Speakers, Attendance & Weather Made Kansas City Meeting A Success!

Earlier this month Association President John McCoy, of Orthman Manufacturing, welcomed more than 275 executives and guests, representing 126 member companies and 47 members exhibiting their products or services at this year’s Spring Management Clinic in Kansas City. The location once again proved to be a great choice, providing attendees with great weather and all of Country Club Plaza within easy walking distance of our hotel.

Attendees, when asked in our survey how they rated this year’s Spring Clinic — based on opportunity for business contacts — 64% responded with very good to excellent, with another 25% judging it as good, further verifying the meeting’s success.

McCoy reported a membership total of 614, with 57 new members since the last Spring Clinic in Phoenix. While pleased with the number of new members, McCoy encouraged those in attendance to take the time to visit with other manufacturers, suppliers and marketers who could also benefit from membership in our Association.

The first of our two Panel Discussions dealt with legislation, both on a state and national level. We were very pleased to have Missouri Senator Delbert Scott along with our Missouri lobbyist, Brent Hemphill explaining the process of passing tort reform in the state, which recently withstood a challenge in the Supreme Court. Also joining that panel was Michael Williams, Vice President of Government Relations & Public Policy for the North American Equipment Dealers Association, to explain their work in Washington D.C. where he has been very effective, not only working on pending legislation, but also with various government agencies with rule making and enforcement authority.

Our morning sessions on Friday started off with David Parker, who provided proven methods for making products stand out in a crowded marketplace and ended with Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh (pictured left) who spoke on ag & economic policy and the state of Congress and the Obama Administration.

Flinchbaugh earned some of the highest survey marks from those in attendance, with 89% rating his no holds barred session as very good to excellent. Our number one request following the session was to have the professor back for another session soon. For those who missed the session, Michael Libbie, Past Chairman of our Supplier Associate Section recorded a very good interview with Flinchbaugh before he headed back to the classroom at Kansas State. To view the video go to: http://bit.ly/cmBcVV.

In our final Panel Discussion on Saturday afternoon, McCoy moderated a panel of dealers and distributors made up of Todd Kunau, Kunau Implement Company, Owen Palm, 21st Century Equipment, LLC, Darrell Pankratz, PrairieLand Partners, Inc. and Dick Price, Price Brothers Equipment Company.

Our special thanks to the dealers on the panel for their willingness to openly share their view on the industry and being specific when the topic turned to selling the specialized equipment manufactured by our members.

We would also like to thank the members of our Supplier Section who helped plan several wonderful and well attended events:

Walk/Run Event Coordinator:
Tom Morris, Ken Cook Co.

Trap Shoot Event Coordinator:

Andrew Novetzke, U.S. Nameplate Co.

Supplier Section Closing Reception:
Incoming Section Chairman, Mike Lessiter, Farm Equipment/Ag Equipment Intelligence

We would like to offer special thanks to this year’s Golf Event Chairman George Moustis, Independence Tube Corporation, who also finished his term on the Supplier Section Board Governors at the meeting. He has not only served as Chairman of the Supplier Section but he has time and again gone the extra mile to make sure things were done right and done well. It has been an honor and pleasure for the Association’s staff to work with him over the years.

In summation, this year’s meeting was clearly one of our best Spring Clinics to date. We will be building on that success as we start planning for next year’s Clinic, March 31 through April 2, 2011 at the Saddlebrook Resort near Tampa, FL.