Gateway NAMA kicked off the new year with “Implications for Agribusiness with an Updated Outlook of the U.S. Economy” on January 9 at the Sherton Westport Plaza in St. Louis. Over 60 people attended this meeting that was held in conjunction with the St. Louis AgriBusiness Club.

Terry Barr, Chief Economist for the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) and Vice President of the Cooperative Business Center in the NCFC was the presenter for the event. Barr spoke about the outlook for the U.S. and global economy and the implications for agriculture and agribusiness.

Included in his talk were factors shaping the rapid structural transformation of the U.S. and global food, fiber as well as agriculture business systems and the implications for farm policy, agriculture trade policy and rural infrastructure. Barr made a lot of forecasts that included potential doubling of ethanol production within 4 years and a doubling of how much corn is being used to make ethanol.

The regional and chapter Best of NAMA ceremonies are just around the corner. These ceremonies are celebrations of those entries that won first or merit in the regional competition that took place in November.

Information for the regional/chapter ceremonies is below:

January 11 – Region III Best of NAMA Ceremony
This ceremony will take place in the Grand Ballroom at the Courtyard by Marriott in Moorhead, MN. The event begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. Cost is $65. For more information on the event and how to register visit, www.nama.org/amc/bon/region3.htm.

January 16 – Carolinas/Virginia Best of NAMA Ceremony
The Carolinas/Virginia NAMA chapter ceremony will take place at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in the new Martin Building. For more information annd how to register for the event visit, www.nama.org/amc/bon/carvir.html.

January 18 – Midsouth Best of NAMA Ceremony
The Midsouth NAMA chapter ceremony will take place at the Tower Room American Grille in Memphis, TN. Cocktails will kickoff the event at 7:00 p.m.
For more information and how to register visit, www.nama.org/amc/bon/midsouth.html.

January 18 – Region IV Best of NAMA Ceremony
This ceremony will take place at the Sofitel Chicago O’Hare in Rosemont, IL. The event will begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. Cost for the event is $75 per person. For more information and how to register for the event visit, www.nama.org/amc/bon/region4.htm.

January 23 – Region II Best of NAMA Ceremony
This event will take place at the VooDoo Lounge at Harrah’s Casino & Hotel in North Kansas City, MO. The event will begin with cocktails at 6:00 p.m. Cost is $65 for the event. For more information and how to register visit, www.nama.org/amc/bon/region2.htm.

Entries that win first or merit at the regional competition and score above the minimum point standard are eligible to advance to the national competition in February. Winners of the national competition will be announced at the national Best of NAMA ceremony which kicks off the 2007 Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show, Think Big, April 11, in Dallas, Texas.

NAMA is looking for individuals who are outstanding leaders in agribusiness, education, government service or other agribusiness related areas as well as individuals with outstanding accomplishments in the field of marketing directly to ag producers for the Agribusiness Leader of the Year and NAMA Marketer of the Year awards. The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, January 19. These awards will be presented during the 2007 Agri-Marketing Conference, April 11-13, in Dallas.

The Agribusiness Leader of the Year award is NAMA’s highest honor and recognizes leadership achievement in agriculture and the food and fiber industry. This award attracts agribusiness leaders and leaders in private, public or academic service. The nominee should exemplify the qualities of a true leader and should be a visionary, a pacesetter, and a colleague with business know-how. Nominees should be considered leaders in agribusiness through service to organization and industry initiatives. Nominees need not be NAMA members.

To nominate someone for the Agribusiness Leader of the Year award, visit http://www.nama.org/awards/agribusinessform.htm.

NAMA will recognize its active members with senior management of marketing and/or sales responsibilities with the NAMA Marketer of the Year award. This award is the most prestigious honor awarded to an active member of the association and honors outstanding accomplishments in the field of agri-marketing. Individuals should possess overall responsibility for marketing and/or sales of their company or organization and be directly associated with a company or firm marketing product(s)/service(s) to farmers or ranchers. Nominees must be NAMA members.

To nominate someone for the NAMA Marketer of the Year award, visit http://www.nama.org/awards/namamarketerform.htm.

Have you ever been guilty of desiring instant gratification from your advertising?  How about trying to reach more people than the budget will allow?  Assumed that the business owner knows best?  Created ads instead of campaigns? Or confused response with results? Then you’ve committed one, or more, of the 12 most common mistakes marketing professionals make over and over again.

There are an unlimited number of ways to create an effective advertising campaign, complete with integrated marketing strategies, corollary public relations activities, and solid sales elements; however, the same twelve mistakes may keep holding you from taking center stage at the Best of NAMA Awards Ceremony. Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads, will kick-off the Opening General Session at the 2007 Agri-Marketing Conference, April 11-13 in Dallas. Williams will show attendees the 12 things not to do when developing that campaign.

Nicknamed “the Wizard of Ads” by an early client, Roy Williams and his staff have been the unseen, pivotal force in amazing come-from-behind victories in the worlds of business, politics, and finance.

A lifelong student of humanity, Roy has spent a quarter-century asking, “What makes people do the things they do?” Roy indulges his fascination with the future, and the past, by reading science fiction and historical biographies. An avid writer of poetry, advertising, and screenplays, he is continually striving to connect with the audience. And he’s been using the things he’s learned to stimulate miraculous growth for his small business clients for more than 20 years.

Williams created the Wizard Academy in 2000, which is located on 22 acres just outside Austin, Texas. Wizard of Ads, Inc., now has over forty branch offices in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and very soon Costa Rica and Guatemala.

The Wizard Academy is a progressive new kind of business and communication school aimed at improving creative thinking and communications skills. Its one-of-a-kind creative environment has spawned highly successful, and most-of-the-time controversial, ad campaigns for business clients in thirty-eight states. In a little over half a decade, the Academy has exploded into a worldwide phenomenon with an impressive fraternity of alumni who are rapidly forming an important worldwide network of business relationships.

Join us, Thursday, April 12 at 9:00 a.m., as the Wizard of Ads reveals the 12 most common mistakes in advertising and shares the secret success formula for that award winning…or even more important…that effective marketing campaign.

For more information about this session and the Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show, please visit, www.nama.org/amc.

To register for the 2007 Agri-Marketing Conference visit, www.nama.org/amc/register.html.

by Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet (Florida President)

The leadership core of the Florida NAMA Chapter, continuing its chapter’s membership drive and rebuilding process, will engage student NAMA members to team up for a mentoring project and NAMA discussion/presentation to the Winter Business Meeting of the Florida Fertilizer and AgriChemical Association in Tampa, FL on Friday, January 19th. The night before, several University of Florida NAMA students will join Florida NAMA leaders for the FFAA opening reception and dinner, providing the students an excellent opportunity to make contacts in the professional agri-marketing community.

Also, Florida NAMA president Gary Cooper and new member Katherine Bush recently spoke to student members of the UF/NAMA and UF Ag Economics Clubs at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Cooper presented information about print, broadcast and website entities operated by Southeast AgNet, and Bush discussed the world’s largest citrus grower seminar and trade show event, Citrus Expo, which she manages as part of Southeast AgNet operations.

Upcoming plans include attendance of Florida NAMA leaders, joined by UF/NAMA leaders, at the Florida Ag Hall of Fame banquet at Florida State Fair in Tampa, February 13th. University of Florida NAMA students will be enrolled for the day in a special professional mentoring program as part of the Ag Hall of Fame project.

All Florida NAMA members are encouraged to mark their calendars to join us in Gainesville, FL for the annual University of Florida NAMA golf tournament and Student NAMA Competition Practice Presentation. The date is March 30, the golf tourney during the day will be followed by the BBQ and University of Florida NAMA presentation. 

As for the membership drive ongoing, all Florida NAMA members are encouraged to bring at least one new member into our ranks within the next twelve weeks. Those of you who have mentioned others who should be involved, please give them a call directly and encourage them to send in their dues check at the earliest convenience. If you’ll contact us we will have a membership invoice sent directly to them via e-mail or postal. Don’t delay, make that contact TODAY!

Any Florida NAMA members who would like further details on any of the above events or activities can call Katherine Bush, Citrus Expo coordinator at Southeast AgNet, at 352-671-1909.

About 33 Mo-Kan NAMA members and guests attended the December meeting at the Hereford House in Kansas City, Mo., on December 12. The featured speaker was Greg Krissek, Director of Government Affairs for ICM Inc., and a member of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC).

Krissek discussed the U.S. ethanol industry and stated that in 2006 ethanol used about 18 percent of the U.S. corn crop. In 2007-2008, the U.S. is expected to have capacity to produce 8.2 billion gallons of ethanol, which would account for about 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop.

Krissek also discussed the work of EPIC, which is a checkoff organization of ethanol plants used for promotion. It is a non-profit alliance of ethanol industry leaders. In part, due to the efforts of EPIC, consumer acceptance of ethanol has increase 9 percent from 2005 to 2006.