AgGateway's Mid-Year Meeting Goes Virtual

Mid-Year Meeting

AgGateway's Mid-Year Meeting Goes Virtual

By AgGateway’s Conference Committee

No day is the same in agriculture, and no day has been the same since the outbreak of Covid-19 focused our industry on remote work enabled by technology, interconnected processes and interoperable data. AgGateway is taking the challenge in stride and moving the June Mid-Year Meeting to a virtual environment.

First and foremost we want to assure members that we will have a meeting in early June 2020.

“This is still a great time to ‘get together’ because so much has happened since the annual conference, and we need this time to keep the momentum going," said Conference Committee Chair Scott Meredith, ACS.

The Conference Committee is reviewing online conference solutions from service providers, coordinated by AgGateway’s meeting planner. We anticipate having more details to share later in April, but here are some key points:

  • We will keep the week of June 9 as our target for the virtual Mid-Year Meeting.
  • We plan to have break-out sessions, general sessions, and (as best we can) networking opportunities -- all the things you expect of an AgGateway conference.
  • We are reviewing different scheduling options to enable more participants to attend more sessions.
  • We have demonstrations scheduled for the week of April 6 to check out service offerings.
  • We’ll share more details with members as the service is selected and the program is put in place.

AgGateway thanks its generous sponsors who have already committed to supporting the Mid-Year Meeting. We will be in touch with all sponsors to ensure that they receive meaningful benefits in light of our change from an in-person to remote gathering.

We plan to return to Altoona, Iowa, for the 2021 Mid-Year Meeting. We thank the team at Prairie Meadows for working with us to terminate our facility agreement at no cost, allowing us the flexibility to put our funds towards making the virtual Mid-Year Meeting the best it can be. We also do not anticipate that the change in format will negatively impact the overall AgGateway 2020 budget. And, as always, we thank Eden Capuano and the team at Voila – AgGateway’s meeting vendor – for their professional work.

2020 will be a challenging year for us all. AgGateway and its members are positioned to carry on with the important work before us. We are experienced in planning and executing remote collaborations and implementing collaborative solutions. We welcome member ideas and suggestions, and welcome anyone interested in supporting the meetings to join the Conference Committee. Contact Member Services at Member.Services@AgGateway.org if you’d like to get involved.

We look forward to seeing you all in a socially distant way at our June meeting as we continue to lead the transition to digital agriculture.