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.

Next meeting is April 15th.

When: Tuesday, April 15th - Luncheon Meeting and Presentation 11:30 a.m. – Networking and Product Sampling, 12-1:30 p.m. - Meal/Program. Also, a private and complimentary tour(limited to 25 individuals) will be offered from 1:45 – 2:45 p.m. See details below.

Where: Location change for this month only…Anheuser-Busch Headquarters, Corporate Theatre (2nd Floor), 1 Busch Place, St. Louis, MO. Arriving to the main entrance, turn into
the visitor lot in front of the building south of Lynch, west of Broadway. Security will direct visitors to proper parking areas. Everyone must enter through the main lobby of the Corporate Headquarters to sign-in and to acquire a name badge. PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY.

What: Quality Products Start with Quality Ingredients…Anheuser-Busch has been the leader of the U.S. brewing industry for more than 50 years and brews the world’s largest-selling beers, Budweiser and Bud Light. Busch Agricultural Resources is the agricultural unit of Anheuser-Busch Companies, and supplies the malted barley, hops and rice used in the brewing of Anheuser-Busch beers. Major areas of operation include: malting barley; hops contracting and production; rice contracting, milling, and
marketing; agricultural research in barley, rice, and hops; and a grain/seed operation network for the production, purchasing, processing, and storage of malting barley and seed. The company also supports research in an effort to control diseases affecting barley, rice, and hops.

Speaker: Steve Malin, Vice President, Anheuser Busch Raw Materials

Sponsor: Anheuser-Busch, where making friends is our business. Anheuser-Busch operates 12 breweries in the United States, 14 in China and one in the United Kingdom.
Anheuser-Busch’s operations and resources are focused on adding to life’s enjoyment not only through the responsible consumption of beer by adults, but through theme park entertainment and packaging. In the United States, the company holds a 48.5 percent share of U.S. beer sales. Worldwide, Anheuser Busch’s beer sales volume was 128.4 million barrels in 2007. The St. Louis-based company’s subsidiaries include one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of aluminum beverage containers and one of the world’s
largest recyclers of aluminum beverage cans. Anheuser-Busch also has interests in malt production, rice milling, real estate development, turf farming, metalized and paper label printing, bottle production and transportation services. View more details at their website - http://www.anheuser-busch.com/index.html

RSVP: Prior to April 4th, Email your meal and tour reservation to: gatewaynama@yahoo.com or call (314)746-1907. No-shows will be invoiced. Please direct any questions to: Dean Dittmar at ddittmar@stlouisagclub.org or 618/257-8272.

Today the combined meeting of the Gateway NAMA and St. Louis Agribusiness Club featured Mr. Raymond Cesca, President of the World Agricultural Forum. His presentation was “The World Agricultural Forum: Empowering Agriculture to Drive Economic Growth”

Ray focused his comments on this idea of how agricultural production can be the mechanism that developing nation countries can use to grow their economies. He believes that for-profit companies can get involved and not only help overcome the problems of poverty and starvation but still make a profit doing so.

He issued an invitation to anyone who would like to learn more to attend this year’s World Ag Forum Regional Congress which will be held in Kampala, Uganda, September 3-5. You can find the agenda for the Congress here.

You can find a pdf file version of Ray’s slides here: Ray Cesca Presentation

Prior to the meeting I did a short interview with Ray on the topic which you can listen to here: Ray Cesca Interview (4 min MP3)

The St. Louis AgriBusiness Club and Gateway NAMA presents February’s Professional Development:

When: Tuesday, February 12th Luncheon Meeting and Presentation 11:30 a.m. – Networking, 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - Meal and Program

Program: “The World Agricultural Forum: Empowering Agriculture to Drive Economic Growth”

Speaker: Mr. Raymond Cesca, President of the World Agricultural Forum … Mr. Cesca was elected President of the World Agricultural Forum in August 2006 after a serving on its Board of Advisors since 1996. The Forum is a St. Louis, Missouri based global organization made up of leaders in industry, government, academia, and non-government organizations whose purpose is to empower agriculture, through its Congresses, to help solve the chronic problems of global poverty and hunger through investments in agriculture.

Mr. Cesca is also the Founder, President and CEO of GAEÁ International, a market development, trade, and strategic planning organization that promotes the development of small to medium size enterprises in support of economic development in emerging economies. GAEÁ locates markets for cross border trade and helps develop strategies to leverage the market potential for the companies and countries involved.

Mr. Cesca is the former Managing Director of McDonald’s World Trade. He was responsible for reducing or eliminating barriers to trade among the 118 countries in which McDonald’s operates, and for leveraging the corporation’s assets to optimize its global supply resources. He helped craft world trade strategies that were used in emerging regional trading blocks and negotiated with governments to make a borderless environment within the McDonald’s system. Mr. Cesca was also responsible for Purchasing and Quality Assurance for New Country Development. He held that position from 1995 to 1999.

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

RSVP: By February 8th, 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.

Meeting Schedule for 07-08

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 - Illinois and Missouri Department of Agriculture Update from Directors’ Katie Smith and Chuck Hartke, Casino Queen Hotel, East St. Louis, IL

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 - Location: Anheuser-Busch Headquarters Corporate Theatre (2nd Floor), 1 Busch Place, St. Louis, Missouri (S. Seventh & Lynch Streets)
Speaker: Steve Malin, Vice President, Anheuser-Busch Raw Materials
Topic: Quality Products Start with Quality Ingredients

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 – James Little, Agricultural Trade with China