Inbound Marketing Webinar – Thursday, February 21

“Are you marketing online? Most, if not all of you, probably answered yes to this question. Have you heard of the concept of inbound marketing?  If your answer is yes, are you using it in your business or wondering how to use it in your business? “

During this webinar, Scott Meyer, from 9 Clouds, and Jill Fratianne, from HubSpot, will talk about what inbound marketing is and why it has huge potential for agriculture. They will talk about how it helps you improve your visibility online and convert site traffic into sales. Learn also how you can measure the success of your inbound marketing and the ROI of your online marketing. This webinar will help ensure your website and digital marketing are functioning sales tools.

Speaker/Host: Scott Meyer & Jill Fratianne

Date: Thursday, February 21, 2013

Time: 2:00PM(Eastern)/1:00PM(Central)/12:00PM(Mountain)/11:00AM(Pacific)

Register: https://secure.confertel.net/tsregister.asp?course=567303

You are invited to a joint cocktail reception hosted by AAEA and the National Agri-Marketing Association at Commodity Classic in Kissimmee, Fla.

When: Friday, March 1, 2013

Where: Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, Room: St. George 104 (in between Everglades and St. Augustine areas, atrium level, same side of the hotel as Old Hickory Steakhouse)

Time: 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Stop by after the trade show closes but before you head out to dinner!

No cost or registration necessary.

Thanks to BASF, Eastern NAMA, Great Plains NAMA and Rocky Mountain NAMA.

In 1947, Ray Hagie invented the world’s first self-propelled sprayer and founded Hagie Manufacturing. Today, the family- owned manufacturer of innovative crop protection solutions has earned a unique reputation for their non-traditional commitment to focusing on workplace culture. The Clarion, IA manufacturer has experienced many successes through focusing on employees first, including being named #11 on the Des Moines Register’s Top 100 Workplaces list in 2012.

Alan Hagie, 3^rd generation owner, President and CEO, and other Senior Leadership from Hagie Manufacturing shared their story of transformational culture to help other agribusinesses rethink their work environment to retain and attract the best talent to compete in today’s market. Senior Leadership speakers also included Clint Middleton, Culture Coach, and Dave Maxheimer, Human Resources Manager.

Feedback from membership attendees was positive and they enjoyed this unique topic.

Connecting Students and Professionals in Agri-Marketing

The North Central NAMA Chapter hosted the second annual Student & Professional Networking Event on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013, at the University of Minnesota.  Over 75 students and professionals attended the event which featured speed networking with the professionals, interactive round table discussions and a resource fair with internship and career information.  This year the event expanded beyond the University of Minnesota to include students from other area metro schools.

The purpose of the event was to expose students to career opportunities in agriculture and show them how to put their marketing and communication skills to work.  During the event, students were able to network with professionals from some of the largest companies and agencies in the Twin Cities that work in food and agriculture, including Accenture, AgXchanges, Broadhead, Cargill, CHS, Colle + McVoy, DuPont Pioneer, Exponent, FLM, Land O’Lakes, Purina, Syngenta, The Lacek Group, Weber Shandwick, and Winfield.

Overall, the event was a HUGE success with a majority of attendees indicating they would “definitely” attend next year.  One non-agriculture public relations major even commented that she would encourage everyone in the School of Journalism to attend the event next year as it was VERY valuable and one of the best networking events she had ever attended.

Thank you to all of the students and professionals that made the event a success.  North Central NAMA looks forward to hosting a third annual Student and Professional Networking Event next February!

Pre-Conference Workshop: Attracting & Retaining Talent Through Employee Engagement – Joe Calhoon, CSP

Wednesday, April 17 ~ 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

The essential role of management is to create and sustain high performance. Unfortunately, most managers under-estimate the impact of their daily behaviors in the increasingly competitive areas of talent acquisition and talent retention.

According to Gallup research, more than 70% of employees are disengaged (they simply put in their time) or they are actively disengaged (destructive in their attitudes and actions). Here’s the good news – research has also identified specific behaviors that consistently engages people’s best efforts.

Joe will show you how to develop your employees into future leaders, build your team and consistently produce results. The measuring tools for success? Customer satisfaction, employee engagement and better bottom line profits.

Over the past 25 years, Joe Calhoon has delivered more than 2,000 client experiences—to more than 400 different clients, providing the tools and guidance needed to improve performance and results. His proven business growth process has allowed clients like Wilson Auctioneers to double revenues in one year and WGK Engineers to improve profits by 800 percent in one year.

In addition to helping start more than 20 new business ventures, he has co-authored two breakthrough books, Prioritize! and On the Same Page.

Sponsored by Morgan&Myers

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Senior Management Workshop: Waves of Change-Global Trends That Will Disrupt Your Existence – Anders Sorman-Nilsson

Thursday, April 18, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Waves of change are rolling towards us. Will you surf to success or wipeout in a riptide and end up stranded on the beach?

Unfortunately for business leaders today, change doesn’t care whether you like it or not. Change happens ceaselessly without your permission.

The waves of change threatening every business are:

Digital Disruption – managing the tension between the analogue and digital customer touch points

Media Madness – realizing that every company must think like a media company

Data Driven Dominance – working out how to turn data into competitive knowledge

Those who are unprepared will go belly-up, but those who can recognize opportunity, innovate and welcome change will ride the waves of success. Plus, they’ll enjoy every minute of the journey!

Anders Sorman-Nilsson will share the important questions you need to ask of yourself and your organization. Do your leaders understand which customer touch points can be digitized and which ones should be left alone? Are you mining the data you’re collecting about your customers and turning it into a strategic asset?

You’ll also uncover which new markets you should be targeting. Explore new tactics for engagement and appreciate the value of stepping back to deconstruct your business model to identify new, non-traditional partnerships.

Sponsored by John Deere

Visit www.nama.org/amc for conference details and registration.

Best of  NAMA Regional Winners

Congrats to all the Best of  NAMA winners!  If you placed first or merit at the regional level, you are eligible to advance to the national competition.  You should have received an email from the National office about advancing your entries.  If you have questions, call 913-491-6500.

Please click on a region below to view winners and check out photos at flickr.

Region I

Region II

Region III

Region IV

Region V

Region VI

Best of NAMA Highlights

Region II Best of NAMA

Nearly 150 people attended the awards banquet at the Boulevard Brewery on January 28 in Kansas City, MO.  The ceremony honored the best work for the Rocky Mountain, Southwest, Missouri-Kansas, Great Plains, Gateway, and Cornhusker chapters.

Best of Show Advertising
Category:  Point-of-purchase materials
Company:  Cal-Ann Farms
Agency:  Sullivan Higdon & Sink
Campaign:  Cal-Ann Packaging

Best of Show Public Relations
Category:  Public Affairs/Issues Management Program
Company:  Missouri Corn Growers Assn./Missouri Corn Merchandising Council
Agency:  In-house
Campaign:  Underwater and Overlooked: Crisis on the Missouri River

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Region III Best of NAMA

With over 120 people in attendance at the awards banquet on January 31 at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines, the ceremony honored the Cornbelt, Iowa, North Central and Northern Prairie Chapters.  Additionally, it was amazing to see five National NAMA President and past presidents coming together to kickoff the celebration –  Beth Burgy, Paul Redhage, Tom Smull,
Vicki Henrickson and Susie Decker.

Best of Show Advertising
Category:  Television – Single or Series
Company:  South Dakota Corn Utilization Council
Agency:  Paulsen Marketing
Campaign:  SD Corn:  Feeding the World TV

Best of Show Public Relations
Category:  Public Affairs/Issues Management program
Company:  Minnesota Pork Board and Minnesota Pork Producers Assn.
Agency:  Weber Shandwick
Campaign:  Building Trust from Farm to Fork

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Region IV Best of NAMA

Badger, Chicago, Heartland and Mid-America Chapters celebrated their Best Work on January 24th at the Eaglewood Resort & Spa in Itasca, IL.

Best of Show Advertising
Category:  Multimedia Campaigns – Regional
Company:  Beck’s Hybrids
Agency:   In-house
Campaign:  Suspect of Success

Best of Show Public Relations
Category:  Events – Media
Company:  Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board
Agency:  Stephan & Brady
Campaign: National Grilled Cheese Month Kick Off Event

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Carolinas/Virginia Best of NAMA

The Carolinas/Virginia Chapter celebrated its annual Best of  NAMA awards ceremony on January 22nd at the Hamner Conference Center in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Best of Show Advertising award was presented to Arysta LifeScience and Woodruff Sweitzer for the EVITO Fungicide Multi Media Campaign.  The Best of Show Public Relations was awarded to Cotton Incorporated and
Harvest PR & Marketing for their Cottonseed Marketplace  interactive marketing tool.

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Southeastern Best of NAMA

The Norcross Station Café was the site for the Southeastern Chapter’s Best of NAMA Awards ceremony.  Nearly 30 people gathered on January 24 to receive awards and congratulate the winners.  Merial Limited and Sullivan Higdon & Sink won Best of Show in Advertising for EDF.com Web Banners, Series, in the category for advertising on
the web directed to farmers, growers, ranchers
or other’s serving agriculture.  Best of Show in Public Relations was awarded to AGCO Application Equipment and Osborn Barr for their SpraCoupe – Ushering in the Era of Modern Agriculture news release.

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Midsouth Best of NAMA

The Midsouth Chapter gathered at Texas de Brazil on January 17 to celebrate winners in more than 20 different companies, organizations and agencies for their work in Midsouth agriculture.  Best of Show in Advertising was awarded to Monsanto and Brighton Agency for their multimedia local campaign, Deltapine 4-Bale Campaign, Georgia.  Best of Show Public Relations was awarded to Tennessee Farmers Cooperative for their in-house annual report “I’m Co-op.”

NAMA & NAFB hosted a joint reception on  January 30th  at the AgConnect Expo & Summit in Kansas City.  This was a nice break from the expo to offer attendees  an opportunity to relax, connect and enjoy  cocktails and munchies with NAFB & NAMA members and leaders.  With over 70 people in attendance, the event was sponsored by National Association of Farm Broadcasting, National Agri-Marketing Association and their MoKan chapter.