As a reminder click here to register for the IFAJ Congress:
Be sure to read everything and scroll down to the bottom for the buttons that will take you to the registration forms.
Here is a web site for you to get visa information for traveling to the U.S. We are going to post a letter too that you can take to your embassy. If it needs to be personalized for you, then we will do that for you. Watch for that letter to be posted soon.
When you are booking your airplane tickets, you will want to fly to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). It is a very large airport and all of the major airlines including, American, United, British Airways, Delta, Continental, fly to DFW.
Some of your connections to the U.S. may take you via one of the New York City airports (JFK-New York John F. Kennedy or to LGA-LaGuardia). You could also connect through Chicago (ORD) or Houston Intercontinental (IAH) or even Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO). All of these cities have many flights to and from DFW and are just some options for you to consider.
The airport is located about 30 minutes from the host hotel in downtown Fort Worth. When you fill out your registration form, please be sure to indicate your travel schedule as we are planning to pick you up at the airport and assist you with your luggage. There are a variety of shuttle services too and, of course, taxis. But we want to help you save money!
Do you have more questions on airports? Let us know by posting a comment below.
We want to be sure that everyone who is planning to come to the IFAJ Congress in Fort Worth, Texas, has all the information that we can offer to make your experience enjoyable. We also want to be sure to explain our U.S. traditions and make sure that you, as our international friends, feel welcome.
As you read through all of the Congress information, you will see AAEA, LPC, ACT and AMS, and might start to wonder what all of these letters mean!
AAEA means American Agricultural Editors’ Association (American guild’s official name)
LPC means Livestock Publications Council (organization consisting of mostly livestock magazines)
ACT means Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (student organization at our universities)
AMS means Agricultural Media Summit (combination of AAEA, LPC and ACT members’ annual meeting)
Here is a more detailed explanation of AMS:
AMS is for Agricultural Media Summit. You can kind of look at it like the U.S. version of the IFAJ Congress. It is our annual conference and its purpose is to provide professional development and educational opportunities for the attendees. When we refer to professional development it means that we have workshops that focus on making us better writers, photographers, and graphic designers (plus much more). We also learn how to be productive in our jobs and even learn about new computer programs which may include becoming better workers in such programs as Adobe and Microsoft .
The AMS also has a trade show with more than 70 companies who promote their products, new innovations, technology and with editors, writers and others who are interested in creating a business network. Many story ideas are created from the trade show which we call InfoExpo.
This year the IFAJ Congress is going to start as it has in the past and you will all be together as the Congress starting on Friday, July 31. As the weekend progresses, the AMS will begin and the two events will “blend” together. Even though each one will have its own identity, we want all of our international friends to get to know the AMS friends. This event has been discussed for many years and our U.S. attendees are very excited to get to be a part of such a great Congress.
I’m going to keep posting on some more details, but please let us know your questions!
We are pleased to announce that you can now register for this year’s IFAJ Congress and Ag Media Summit. Follow this link www.agmediasummitregistration.com and read carefully! Good luck and we look forward to seeing you in July!
We thought you might enjoy a map of Texas to get your bearings.
This is a big state and it takes a big map to show it off.
Thanks to the Texas Department of Transportation you can find a pdf version of this map using this link: Texas Map (pdf).
Of course you can find lots of maps of Texas online.
We are nearing the launch of the online registration and know that many of you are ready to get signed up. While you are waiting here are some registration fees if you register before April 1. Full registration will be $1,500 USD. This is for a single room (one person/one room) and includes 5 nights of hotel (starting Fri., July 31 through Tuesday night). If you choose to have a roommate the price goes down to $1,100 USD. The post-Congress tours will range from $550 to $750 for double occupancy. (single $750 to $950). We will be posting more details really soon but know that you want to see these numbers. Happy New Year to all!
Our fearless leader and IFAJ 2009 Congress Chairman is Greg Lamp, Corn & Soybean Digest. I spoke with him today for an update on how things are going with plans to hold an awesome meeting here in conjunction with the Agricultural Media Summit.
You can listen to me talk with Greg this morning via Skype here:
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You can find the latest schedule using the right sidebar link and also a detailed agenda for our post-Congress tours. We’re hoping to have registration information available very soon.
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