FALL CONVENTION SPEAKERS
Joint Opening Breakfast
Making the Most of Difficult Situations: Changing Markets, Changing Times.
Business relationship expert, Garrison Wynn, examines the challenges we face and shows how we can laugh at our problems while using them as catalysts for success.
Wynn helps people learn how to make the jump from being great at what they do to understanding and developing the qualities it takes to be chosen for the job.
Understand why your products, services, or leadership styles - or those of your competitors - are selected. As he says, "If the world agreed on what's best, everybody would choose the best and nothing else would be considered. Decision making doesn't work that way."
Friday General Session
Food vs. Fuel
With recent rising food prices, the food versus fuel debate has been raging. Nathan Fields, Director, Biotechnology & Economic Analysis for the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), will discuss the food and fuel arguments currently circulating in the media. The NCGA maintains that commodity prices are having very little impact on the price of food and believes oil prices are the more likely catalyst.
Saturday General Session
What's Ahead for Agriculture
Get ready to laugh and learn with Mark Pearson as he takes you on an entertaining journey – a look ahead at the outlook for the farm markets: corn, soybeans, wheat, hogs and cattle prices—and global trends impacting these markets. He will also look at changing consumer trends, demographics, land values, and ag policy issues.
Farmer, small businessman, stockbroker and raconteur, long-time Market To Market host Mark Pearson has earned a national reputation for his agribusiness and rural issues acumen. A former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for the State of Iowa, Mark's long career in the media culminated with his being named host of Market To Market in 1991. Since then, Mark has kept viewers informed as host of more than 600 editions of the "Weekly Journal of Rural America."
A retired officer in the Naval Reserve, Mark and his family live on a farm in central Iowa, where he raises grain and livestock.
Saturday General Session
Forging New Partnerships: How to Thrive in Today's Global Value Chain
Globalization has led to the supply chain being replaced by the global value chain. Just producing a product to specification is no longer enough. In order to produce value in every step of the chain, companies need to form partnerships with their suppliers, service providers and customers in order to compete. Learn the obstacles and risks of being a part of the new value chain and gain an understanding of the four key links in the chain - global markets, innovation, workforce and financing. Thomas G. Murphy, Executive Vice President of Manufacturing and Wholsale Distribution for RSM McGladrey will discuss a new report Forging New Partnerships: How to Thrive in Today's Global Value Chain. The second of the Small and Medium Manufacturers series, the report was jointly developed and produced by the National Association of Manufacturers, the Manufacturing Institute, and RSM McGladrey. RSM McGladrey, Inc. is one of the nation's leading accounting, tax and consulting firms serving mid-sized companies, and among the 40 largest consulting firms serving American businesses.
Friday Afternoon Breakout Session
Implementing ANSI A535.6 in Owners Manuals
For manufacturers, safety labels on their products are extremely important. Inadequate warnings could have a wide variety of consequences for the manufacturer, its employees, and its customers—consequences that range from noncompliance to lawsuits to minor injuries or even death. Equally important are the warnings that are part of the in-the-box collateral pieces that manufacturers must include as yet another component of the finished manufactured product.
A new standard, ANSI Z535.6, Product Safety Information in Product Manuals, Instructions, and Other Collateral Materials, has been added to the ANSI Z535 series. ANSI Z535.6 provides a completely new scheme for classifying different types of safety messages and a variety of options for formatting safety messages.
Steven M. Hall will discuss the scope of the new standard and the types of safety messages in collateral material. Hall serves as the Vice-Chairperson for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z535.6 Subcommittee, which directed and oversaw the development of ANSI Z535.6. Mr. Hall represents Applied Safety and Ergonomics, Inc. on the ANSI Z535 committee, and is a member of the ANSI Z535.4 Subcommittee on Product Safety Signs and Labels, and the ANSI Z535.5 Subcommittee on Safety Tags and Barricade Tapes (for Temporary Hazards). He is also a member of the U.S. TAG for ISO Technical Committee 145 on graphical symbols.
Friday Afternoon Breakout Session
Building Productive Trade Alliances in a Turbulent Business World
Learn the benefits and limitations of forming channel relationships and the five dimensions of success for any trading alliance:Information exchange, solidarity, flexibility, trust and role expectations. Over half of all alliances fail, one of the major reasons is not anticipating and addressing the "chuckholes" that are always out there on the road to success. Alliances without some degree of a formal plan are doomed to failure, just as is the case for an individual organization). Learn the six components of a trading alliance plan (vision, goals, objectives, strategies, tactical action plan, and resource budget - time and money). Collaborative negotiation skills are the critical interpersonal capability alliance participants, yet few people have advanced this aspect of their repertoire. Learn the pillars for building collaboration between parties.
Over the past 25 years George Lucas has been a valued resource to many organizations as a trainer, consultant, and field coach. His primary areas of expertise are business-to-business negotiation skills, sales/business development, and marketing strategy. His impact has been to advance the processes and skills of the individuals he works with to help them become more effective and more efficient as they prepare for, conduct, execute, and expand negotiated agreements. The companies he has worked with have experienced literally millions of dollars in impacts in terms of enhancements to their account profitability and success percentages based on the recognized value they bring to their clients and future clients.
Saturday Afternoon Breakout Session
CE Mark
The “CE” mark is now mandatory for a wide range of products sold in the European Union. Several other nations also require conformance to EU product safety, health, and environment legal mandates. The European Commission describes the CE mark as a “passport” that allows manufacturers to trade industrial products freely within the internal market of the EU.
The letters “CE” indicate that the manufacturer has undertaken all assessment procedures required for the product. The CE mark is not a quality mark and does not indicate conformity to a standard; rather it indicates conformity to the legal requirements of the EU directives. Obtaining authority to attach the CE mark to products manufactured in the United States is often thought to be difficult and time-consuming. In many cases it is not, and this breakout session led by Bob Straetz will discuss how to meet the CE mark requirement.
Straetz is a European Union (EU) Specialist in the Office of European Union and Regional Affairs for the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration.
Saturday Afternoon Breakout Session
Professional and Aggressive Selling and Marketing
This technique loaded, fun and entertaining presentation will enable your sales staff and sales support staff, of all levels of experience, to use their presentation and new professional selling skills to their utmost potential. Gain and retain your most profitable customers without increasing marketing costs or appearing pushy and overly aggressive to your customers.
You will learn how to out market your competition, out sell your competition and lower your marketing and selling costs. Bob Janet will also teach you how to use what you already have to get noticed and be remembered when the customer makes a buying decision.
Bob Janet grew up in his parents' retail / wholesale business. He has 40 plus years experience as owner/operator, simultaneously, of Retail, Wholesale, Manufacturing and professional businesses. He has real-world experience selling Electronics, Appliance, Furniture, Tire, Jewelry, and Video and has spent 13 years helping business and sales professionals gain and retain their most profitable customers using keynote speeches, seminars, and workshops.
Tillage Product Council Speaker
Adjusting to Satisfy the Developing Markets for Food, Feed, Fiber and Fuel
Ron Heck operates a 4000 acre soybean and corn family farm in central Iowa. Four generations are currently involved.
He previously served as President of the American Soybean Association, Chairman of the American Oilseed Coalition, President of the Iowa Soybean Association in 1993, the Chicago Federal Reserve Board Agricultural Advisory Committee, the USDA-DOE (United States Department of Agriculture and United States Department of Energy) Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee, and as the cooperator for the Iowa State University Precision Farming Research Project since its beginning in 1996. He was a founding Director of the United States Soybean Export Council.
Ron is a member of the National Biodiesel Board and the Iowa Biodiesel Board. As an Iowa Soybean Association Director, he is Chairman of the Environmental Advisory Committee, and the On Farm Network Advisory Committee. He serves on the Steering Committee for 25x'25.
Past presentations include many aspects of the skills and knowledge that are necessary for farmers and ag businesses, including machinery management, farm policy, risk management, international currency values, and our competitive position with South America. Ron is a graduate of Iowa State University, majoring in Architecture.
