“I feel like I’ve made 300 of the best friends I’ve ever had,” said Paul Mobley, author of the new photographic book, “American Farmer” when describing how photographing farmers around America has changed his life. Paul never set out to put together a collection of photos taken of farmers around the world – he happened upon the opportunity when he went up to his cabin to get away from his career as a portrait photographer.

As the story goes…he walks into a cafe one morning for breakfast and sees four farmers gathered around a table having breakfast. One of the men hadn’t shaved for a week and suddenly, he felt compelled to take their photo. Three plus years and 37 states later, the result is a stunning collection of photography and stories that tell the story of the American Farmer.

I had the opportunity to speak with Paul after the closing luncheon during the 2010 NAMA conference. I asked him how this book has changed his life. “I feel like its changed me on so many levels….I walk the earth with so much kindness grace and humility and I got it all from you guys,” he said.

However, what he has enjoyed the most are the people outside of agriculture who have come to embrace the industry since reading his book.

I asked Paul about any future projects and he said that he has been approached by several people who would like to turn “American Farmer” into a documentary and he is also exploring the opportunity for a traveling exhibition. You can order a signed copy of his book at www.paulmobleystudio.com and you can listen to Paul’s interview here: download (mp3 file)

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album.

You didn’t have to be the 2010 Student Marketing Competition Winner to take home an award. This year, six Chapter Performance Awards were given to five teams:

Chapter Performance Awards
Abraham Baldwin Ag. College – Chapter Management
Iowa State University – Chapter Programs
Abraham Baldwin Ag. College – Membership Recruit.
Pennsylvania State Univ. – Fundraising/Fin. Mngt.
Iowa State University – Chapter Communications
Delaware Valley College – Career Development and
Illinois State University – Career Development

In addition, four awards were given to the Overall Outstanding Student Chapter. What is really cool is that the winner, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College is only in its second year as a chapter! This should inspire all the chapters.

First Place
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College

Second Place
Iowa State University

Third Place
Illinois State University

Fourth Place
New Mexico State University

And last but certainty not least is the award for Outstanding Advisor who was award to Stacey Noe, with Iowa State University.

Congratulations to all the winning chapters and to Stacey Noe!

Congrats to all the winners whom you can see in our 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Each year, as part of the NAMA Student Marketing Competition and student activities, one student is awarded the Successful Farming/Fergie Ferguson $4,000 Scholarship. This was the largest award of all the 15 student scholarship awards given. This year, the honors went to Amanda Sollman from Michigan State University.

Amanda is a senior majoring in Agri-Science and Communications and upon graduation, she plans to pursue teaching agri-science communications. She said during her thank you speech that NAMA has been the greatest club experience she has had while attending Michigan State.

Congrats Amanda and good luck with all your endeavors!

Congrats to all the scholarship winners whom you can see in our 2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

Hallmark Cards has the whole branding thing down to a science. To share some insight into their history and issues they face today John Courtney, Consumer Understanding & Insight Manager, Hallmark Cards, Inc. spoke at the National Agri-Marketing Conference. John is pictured left of Matt Coniglio, Fastline, who introduced him.

John says Hallmark is celebrating 100 years of the brand. Some milestones include the move to the name Hallmark in the late 1920’s, the Crown Logo was created about 70 years ago and the tagline, “When you care enough to send the very best” was created about 60 years ago. John says that he started with the company when they were getting started with digital and they have created a number of ways for consumers to utilize their products that most recently includes Hallmark Mobile Cards. They also have an interactive social calendar application on their Facebook page too.

You can listen to my interview with John here (mp3).

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

If you use email in your marketing plan do you sometimes wonder if it’s still relevant today? How do you tie it in to new forms of digital communications channels. At the National Agri-Marketing Conference Joel Book, ExactTarget, conducted a presentation titled, “E-Mail Marketing: Strategies, Tactics, Results.” I spoke with him prior to his session.

Joel sees email as the “backbone” of the ongoing strategy for keeping customers connected to the brand. He says email performs best when married to other forms of digital communication (mobile, social). It is vital in helping create “brand fans” who will help spread the message.

Joel provides a number of resources marketers can look to for more information about how to best use email as a key component of their strategies.

You can listen to my interview with Joel here (mp3).

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

The Aggies of New Mexico State University were the winners of the student NAMA competition this year. This is the second time the Aggies have won the top honors, but it has been awhile – so they were celebrating big time!

Other top winners in the student NAMA awards included Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, which took first place for Outstanding Student Chapter; and Iowa State University, which received first place and $3000 for their chapter as the John Deere Signature Award winners; and Mike Gustafson regained his title as “Hard Ass” judge of the year – three times in the past four years!

Curt Blades of Successful Farming was honored as outgoing NAMA Careers chair for his years of working with the student NAMA chapters. He was presented with an engraved beer stein for his heroic efforts!

Congrats to all the winners!

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album

In a world of high technology one of our presenters went low tech. He’s Paul Adams, President, Paul Adams & Associates. His session was titled, “Put the “High Touch” Back in Your “High-Tech” World.”

At first I thought he was going to talk about technology but that’s not the focus. He says, “I’m really low tech.” He says we need to get back to more face to face communication in a world of high technology. Hmm. Do we really still do that? He laughed at that question and said, “I don’t know.” His presentation was geared to sales people and looked like it was really well attended.

You can listen to my interview with Paul here (mp3).

2010 National Agri-Marketing Conference Photo Album