The winter storms that blanketed parts of the country last week were no match for the National Best of NAMA judges. Many waited hours at airports to board their flights to take them to the judging on February 17 in Kansas City. While a couple of judges simply couldn’t overcome the transportation challenges, most made it in for the event that took place at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center.

This year’s judging featured some fine tuning designed to make the judging process simpler. Judges evaluated 500 national entries, the cream of the crop, so to speak. A first and merit award will be presented in 69 categories and three Best of Show Awards will be given out in the areas of Advertising, Public Relations and Specialty Categories.

Special thanks to this year’s national Best of NAMA judges:

Phil Johnson, Colle+McVoy
Keith Canfield, PIC
Mark Moore, Charleston|Orwig
Joy Watson, BASF
Catherine Wang, Gibbs & Soell
Jill Greene, The Meyocks Group
Mike Butler, archer>malmo
Gerri Lein, AdFarm
Carol Anderson, Anderson Kisner Fallon LLC
Illinois Blasdel, Blasdel Cleaver Schwalbe
Linda Monslow, Osborn & Barr Communications
Greg Smith, Padilla Speer Beardsley
Bob Shriner, Bader Rutter
Janell Aust, McCormick Company
Steve Rhea, Rhea & Kaiser
Eric Baumgartner, VML
Mike Gustafson, John Deere

Special thanks also goes to Pioneer Hi-Bred, Intl., Inc. for sponsoring the national Best of NAMA Judges’ Luncheon.