A Rewarding Week
It’s been a busy week, but an enjoyable one.
On Monday, my wife Christine, Caitlin and myself headed off to the first annual Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) conference in London, Ontario. A most enjoyable Monday evening banquet was followed by an informative as well as entertaining day on Tuesday, with speakers featuring Jay Ingram of the Daily Planet and Diane Francis, Editor at Large, National Post. Of course the OMAFRA tag team made their usual appearance, as did the very entertaining Risk Management Consultant, Cal Whewell. Additionally, Dr. Deborah Mielewski of the Ford Motor Company explained how various grain products are being used to create synthetic materials for the seats and other interior elements within certain vehicles.
For those that may not be aware, the associations representing Corn, Soy and Wheat producers in Ontario recently merged into a single association called the Grain Farmers of Ontario. Even though the three associations have hosted joint conferences for the past few years, this was the first conference for the GFO and organizers are to be commended on a job well done!
Our association with this group goes back at least 10 years and we are most appreciative of the warm hospitality extended to us at these functions.
Tuesday evening, it was back to Waterloo/Fergus and then we were off to London again mid-morning on Wednesday to attend a Canadian Agri-Marketing Association (CAMA) meeting at the farm show in London. One might suggest that perhaps we should have stayed, but there were some project reviews to be completed.
The guest speaker at the CAMA meeting spoke on the topic of social networking. So after an hour of physical networking with colleagues, we sat down to learn more about the finer points of LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogging and how these types of things can work in harmony to broaden the corporate image. Like many that attended, we had already started down this road, yet we seemed to be missing some of the glue required to make it all stick together. Nonetheless, our ongoing blog posts and occasional tweets seemed to be a good start. For those of you within my LinkedIn group, I did leave with a renewed commitment to become more active in this area.
It was a very busy few days and I must say I looked forward to getting into the office this morning to spend a couple of days doing those things we do best. I am delighted that this also included fielding calls from some new clients that have responded to some of our own recent direct marketing initiatives.
As the week winds down, we are ramping up for a couple of very large and engaging projects that will certainly preclude much travel next week. Timing is everything!
To wrap things up, although direct marketing is our specialty, we are always open to discussing our experiences thus far with social networking with anyone that might be interested. Of course last, but not least, congratulations to our friends at the GFO once again for a great first conference.
