OPENING GENERAL SESSION
Digilogue-Where High Tech Meets High Touch
Anders Sorman-Nilsson
Thursday, April 18 ~ 9:00-10:30 am

The current rapid pace of change in every industry means we need to be constantly upgrading our personal, organizational and leadership software.

The only way to make these upgrades is to understand how oncoming trends are likely to affect your organization, so you can act swiftly when the next tidal wave of information hits. How would your company be different if your staff were inspired about change, rather than paralyzed by it? Anders Sorman-Nilsson is here to help.

A reformed lawyer, and the founder and creative director of the Sydney and Stockholm based research company – Thinque, Sorman-Nilsson helps teams and leaders navigate a constantly changing business landscape.  His unique global perspectives have been assisting business owners in the USA, Europe, Asia and Australia make sense of and harness disruptive trends in innovations, generations and communications. His misfit insights have recently been manifested in his book Thinque Funky: Upgrade Your Thinking and endorsed by AFR Boss Magazine, Wired (UK), and Monocle.  His clients include Apple, MTV, Johnson & Johnson, and Eli Lilly.

Sponsored by ABM Agri Council

SECOND GENERAL SESSION
Unleashing Creativity
Josh Linkner
Thursday, April 18 ~ 11:00 am-12:30 pm

In a world economy that can flip in a nanosecond, thinking that the future will follow the past is the fast road to obsolescence. What’s the antidote? Igniting your company’s creativity.

Josh jolts organizations and people worldwide, helping them recharge their creativity to reawaken companies and careers. A New York Times bestselling author, successful four-time entrepreneur, venture capitalist and well-respected jazz musician, Josh bridges the gap between the arts and business to help audiences maximize their creative potential.

He’ll share methods from his proprietary system, Disciplined Dreaming, to unleash the creativity in settings from weekly staff meetings to new product breakthroughs.

Sponsored by Syngenta

CLOSING GENERAL SESSION
Humor for the Heart of Agriculture
Damian Mason
Friday, April 19 ~ 10:30 am-12:00 Noon

With an unabashed passion for the agriculture industry, Damian Mason will send you on your way with a smile on your face. Mason is a professional comedian, author and entertainer with a degree in Agricultural Economics and improvisation experience gained at the prestigious Second City Training Center in Chicago — the training ground of many Saturday Night Live stars.

Growing up on a dairy farm provided plenty of material, and he has an optimistic message for everyone who earns their living in agriculture.  Mason’s comedy is relevant, funny and uplifting. His stories and witty observations get right to the heart of American agriculture—the people.

Sponsored by Beef Checkoff Program and Elanco Animal Health

Conference Workshops-

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 engage 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

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

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

Fast pasted enough to keep you engaged, yet ample time to dig in, ask questions and learn more about the details you want to explore a little deeper.

Take a look at what’s in store:

The Impact of Global Development on Agriculture-
Find out how the dual realities of growing global middle class and billions of undernourished families will affect the future of American agriculture…

Using Big Data to Build One-on-One Relationships-
It’s possible to use an omni-channel sales approach to create a personalized customer experience.  Examine the new technologies and techniques that can help you get there.

Measuring the Real ROI of Social Media-
Hear examples of how organizations are combining metrics to measure long-term value, conversions and cost deflection to arrive at the true ROI of social media investments.

Sponsored by AgiLife Studios, FMC Corporation, MoKan NAMA, Mosaic Company and National Cotton Council of America

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