Congress Update

A very exciting event will be held in Fort Worth, Texas. It’s the annual Congress for the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) that will be held in conjunction with the 2009 Ag Media Summit (AMS). The last time the IFAJ Congress was held in the U.S. was in 1992 in the Illinois/Indiana region.

The dates for the joint IFAJ Congress and Ag Media Summit will be July 29 through August 5, 2009. The location is the Worthington Renaissance Hotel in downtown Fort Worth. We are expecting this to draw more than 200 international IFAJ members and guests.

On the 29th, our international arrivals will begin with the majority of the IFAJ activities taking place on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, August 2, the two events will “blend” and the IFAJ delegates will start to take part in the AMS activities. The AMS basically stays on a similar schedule with the big welcome party on Sunday night followed by our usual schedule of workshops on Monday and Tuesday. The grand opening of the InfoExpo will also take place on Monday afternoon and extend through Tuesday, just like it does now. The Congress always ends with a big send-off party on the final night and we will adhere to this tradition and incorporate our awards functions into the biggest party this event has ever seen! Officially the event will be over Wednesday morning August 5th, although that day the post-convention tours will begin.

Traditionally the Congresses emphasize tours so we want to showcase American agriculture with the obvious emphasis being in Texas. At the same time we want to show off our quality professional development seminars so the schedule is being designed so that everyone has the chance to do some of each. Right now, there are tours scheduled for Saturday afternoon and all day on Tuesday plus a set of three post-convention tours to three different areas of Texas that will start on Wednesday. All of these are geared to the IFAJ delegates however everyone is welcome to go on them.

The AMS Steering Committee has been working on this for many years now. There is a separate committee structure for this event and it is going full force right now. If you are interested in participating in the planning it is not too late! The committees include:

Program
Sponsorship
Marketing and Communications
InfoExpo
Hospitality/Appreciation
Finance & Budget
Registration
Transportation and Tours

There will also be an opportunity for the local Fort Worth and Texas members to become involved as the event gets closer. There are mountains of things to do and we need you!