At the conclusion of the IFAJ Congress and Ag Media Summit there were a number of tours.
Thanks to Denny McClintic I have a photo of the group that went on the South Texas tour. He also sent a few more which have been added to the IFAJ Congress/Ag Media Summit Photo Album. I think I have more coming from the other tours which will be added to the album when I receive them.
Looks like this group had a good time.
Although I could not attend the combined IFAJ Congress/Ag Media Summit that doesn’t mean I didn’t stay in touch. I called Greg Lamp, Corn & Soybean Digest, and Co-Chair of the event when he was on a break to find out how it went.
Greg says the mix of U.S. and international visitors has worked out great and the event is a success. Many of our international guests commented that the “cowboy spirit” they’ve experienced is just what they hoped it would be. Greg says he’s caught that spirit too. Sounds like a lot of hats and boots are going home from this conference.
So listen to my chat with Greg to hear his thoughts on the conference. Just click on the audio player below.
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The president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists Mike Wilson of Farm Progress Companies opened the general session of the 2009 Congress in Fort Worth Saturday morning with a few words about the direction of the organization.
Mike reported on the further development of the IFAJ website and plans for future congresses that may include the first ever congress in South America. “We’re trying to go to as many different countries as possible,” Mike said. IFAJ is adding two new countries this year – Slovenia and Kenya.
He also talked about a history of IFAJ which is being compiled. During an interview with me, Mike related how in the ’60s the United States first became involved with the group, which originally started in Europe over 50 years ago. “It was called the International Union of Agricultural Journalists and when the Americans were approached and they said we will join but we really have a problem with the word ‘union’ so they changed it to ‘federation’ and the Americans became a part of it.”
He also talked about hiring the first IFAJ part time executive secretary Connie Siemes from Holland and what that has done to help free up the officers to do less paperwork and more member work.
Listen to an interview with Mike here:
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It was the Flinchbaugh-Stenholm show Sunday morning at the first combined session for the IFAJ Congress and the Ag Media Summit. A full house was entertained by the musings and mutterings of “The Great Debate” between former Texas congressman Charlie Stenholm and retired K-State ag economist Barry Flichbaugh.
The crowd had lots of questions for the two after their debate over ag and international trade policy, as did several reporters after the fact. It was interesting to hear the international journalists ask questions about climate change policy and animal rights activism. Our own Joanna Schroeder and Kansas Ag Network reporter Greg Akagi also interviewed them both.
Listen or download to a mix of reporter interviews with Charlie Stenholm here – international questions followed by Greg and Joanna’s interview:
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The executive committee of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) has already met and the program is underway. President Mike Wilson of Farm Progress Companies reported that the organization is working on increasing membership from different countries and that the website is becoming a more effective tool in getting information out about what IFAJ is and what it does. They hope to expand the website into different languages in the future. There are currently brochures about IFAJ available for download on the website in five languages – English, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese.
We’ve got an online photo album started which will be added to throughout the combined IFAJ Congress and Ag Media Summit: IFAJ/AMS 2009 Photo Album. Please check it often and feel free to download photos for your use.
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.
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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The United States was well represented at this year’s IFAJ Congress in Austria/Slovenia.
We had a great time meeting once again with so many of our friends from around the world. Now it’s time to get ready to “Catch The Cowboy Spirit” in Ft. Worth, TX.
In coming months you’ll see many updates to this website as we add functionality and more information as it is finalized.
In this photo our group posed with Svetlana Sirec, Wine Queen of Slovenia.
Now that the 2008 IFAJ Congress is over it’s time to look forward to Ft. Worth, TX!
To help promote our Congress, USA members put together a little gift for IFAJ members. Each participant at this year’s Congress got a bandana that contained a pais of leather coasters.
Prior to our closing dinner a bunch of us got together to tie up the bandanas. You can see pictures of us in this photo album.
Then at our closing dinner, which was held in Portoroz, Slovenia, we distributed our gifts.
People started opening them right away and many put their bandanas on. After all the presentations were over, Quasimojo took the stage and performed.
We also had a slide show presentation that Diane Johnson ran to help set the tone for “Catch The Cowboy Spirit.”