Find out who else is coming to Texas!

On Friday (26 June) I’m going to post a list of everyone who has registered from outside of the U.S. for the Congress. This way you can see who is coming from your country and other friends you have met from other Congresses. I am also going to include your ARRIVAL day because many of you have added on an extra night and we want to be sure that we have that correct. Keep in mind, we are going to pick you up at the airport, so this information is very important for you to check. Keep informed by communicating with your “buddies” too!

NOTE: Go to www.agmediasummit.com download your copy.

Some U.S. agriculture resources for your research

Some of you have requested some information on sources for agriculture in the U.S. Here are some links that you can go to prior to coming to the Congress. Steve Werblow, our co-chairman of the program committee furnished this information:

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service publishes great papers on markets and economics.  There’s an index online at http://www.ers.usda.gov/Browse/.  There are papers and articles on many topics, from individual crops to labor to trade issues, other countries, etc.

The USDA National Agricultural Statistical Service (http://www.nass.usda.gov/#) is a great place to find data on anything agriculture.

This is the USDA’s 2002 book on topics that are mainly organized around federal programs and priorities such as cultural and economic diversity, Factbook of Agriculture http://www.usda.gov/factbook/


The Texas Department of Agriculture has a fact sheet online at http://www.agr.state.tx.us/gt/channel/render/items/0,1218,1670_1693_0_1692,00.html

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As we find more information we will post it here. Want to know more? Let us know how we can help you. Post a comment here!

Hotel Headquarters in Fort Worth

Some of you have asked for the address and phone number for the headquarters hotel during the IFAJ Congress and Ag Media Summit. Here it is: Worthington Renaissance Hotel, 200 Main Street, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, 76102; Telephone: 817-870-1000 (country code 011). Check it out, I think you’ll like it! http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/dfwdt-renaissance-worthington-hotel-fort-worth/

Planning Committee Meets Last Time

The IFAJ Congress 2009 planning committee met for the last time face to face at the National Agri-Marketing Conference in Atlanta, GA today.

I interviewed Andy Atzenweiler, one of our committee members, and will post it when I get back to my room later. He says that the program is finalized and I got a copy of it. I’ll have the latest version posted here as soon as I get an electronic version of it. If you haven’t registered yet, please do since we’re in the last stages of getting all the arrangements finalized.

You can listen to my interview with Andy here:

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I hope to see a lot of you in Texas.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Map of Tours

Here is a small map that shows where the tours will be going for the post-Congress tours. The West Texas tour is in blue and will cover the Panhandle of Texas including Amarillo and Lubbock. The South Texas Tour is marked in green and you will fly to San Antonio and travel to Corpus Christi. The Central/East Texas tour will go to the College Station area where Texas A&M University is located and then through Austin which is the capital of Texas. Lots of tour information will be posted soon.

Registration link

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.

The definition of AMS

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!

IFAJ Registration almost ready

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!

Greetings from Fort Worth Texas!

This is going to be my first of many posts on this site as we continue to update you on all of the new and exciting events that will happen with next summer’s Ag Media Summit and IFAJ  Congress. I’m writing this as a “test drive” as I learn from my excellent teacher, Chuck Zimmerman!  Please feel free to participate and ask questions as we go through all of our planning stages. It’s going to be here before you know it.

Cheers! And stay tuned for much more to come!

Planning Meeting Held at AMS

The planning committee for the IFAJ Congress 2009 met this morning for several hours at the 2008 Agricultural Media Summit (AMS).

Today’s meeting was very well attended. Mike Wilson, Greg Lamp and Diane Johnson helped the various committees working on next year’s event. Also making sure all the heavy lifting gets done behind the scenes were Den Gardner and Kenna Rathai who are the AAEA staff. We’ll also be updating the committees list but there’s a whole bunch of people making sure this program turns into one of the best ever.

We had quite a few people who had not been assigned to a committee but that got corrected and I’m happy to say that my marketing and communications committee now has more than two members and we came up with some great ideas that included incorporating some new social networking tools in our efforts.

We’re looking forward to showcasing American agriculture in Ft.Worth, TX next year!

By the way, if you’d like to see pictures from this year’s AMS, which just ended today, then feel free to visit the online photo album. It contains some pictures of Florida from a few days before the AMS got started too: Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Upcoming Planning Meeting For 2009 Congress

Many of us here in the USA are looking forward to the upcoming IFAJ Congress 2008 in Austria/Slovenia. I hope we have a fired up delegation going.

In the meantime, plans are continuing for next year’s Congress which will be held in conjunction with our Agricultural Media Summit (AMS). In fact, at this year’s AMS we’re holding a planning meeting for everyone in attendance to provide their input and volunteer to help. It will be held from 8:30am to 11:00am on Wednesday morning, July 30 at Saddlebrook Resort.

I’m sure we’ll have some more updates for you after that time.

2009 Congress Planning Meeting

The dedicated IFAJ/AMS planning committee is meeting early this morning in Kansas City, MO at the 2008 Agri-Marketing Conference to continue planning for the 2009 Congress. We’ve been reviewing the program and fine tuning things.

Sponsorship packets are almost ready and will be published soon. For those of you who have been AMS sponsors, keep in mind that in 2009 we’re going to be having hundreds of international agricultural journalists coming to the event.

I’m looking for your input and ideas on ways to continue to develop the Congress website. Please feel free to send me an email.