year’s conference attendance and the current state of the organization.

“It’s always good to be the queen when things are good,” said Vicki Henrickson of BCS Communications. “We have 1700 members this year, we haven’t had that many since the year 2000. We’ve got 1200 registrations for conference this year, we’ve not had that many since 2001. We had 155 plus first timers at the conference this year – amazing. Everything is good!”

Listen to my interview with Vicki here:
[wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nama/nama11-vicki.mp3″ text=”Vicki Henrickson Interview”]

2011 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

We are having fun in the Connection Point trade show. It seems like there is more activity than ever. Of course that’s just judging by the opening session after the Best of NAMA Awards.

This photo comes from the Ag Media Summit booth which is promoting their conference this summer in New Orleans. Let’s just she was getting a lot of attention!

2011 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

The first educational session at this year’s Agri-Marketing Conference focused on “Becoming and 800-pound Gorilla: How To Dominate Your Market.” Our presenter was Bill Guertin, Chief Enthusiasm Officer, The 800-Pound Gorilla. Well I guess he should know how to do it then!

I talked with Bill before his presentation. He says that the 800-pound gorilla is “the dominate player in any marketplace whose tactics and techniques result in an unfair share of the available business.” So he was here to help us discover how to achieve this. He uses an anecdote from the sports industry to make a point of how you can do this. Listen in: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nama/amc-11-guertin.mp3″ text=”Bill Guertin Interview”]

2011 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Some NAMA volunteer jobs are more glamorous than others. Take Hall Monitor during the student marketing competition for example. That’s what Nancy Barcus, Agriculture Future of America, Director of Leader Development Programs is doing. She has to keep the hallway clear during presentations to prevent distractions. This is important stuff here!

Nancy is a new member of the NAMA Careers Committee. I spoke with Nancy about her job: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nama/amc-11-barcus.mp3″ text=”Nancy Barcus Interview”]

2011 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Volunteers make NAMA work. Here are some judges hard at it this morning during the preliminary presentations of the student marketing competition. I spoke to one of them, Kelly Loganbill (center).

Kelly says these students represent “the fantastic future of agriculture.” She got involved to give back to the organization and see the ideas these students come up with. Listen in to our conversation: [wpaudio url=”http://www.zimmcomm.biz/nama/amc-11-loganbill.mp3″ text=”Kelly Loganbill Interview”]

2011 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Registration is open and meetings are already taking place. Yes, the 2011 Agri-Marketing Conference is underway.

It was a beautiful day for our golf tournament and students have been showing up for the afternoon competition orientation.

You’ll be able to find lots of photos from this year’s event starting with this online photo album: 2011 Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

This app just in … the NAMA App!

The National Agri-Marketing Association is thrilled to announce its all-new app, just in time for the 2011 Agri-Marketing Conference. The app is available for iPhone, iPod, iPad or Android smartphone and Blackberry is coming soon.

Download from iTunes here.

Download from the Android Market here.