During the 2011 NAMA Student Marketing Competition, held April 13-15 in Kansas City, the NAMA Careers Committee honored Dr. John B. Riley’s 25 years of tireless service to NAMA and his dedication to the student experience by renaming the Outstanding Advisor Award in his name.

It is now the “Dr. John B. Riley Outstanding Advisor Award.”  This was an emotional surprise for both Dr. Riley and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville NAMA students who were with him during the awards ceremony on Thursday evening.

The Committee had been looking for a way to recognize Dr. Riley for his service and decided it was fitting to do this in his 25^th year of advising NAMA marketing teams.

Taking home the Dr. John B. Riley Outstanding Student Advisor Award was Dustin Bass with Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

For a list of all recipients of the 2011 Outstanding Student Chapter competition visit http://www.nama.org/student/outstanding.html.

During NAMA’s annual conference, Amy Bradford, GROWMARK, was awarded the Outstanding Professional Award, as a result of her nomination by the Illinois State University Student Chapter.

Since Amy was unable to accept the award in Kansas City, it was presented to her by the Illinois State University Student Chapter during their annual end-of-year cookout.  Over 100 students, faculty and alumni were in attendance.

The Midlands NAMA Chapter met at Water Street Solutions’ Lincoln office on March 22 to get up to speed with the latest research regarding farmers’ media use and how they’re moving forward with technology adoption.

Speakers included Ted Haller, a Marketing and Research Consultant with the NAFB, Sara Steever and Kristi Moss from Paulsen Marketing, and Curt Blades from Successful Farming.  While all had their own research, a number of pieces came to the same conclusion, for example, farmer adoption of smart phones.

Take aways:

• Marketers need to continue to offer a media mix, since there really is no silver bullet.
• We should make our web sites mobile phone friendly, because we can’t control who is linking to us through social media.
• Farmers adopt technology through a series of triggers:  how often their cell phone contract lets them get a new “free” phone, younger family members that serve as tech support on the farm, in-cab technologies, experiences outside the farm (like an off-farm job), and ag advocacy work.
• Sometimes you just can’t tell which farmers will be technology friendly.

In a meeting held in conjunction with several other associations, Iowa Chapter members listened to author Jay Baer unlock the mystery of social media metrics on Monday, March 21.  In addition to explaining how to effectively measure the game-changing value and success of social media, he presented three key categories of social media measurement.  Attendees learned tangible success markers for each.

During Mid-America’s March 30 meeting at JBS United, feedback was provided to the Purdue University Student NAMA team.  The constructive comments and suggestions were offered to help the team finalize their presentation for the NAMA marketing competition.  It also provided an opportunity for attendees to tour JBS United, led by JBS United President, Dr. Don Orr.

Note: Purdue University took home 2nd place in the 2011 Student Marketing Competition.

Cornbelt NAMA celebrated their 30^th anniversary during a reception before Iowa’s Annual Celebration of Ag Dinner in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on March 9^th.

Current and past members of the Chapter, as well as other guests, attended the reception and enjoyed sharing stories and looking at pictures and memorabilia from the past 30 years.  Vicki Henrickson, current National NAMA President, and Susie Decker, immediate past National NAMA President, were among the many chapter members who helped celebrate this important chapter milestone.