Registration is open for this fall’s NAMA Trends In Agriculture program in Kansas City, MO, Nov. 10-11. Get registered if you haven’t done so yet. We’ll have a number of chapter members attending.

With a goal of exploring the changing nature of the agri-marketing industry, NAMA’s 2009 Trends in Agriculture conference will focus on how sociological, technological, and political forces are changing the traditional ag community and on practical ideas agri-marketers can apply to stay engaged in the new marketplace.

Sponsorships for Trends In Agriculture are still available, please contact Jenny Pickett at jennyp@nama.org for more information!

RSVP to jeremy.lutgen@novusint.com by October 29, 2009

Gateway NAMA invites you to join us for a “crash course” in PR and a Cardinals game with the John Brown Scholars of Mizzou.

Head to downtown St. Louis on Wednesday, April 8, 2009, for an evening of networking with the best and the brightest Mizzou agribusiness students. It’s a great opportunity to engage first-hand with your future employees.

Osborn & Barr will host the “crash course” session at 4:00 p.m. Panelists will include representatives from Monsanto Public Affairs, Monsanto Social Media Group, Elasticity and Osborn & Barr. We’ll be looking at crisis communications – both proactive and reactive – and how social media is changing the game. We’ve asked the Mizzou students to be prepared to share their insights, too.

At 5:15 we’ll head to a local restaurant for a happy hour hosted by Gateway NAMA, and then to the stadium at 6:30 p.m.

Gateway NAMA will cover the happy hour and a portion of your Cardinals ticket; we just ask that Gateway members pay $10 per ticket. RSVP to gatewaynama@yahoo.com by Tuesday, April 2. We are also sponsoring the transportation and game tickets for the John Brown scholars and faculty.

The John Brown Scholars Program was initiated in 1983 by John E. Brown, a prominent St. Louis agribusinessman. The program consists of 16 qualified upperclassmen in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR). These students must be of junior or higher standing and enrolled in CAFNR, as well as maintain a 2.5 minimum GPA.

Hello Gateway NAMA fans. It’s a new year of meetings and maybe we’ll get some more content posted on this website. Any volunteers?

So, if you’re going to be in KC, MO this week for Trends In Agriculture then please plan to attend our chapter get together on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s the details:

Location: Empire Room C – Hyatt Regency Crown Center

When: Wednesday, November 12, 4:00PM

Greetings Gateway NAMA Members! If you’ll be in Kansas City for the NAMA “Trends in Agriculture” session join other members of the Gateway NAMA chapter at a social/networking event the afternoon of Nov. 12th. We’ll be hosting an hour of Cuban-themed fun in Empire Room C of the Hyatt Crown Center featuring mojitos, chips and salsa/guacamole and fresh fruit. Come meet other members of the chapter and enjoy some fun on us!

Get registered here.

If you didn’t attend our Happy Hour last night then you missed a fun party.

It was an opportunity to network with your fellow chapter members and for those who did attend, we got to catch up on things and learn more about what each is doing. It’s a great way to learn and exchange ideas with others in our profession.

Here’s a couple of our happy hour attendees who were part of an interview I did before we got too happy. You can listen to that interview here: Gateway Happy Hour Interview (3 minutes)

The Gateway NAMA Happy Hour is about to start at Corwin’s on Olive.

I’m the first to arrive which has been nice. I get to catch up on email, sip a Peroni and update the chapter website. I’m sure you can count on more pictures from here which I’ll post a link to later, as in tomorrow since I’ve got 2 hours to drive still.

We really need to update this site more often since our members are doing a lot of different things. We’ve just got to develop some blogging talent within our group. I know it’s there, just waiting for an outlet. Well, here it is. Interested? It’s easy. I’ll train you. Trust me. . .

When: Tuesday, May 13

11:30 a.m. – Networking
Noon – 1:30 p.m. – Meal and Program**

Where: Sheraton Plaza Hotel; 191 West Port Plaza Drive; St. Louis, MO 63146

Program: International Business and Trade with China

Speaker: Dr. James Little, Professor of Business, Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Little did his undergraduate work at the University of British Columbia and received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Professor Little joined the Washington University faculty in 1971 and served on the faculty of the Department of Economics until 1982, when he joined the faculty of the Olin School. From 1983-89, he served as associate dean for academic affairs. He is Academic Director of the Olin School’s EMBA Program and directs the School’s European Programs. Professor Little’s extensive experience as a lecturer in executive programs includes two extended tours of China as a member of a U.S. team. His current research interests include the study of the implications of globalization for corporate strategies, the economics of the European Union, and regulation of insurance companies.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR – Bunge North America, Inc.

RSVP: By May 9, email your reservation to: gatewaynama@yahoo.com or call (314) 746-1907 to reserve your meal. No-shows will be invoiced.

Luncheon and Professional Development Registration – $25 which can be paid at the door(cash or checks payable to the St. Louis AgriBusiness Club) or by credit card online at http://www.stlouisagclub.org/meetingform.html

If you do RSVP and you find out by Monday afternoon or early Tuesday morning that you cannot attend, please contact Dean Dittmar on his cell phone – (618) 604-1622, so that you will not be invoiced.

Thursday, May 29
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Corwin’s Bar and Grill
St. Louis, Mo.
(Olive Blvd. and Price Rd.)
www.corwins.net

Free food and free drinks for the first hour.

Members may bring a guest.

Connect with members of the Gateway Chapter for networking and drinks Thursday, May 29. Board members will talk a briefly about the new direction the Gateway Chapter is taking to add value to your membership.

The Gateway NAMA board met on Thursday, April 10, to discuss future activities, strategy and the objective of the Gateway Chapter.

Based on our meeting, a couple of new things are going to happen in the near term.

• Our joint meeting relationship with St. Louis Agribusiness Club is going to be put on hold. We want to build Gateway NAMA’s “brand identity” separately for a while. Gateway NAMA has valued the relationship and we hope opportunities to continue to collaborate will still be available, but for now we want to try to re-establish our group.
• Member survey. Look for a Gateway NAMA e-mail survey in late April following the NAMA Conference. We want to get a better idea of what members want out of their Gateway Chapter experience. The board is striving to provide a better value to members.
• Networking Happy Hour – Thursday, May 29, from 5:3-7:30 p.m. Location is TBD, but it will probably be somewhere in the central corridor. Members are free and can bring a non-member guest for $5. Drinks on the house for the first hour. We will talk briefly about the member survey result, but mostly this is just for fun.
• Cardinals Game – We’re also looking into a party box for a July Cardinals game. A limited number of Gateway Chapter-subsidized tickets will be available. We hope to get a representative from the Cardinal’s marketing department to talk to the group before the game.

So we’re doing some new things to get members involved and rev up the opportunities for learning, networking and fun. I hope you will join us.