Before the doors were closed good, the executive committee of the Joint Commodities Conference had a debriefing, as well as a preliminary planning session for 2013 and beyond. Charles Hall, Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Soybean Producers Association:
“Well, we think first of all, we’re going to stay in the Triangle area, we’re gong to stay at the Sheraton Imperial Center in Durham, and we’ve booked that for 2013, and the reason for that is that we had such a good turnout in the Triangle in 2012, we had 55 people, more or less, and also more exhibitors, I believe, than we’ve ever had. And we know there’s some others out there that would like to exhibit. So, we think that by staying for three or four years, we will increase our numbers and make our exhibitors happy, and that’s what we want.”
SFN: With numbers like you’ve just flat outgrown the New Bern facility.
Hall: Yeah, New Bern was a great and cozy facility for us, but with the numbers that we’re hitting now, it’s a little tight for New Bern. Certainly nothing against New Bern, we all enjoyed going down there, frankly Raleigh does work a little better for western North Carolina farmers. I mean if he’s coming out of Yadkin or Surry County, he’s got a four, four and a half hour drive down to New Bern. So, keeping it centrally located works, the bigger venue at the Sheraton Imperial Center, obviously has more exhibit space which is getting to be very crucial. Technology companies, crop consultant companies, really enjoyed this year’s format, and we’re thinking to try to do more next year to give more time between exhibitors and participants so they can have time together.”
SFN: And soy is the host this coming year
Hall: Soy is the host, the conference will look a lot like this year, but we’ve made some improvements. We’ve learned that farmers want the opportunity attend all the production sessions, instead of choosing between say, soybeans or wheat or corn, so next year we’ll have the opportunity for everybody in attendance to attend every production meeting with the Extension professors. We may have a couple of those on Thursday morning and a couple o n Thursday afternoon to make it a little more interesting but we’ll defiantly provide an opportunity to learn about all four commodities.
SFN: Alright, any thing you’d like to add?
Hall: We’ll probably add some things in the early morning and do some more things in the exhibit hall. We’ll probably do a little bit more to facilitate getting people in and out of the seminar rooms. A little more ceremony next year, a little better transition, look for a more exciting things in the exhibit area, especially in that 7:00 to 7:30 time frame. We know people want to be with the exhibitors, and they certainly want to be with the farmers, so we’re going to make that happen next year.”
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