The CAMA Manitoba Lunch & Learn was hosted by Monsanto Canada Inc. on March 23rd at the University of Manitoba Monsanto office and breeding centre. Dave Kelner, North American Canola Portfolio Manager, spoke about bringing a new Canola variety to the marketplace and touched on all aspects of the marketing chain involved. Lunch was followed by a tour of the breeding centre.

 

There was a strong turnout for this event from our CAMA members with over 40 people in attendance. Thank you to Kelly Funke, David Kelner and all the staff at Monsanto who helped us in hosting this event! 

On April 27, over 40 CAMA members and industry representatives, met at the MB Legislative Building to hear Dori Gingera-Beauchemin address the group. 

When folks are asked about the challenges facing agriculture in the next 25 years - a changing climate and its impact on natural resources, rising global population and the need for nutritious food, the aging of farmers, and access  to good labor are cited regularly as some of the major issues. No argument that they are not important; however the reality is that the public's trust of their food and the systems used to produce food is as important as these issues, if not more. Public trust is NOT an option, and no part of the food chain is immune to the need to demonstrate tangible practices and action that earn that desired trust. Dori indicated, "Public trust is doing the right thing, assurance & verification, and communicating it." 

Dori discussed the issues facing our agriculture and agri-food sector as well as the opportunities for us to work together to advance that trust. She says, "Just a few instances of non-compliance will sink credibility...this is not just a PR campaign." 

The newest addition to the CAMA.org website! Members are now able to view and post jobs available in the agrimarketing industry.  This is a great opportunity to reach out to potential applicants within CAMA who have desired skill sets.  Go to CAMA.org to check out the current list of job postings!

Thanks to all who attended this year's CAMAraderie night at NAMA in Dallas, Texas! CAMAraderie night is always a great place to network and catch up with colleagues and friends from Canada, while at NAMA. This year, those who attended were treated to a s'mores bar, a nacho bar and a mashed potato bar!  Thanks again to Glacier FarmMedia for hosting the event. 

Best of CAMA 2017 Update 

 

New List of Categories & Call for Entries

There is a new list of categories for this year's competition.  Click here for the list.

The categories were updated to reflect the change in how people communicate their products and services.  More consumer focused categories have been added to encourage more competition within this group.  

 

The Best of CAMA event is trying to keep the competition fair and interesting for everyone. There have been a lot of changes to the categories this year and most likely more editing to the list after the event as well.  We will still require three entries per category to keep the category open for judging.  

 

As members go through the entry process this year, keep track of your suggestions and forward them to Mary for consideration next year.

 

We are now accepting entries for the Best of CAMA 2017 competition!  Go to

https://bestofcama.awardsplatform.com  to log in and start submitting your entries! 

 

If you used the Award Force program last year, you do not need to register yourself as a user again. Use your email address and click 'Have you forgot your password" for the program to send your password again.

 

Entry deadline is Thursday, September 21, 2017. 

 

Judging Update & Call for Judges

We are implementing a new judging selection process this year.  We are still keeping the CAMA members involved by asking them to judge Round #1.  However, we are asking industry leaders to judge Round #2 (which selects the Certificate of Merit and Winners) and Round #3 which is the Best of Show judging.  We are trying to get away from the 'navel-gazing' judging by involving more industry.

 

Round #1 - CAMA members only - approximately 35 required.  If you are interested and available to judge online between September 28 - October 3 (judging length approx 4 hours),

please contact Mary.

 

Round #2 - Industry Leaders - Each Chapter will provide the names of six judges from their province.  These judges could be owner/senior account staff of other agencies (not ag focused), university or college professors, company marketing managers.   Senior marketers (with or without ag background). 

 

Round #3 - Best of Show - Each Chapter to provide name of judge (who can be outside CAMA association but still within ag industry.)