2003 Agri-Marketing Conference students activities.

This year's Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show, held April 15-17 in San Diego, hosted more than 400 students and advisors from schools in the United States and Canada.

Many student attendees participated in the Student Marketing Competition which drew 35 teams. Students and advisors work diligently all year to create a marketing plan to present at the conference, and the competition is fierce, making judging difficult for the industry professionals who evaluated these presentations.

Twelve teams had what the judges were looking for and proceeded to the semi-final heats, with one team from each heat making it to the final round. Students and advisors would both have to wait until that night's NAMA award ceremony to find out which teams would be presenting in the final four.

In the lull of time between presentations and the announcement of the final four, teams attended critiques with their respective judges from the preliminary heats. Judges discussed individual marketing plans and presentations strengths and weaknesses, uncovering areas for improvement and lending encouragement for next year's marketing plan.

The final four competition included first place University of Guelph, second University of Wisconsin-Madison, third place Virginia Tech and fourth place Michigan State. This year for the first time, the finals were simulcast on a television monitor in the hallway outside the room. This allowed professionals to stop by and watch part of the competition and cut down on people entering and exiting the room.

Student NAMA members also work hard to develop an Annual Report for judging in the Outstanding Student Chapter Competition. This year, it was the University of Wisconsin Madison that received top honors in this competition. Second place was awarded to Cai Poly--San Luis Obispo with Iowa State University finishing in third place. University of Saskatchewan was presented with the Outstanding Developing ChapterAward, which is given to a school that has been accredited under three years.

Every year, NAMA honors two advisors with Outstanding Advisor awards.This year, Dr. John Riley with University of Tennessee receive the Oustanding Advisor award and Tom Alien with University of Saskatchewan received the Outstanding Advisor--Developing Chapter award.

This year marked the third year for the Outstanding Professional and Outstanding Professional Chapter award. Colin Clarke with AdFarm was honored with the Outstanding Professional award and the Iowa Chapter was presented with the Outstanding Professional Chapter award.

Several students were awarded scholarships at the Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show. This year the ABEF awarded $12,000 in scholarships to student NAMA members.

Special thanks to the professionals who help make the Marketing Competition a success. In particular the Student Marketing Competition Judges. These judges give a significant amount of time at the conference evaluating the student marketing presentations.