2022-07-12 Implementation and Quick Connect Meet Up

Motion to approve minutes: Ann Vande Lune; second: Mike Glidden; all approved.

• Update on capability and capacity chart
• Video participants update

Brent: I think I caused some confusion about what we are capable of doing in MyAgGateway. I shared in May that we were in the process of putting together a service directory that would focus on existing implementation capabilities and potentially include individual member capability and capacity. That is still in process, but we don’t have it built into the tool today. One of the things Leslie, Wendy, and I have had conversations around is whether the basic functionality of the member directory would allow us to put some capacity within the MyAgGateway tool. We are still evaluating that, and we have a little bit of lunch and learn to do with the software provider to make sure that would suit our needs. One of the benefits would be that because it’s in the tool, it would be member-manageable, so the primary/secondary contact could log in and update capabilities. Depending on how that all works out we might be able to do a demonstration with the group on a future call.

We also talked about doing some video testimonials/interviews, Paul any updates?

Paul: Most recent work has been on collecting updates to case studies; I probably have five scheduled between now and the middle of the August, so folks are responding, and I appreciate that. We will work with people and get those updated. Gathering and doing the testimonials on QC is another piece and is something I have not gotten myself all over quite yet but will be, it’s an action item in August for sure.

• Space needs - tables, a/v, etc.
• Partner window sign ups 
• Collateral
• Company outreach

Brent: Hearing no questions on that, we will move ahead with the next two discussion/decision point agenda items. When Ann and I talked prior to the call, we wanted to make sure two things were getting addressed: that we weren’t losing sight of doing some sort of doing-business-with sessions at the annual meeting and what kind of space and equipment requests we need. We also want to talk about what kinds of collateral would be valuable to have – is it a copy of the QC book in a physical format, is it having it updated in an electronic format? We did get the link to the version produced for last year and the good news is we have access and can make updates to it in the online tool. The bad news is Canva is a self-contained system, so while we can export the book, we can’t download and manipulate it in Adobe or PowerPoint. Finally, we need company outreach. Who do we need to make sure is at the table for those doing-business-with sessions? We want to have an outreach plan as part of opening registration and review registration lists (not only companies but also individuals).

Space Needs:

Ann: I think 8 tables.

Brent: Would that be the max or is it what we are shooting for?

Ann: What we are shooting for, maybe also the max. That gives us the majority for each one of the major manufacturers.

Brent: I know we had previous conversations that retailers would probably have their software/service provider with them. For those who are allied providers on the call today, would there be value for you to have dedicated table space to say here’s what we have?

Pam: I believe, if we are talking about specific timelines on behalf of a specific retailer, we are better to align with them, otherwise we will be sitting and having a lot of general discussions.

Greg B: We agree, it’s better to go with the retailer.

Natasha: From the retailer side, I think it’s invaluable to have them with us. Maybe it makes sense for some folks if they have enough people to have a table of their own but in my experience, we kinda had to really construe it so they were with us first, then the next person, etc.

Brent: I had the sense that was the case but didn’t want to assume. Any other thoughts on space needs? Is this a conversation with a book/laptop or is there a sense that something higher-end will be needed (where we work with the hotel to provide screens/projectors/power, etc)?

Ann: I would say we don’t need to worry about screens and projectors; I see this more as a sit-down with a laptop and notebook conversation, not more in depth than that.

Natasha: I totally agree. I feel like one time there were folks who thought they would present but the booklets provided that visual and allowed us to flip through; that was more than enough to trigger the conversations and keep them going (if we give it to them ahead of time they can go through and think about it prior to the meeting). Then it became a conversation having all three partners there; I don’t think there’s a purpose to having any kind of presentation.

Brent: I’m totally on board with this.

Jeff: I agree with Natasha

Julie: I agree too.

Partner Sign-Ups

Brent: On a previous call we discussed using Sign-Up Genius again and making sure those appointments were easily accessible by everyone so folks knew they would be needed at a table.

Collateral

Brent: (opened the booklet) Here’s the .pdf version of last year’s QC binder content. We don’t have to take a deep dive into this, but as a quick reminder: the way the booklet works is we have a title page, some notes, appointments, a QR code going to the AgGateway Get connected site, then a list of messages by business segment, and trading capabilities by member company. My assumption is that we will want to go back and vet the message to make sure nothing has changed or if it has that it has been appropriately noted, and if any trading partner has changed, we need to include that as well.

Ann: Do we have a list of who has been through their info to verify?

Brent: Not since last year, there has been no intentional outreach with this stuff.

Ann: Did everyone on this list check it off before annual last year, or is there anyone we need to talk to?

Brent: My thought would be to go back to everyone on the list and vet it one more time.

Natasha: This list (in the current book from 2021 annual) is the people who were going to be there; we had more originally when we created it. There are people not represented here.

Josh: Like CF Industries, they couldn’t make the conference so they were removed from the list.

Natasha: I do think we need to go back and look, and I have the version prior to this with about 13 companies. Brent if you message me outside this meeting we have an Enterprise version of Canva so there’s a lot more capabilities vs the free version you have (that opens up a lot of things) so I would be willing to help. We do need to reach out to all these folks and the others to put them all on. If they’re not going to attend at the last minute maybe we remove them. That’s what this group struggled to do the last couple times. Maybe we start that right now.

Brent: Absolutely. I would share that when staff was doing it, Marilyn struggled as well with many emails to people and trying to make it as easy as possible. It’s a constant refrain. I agree though, my thought is you vet participation and at the same time you vet capabilities and capacity as well, for inclusion.

Brent: We have a communication and outreach plan that is ongoing, Leslie is responsible for that as the staff person. I think if there are one or two folks willing to work with her to make some of these calls, especially related to the doing business session she would appreciate that. Then we can set up some catch-up times between now and the next committee meeting.

Ann: I can help with that.

Greg Baldwin: Would it be helpful to put something on each of the active WG pages, like upcoming or messages in progress?

Brent: That’s a good question and it’s something I wanted to address as additional collateral…I don’t think it belongs in this document but having a summary on one sheet could be helpful.

Brent: Anyone else who could be part of the call outreach?

Natasha: I don’t mind doing it but I felt like I was failing last time because we weren’t getting the right numbers and names. Making the call isn’t the hard part, it’s getting the right info/person to talk to.

Brent: I think we’ve done a decent job of cleaning up some of our contact lists at this point so hopefully as we go through, you’ll find it a little less painful.

Josh: I think it would be beneficial to have anyone who has participated in a connectivity project, like CN, it would help us make sure we are hitting all the segments.

Brent: This is a good starting point. Some of the call list may have cleaned up just because we went through billing follow-up. Hopefully that is an improved list.

Connecting Ag Business - a proposal for moving forward (Ann Vande Lune and Brent Kemp) 25 minutes

The group reviews proposed path forward for the work to move connectivity forward for members, and non-member connectivity prospects. 

• • Deliverables (Ann)
    • Updated cast studies
    • Segment champions for educational sessions in January, February 2023
      • Crop Nutrition
      • Crop Protection
      • Grain and Feed
      • Seed
    • Content and collateral
      • AIDC value calculator - https://aggateway.atlassian.net/l/cp/4j0BSNJ1
      • Updated content for the Digital Resource/Message Book
    • Outreach plan for 2023
  • Schedule of milestones
    • Announcements and invitations
    • Speakers
    • Agenda
    • Facility needs - a/v, internet, f&b ...

Brent: Back to Greg’s question about the value of having a side conversation/side sheet that covers existing working groups and scopes, is there any additional collateral like that that would be helpful for conversations? Give it some thought, and we will come back to it on a future call.

Brent: Anything else we need to talk about now for November or that we cover on a future call for November? (none)

Roadshow Conversation

Ann: For the first traveling roadshow, I believe Paul has a logo for us and an announcement we can use to start sending out. The initial date is 1/11/23; I set a rough time frame of 10am-3pm but it’s open to discussion. It will be at Prairie Meadows in Altoona. Looking at a meeting format starting with “why connect, what’s the value, what messages can I connect with, what can they do for me?” Then spending time going through the value calculators, lunch break, best practices for connecting, then giving everyone the opportunity to have conversation about “what are we missing, what are the pain points, what should be on our radar”, as sometimes we don’t get to those conversations. Thoughts? Anything we are missing or not covering?

Brent: What you’ve laid out makes sense to me, and that time window makes sense too. It gives them time to get in there, it’s not going to feel like “my brain is melting out my ear” from the tech stuff, and is really focused on solving the business problem.

Ann: We also talked about taking the roadshow to other states like IN and IL; we cannot wait to see if IA is successful before we schedule the next couple meetings because then we won’t have time to promote it in the other states and get things rolling. I propose we set the three-state roadshow and see how it goes, approximately three weeks apart to give everyone some down time with travel and anything we need to adjust or make different between the different shows. What states should we target for the other two? IN and IL, WI and MN, what do you think?

Jeff: I think it makes sense to spread them out if you’re going to do multiple ones, like in IN. it doesn’t make sense to do one in MN if you’re trying to get people from the east.

Natasha: I agree, I don’t know that you need them in every consecutive state.

Kay: Do we have retailers we are trying to focus on/get involved?

Ann: We are trying to get any retailer in the Midwest with capabilities of connecting involved.

Kay: I would try to make sure there’s one or two retailers you know you can get there, when thinking about the areas. If there are certain ones you know you want to get involved, maybe go to their area.

Josh: Do you have people in mind you want to get there?

Brent: Some has been organic outreach on our part, and we’ve had some similar conversations with different associations who are advising their members this is happening.

Phil: Do you think we get better bang for our buck if you target the trade shows instead of having a regional meeting? I know we’ve done that in the past.

Brent: We talked quite a bit on our staff call yesterday on if was value in trying to do that. The challenge is that a lot of speaking opportunities are pay to play, and it’s not an insignificant cost, so we’ve been careful about how we best steward the membership dues. If we think we will get the right audience it could be something we reconsider, and we are thinking about this as we head into budget season on the off chance something comes up. As we looked at it as a group yesterday, we didn’t come to a consensus that there was a show that would meet the value proposition. Having said that, we are always looking for member feedback. If there’s a show you think we need to be at where staff presence would be beneficial and we have a shot at a speaking slot or have a meeting room for conversations, let us know and we will explore it.

Phil: I think we need to have the purchasing show on our radar, it’s all people in the feed industry. It’s the purchasing people and executives, I think that would be a good audience for you/Ann to get up there and talk about what we are trying to do, because those are the people buying the commodities we are talking about.

Kay: Do we have AgGateway members who are retailers who aren’t participating? Could we start with where they are at?

Brent: Do you mean members who aren’t connected?

Kay: People who are paying to be members but we never see them at a meeting. What is our goal?

Brent: The goal with the roadshow is connectivity, not to gain membership. We are going to show them, here’s the value you get out of connecting and here are the ways you can leverage the data flowing back and forth. Part of it is to forward the standards vision, and obviously we would have a conversation about membership if someone is interested in going ahead with connectivity, but that’s not the focus of the roadshows from the outset.

Paul: Clearly there are a lot of folks who don’t have a lot of clarity of what AgGateway does and what it could bring to their business. Step one is getting them to understand what we do, how it all works, and getting them to ask questions and reflect that on their business in what they’re doing and not doing. That alone would be a great victory, and converting them to membership would be fantastic, but from my perspective just getting them to understand what we do would be a huge plus.

Brent: Any other thoughts/questions there? One of the things that came up on the last call was the value calculators and sharing those. I know the seed value calculator came up, we are plugging away at an energy value calculator, the AIDC calculator came up as something to revisit. I am including the link to the AIDC standards and guidelines in the agenda. Go download the excel workbook, review it, see if there’s anything you suggest we tweak, maybe as an action item for everyone - come back on our next call having had eyes on it and provide some recommendations for updates. That way we have plenty of time between now and January to make updates.

Josh: I did reach out to some folks in our off weeks here, especially on the CN side. I think one of the things this group needs to do is lock down who will be invited and try to get an idea of who will attend the sessions as much as possible, because I think in some of these cases there’s value for manufacturers if they know they’re coming to a meeting and can champion something, and have folks there who are possibly people they would want to connect to. I think in general, this is valuable to everyone, all stakeholders, that they know we aren’t just showing up with one or two people, and we have an idea of who they are. I don’t think everyone has to come with their list of people but we need to work independently at who is going to be at the meetings so they’re well attended. There is some reluctance in participating if there aren’t many folks available. Maybe that’s a topic for another call; we can plan a great presentation and have the info available, but if it’s not well-attended it’s going to rain on the parade.

Brent: Fair point.

Natasha: I agree, it needs to be very targeted.

Brent: Josh, there was one other thing you got feedback on – being able to provide a business value for the champion?

Josh: One of the folks I reached out to said before they wanted to participate in even a meetup, they needed to know the value so they could get approval. My contact is in IT and understands the need, but the organization wanted to understand the value from the business perspective before they consider participating in the meetup. They are connected and are passing messages back and forth. So, this goes back to who’s attending, who is the audience. They want to help out, but they want to know the value. I think that’s why it’s important to drill down on our audience and who is going to be there and what the potential is. That doesn’t mean they have to say I’m connecting and going to join AgGateway down the line, but they need the possibility that this is the audience that can be reached by us participating.

Ann: I’m hoping conversations we had with the manufacturers who have agreed to help us with targeting this list helps as well. And help get their potential customers.

Brent: The folks I’ve talked to have said they are willing to assist with that. For those who were on the call who may be in a distributor place or have some retailers who would like to see included, we are happy to act as the neutral/independent broker of information as we’ve done in the past. We will take contact info, referrals, and introductions so we manage the list on your behalf. You don’t have to share it with others and things of that nature. If you feel more comfortable just sharing with me or Leslie, we are happy to act as the central point of contact for managing an outreach list.

• Ann and Natasha will assist Leslie in making calls
• Paul is updating case studies and getting interviews scheduled showing value
• Everyone look at the current binder and see what needs updated
• Everyone look at the AIDC excel document to see what needs updated