2022-08-23 Implementation and Quick Connect Meet Up

• Calls and Invitations
• Video participants update

No previous action items to review.

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

(Josh opened the agenda)

Ann: Currently the QC sessions are scheduled for Monday from 8-11:30 and 3:30-5:30, Tuesday from 10:30-11:30 and 3:30-4:30. We will be reaching out to each one of the manufacturers (Stephanie and Julie) looking for what your travel plans are. If we could know that in the next 10 days, when are you going to have someone available at the annual meeting (we don’t want to have happen what happened last year where no one knew about the meeting and notifications weren’t received, and we don’t want to have signups when the manufacturer won’t be there). We need to know who’s manning it and when they will arrive, that would be great.

Julie: I know I’ll be there Sunday; I think Jim will as well. If we have set times where the room is going to be available, we can make sure it will be staffed. If there’s signups it would be nice to be notified, if you want time slots staffed, we can make sure someone will be there as well.

Stephanie: I haven’t made my arrangements yet, but I’m pretty sure at least I will be there from Corteva, however, the caveat is that I don’t know what activities the seed side is doing so it would be very difficult to discuss implementation projects if I don’t know what they’re doing. I did put a call out for someone in seed to be in attendance. Would it be a problem if our sign said it’s limited to CP discussions?

Ann: I think as long as the retailers know those are the conversations you’re prepared to have I think that’s fair.

Julie: And if they’re interested in seed, you can get their info.

Stephanie: I did meet with Ann and Eric last year and got some names and emailed info but didn’t get any response; I hope that message got back to them, that would be my only concern. I’m happy to be the facilitator, I just can’t have those discussions.

Ann: That’s fair, and we did get responses back from your emails. Like Julie said, even if you’re that liaison/their interested in connecting in general, you can explain the process.

Stephanie: Right, ship notice and invoice I worked with those, but I wouldn’t know much on the reporting side.

Ann: I believe Chris Crutchfield is working on getting sign-ups done so we get notifications to both parties.

Chris: I think Brent was still going to go with signup genius, honestly, I haven’t looked at it, so we do need to look to see if there’s a way to notify both sides. I’m assuming Brent’s done that but I can check with him.

**Action item: Chris and Brent go through sign up genius and have something back to us for the next meeting.

Ann: My last question, would you rather see time slots or would you rather man a booth during certain times?

Todd: We would probably be looking at both.

Stephanie: Last year we had some scheduled and some drop-ins, both worked.

Ann: We will put out there that these manufacturers have committed to manning a booth at these times so everyone is aware of when they want to meet without signing up.

Connecting Ag Business - 2023 Education Meeting Task Review (Ann Vande Lune) 15 minutes

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

• • Deliverables (Ann)
    • Updated case 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 ...

2023 Connecting Ag Business Education Session Checksheet

Ann: I don’t believe we have any action items left from the last meeting so we will review the checklist (number 6 on the agenda).

(Josh opened the link)

Ann: Brent created this checklist to make sure we have everything assigned. As we go forward, we will look for confirmation. The first is prairie meadows, which is confirmed on 11 January. The next ones we are looking for is NE, and IN. We need dates for these; for NE and IN, on 1 February or 22 February; do you know of any conferences on those dates already? Paul found a location in NE (Youngs conference center south in Kearney).

Kori: That’s a good location and a good conference center.

Paul: The only thing I’m seeing that is potentially conflicting is Agribusiness Association on January 24/25 at the same place.

Ann: If we piggy-backed and did this on Jan 26^th would we get more participation?

Paul: It’s hard to say if they’d stay the extra hotel night or if they would go home and come back. It’s possible; if they end at noon, would you keep them for an afternoon? I’ll do a little exploration on that.

Ann: You’re right, it’s hard to do a 3-day turnaround and people sometimes don’t want to stay longer than they have to.

Paul: I think it’s almost better to be separate. One of our advantages is doing the entire thing in a day, people can come in and come out and get what they need. It probably makes sense to do separate.

Ann: Would it be better to do 2/22 for NE, so the NE people aren’t traveling two weekends in a row?

Paul: I am looking up IN to see potential conflicts. I think that makes sense though.

Ann: Anyone else have thoughts on doing NE 2/22 and IN 2/1? Hearing none, that’s what we will go with. We are looking at the Hilton Garden in Indianapolis; those who attended the energy meeting said it was a great location, close to the airport.

Paul: If there’s any place we have experience with, that’s better than starting fresh. Having a relationship is probably more favorable.

Ann: Yes. I think Jeff with Co-Alliance has worked with this hotel several times too, that will help also. The only changing factor for dates is if the venue is not available.

**BRENT ACTION ITEM: work with those venues to see if the dates are available.

Ann: The next thing we are looking for are speakers/champions for the different industry segments. Some of the responsibilities is to walk through the messages currently out there that anyone can connect with and show the value/benefits people would receive. Any volunteers for these segments? Think about it, and please let Brent or myself know. The other thing we are looking for are some manufacturers to be there to help support the messages and bring participation, bring their customers with them to learn about e-connectivity/connecting with the messages. The manufacturers on the call, please check calendars/availability and let us know if someone can participate in any of the meetings. Unless someone can confirm something now.

Ann: Paul has created an invite (Josh clicked on the document) for the roadshow that we can start publicizing. Read through that and see what we are missing, what we need to include, if you have any thoughts we would like to work toward getting approval so we can move forward to start getting it sent out. We will change the dates/locations when confirmed.

Paul: The dates and locations will be very prominent; this is a placeholder for now. The time of 10-3 was also a guess.

Ann: Does anyone have thoughts on this? What do you like about it?

Josh: I think it’s good you point out free.

Ann: That’s a big thing; letting them know it’s not going to cost them anything except their time.

Paul: It will be a good lunch too.

Kay: From a retailer perspective, does this give people enough to go on with who to send to it?

Paul: That’s a good point; part of it being a little more nebulous, we don’t have the agenda as far as the content and I don’t want to over-promise. I think we need to get someone who is more on the IT and on the management sides to come together to get a couple folks from each location, so the understanding comes from both the tech and business sides. That’s the thinking with that end.

Ann: If they have to pick one of the two, I’d rather see the business side than the IT side; the IT side might struggle without the business side with them. All that is, is how they bring it back and how they present it to their people.

Josh: Is there some way to add that in so they know the type of person who would benefit from it?

Paul: That’s something that should be worked in, I agree. It’s important to make sure people know that ideally this is how it would work best. I can work that into the copy after the call.

Ann: What else are we missing?

Kay: The other thought, is there a thought of including software vendors? Trying to think of this as someone who relies on a piece of software, if I know they are somehow involved or could be, it would help.

Ann: It would be great for them to bring their software providers also. That’s who will help them through the connections/process, and you can’t have one without the other. I don’t want it to be limiting.

Josh: I’m wondering, do we get the fact that we aren’t selling anything, that it’s not another piece of software; rather, it’s a process/standards that you follow to create the connectivity. Does it come across like we’re trying to sell them another piece of something?

Paul: I agree there’s probably benefit in more clarity in expectations and what they’ll get out of it. You don’t want it to come across like a time share. Make sure people know that’s not going to happen. I’ve got that noted and I’ll noodle around with it, this is a very early first draft and I appreciate the comments. We are starting to learn more about what it’s going to be and how it’s going to work.

Josh: It’s a good first draft.

Kay: Definitely. Maybe it’s a matter of sending other material along with it, like a success story so it gives them an idea of what we are talking about?

Paul: I like that too.

Ann: The last thing anyone wants to do is spend more money on software and think they’re coming to a sales pitch. Anything we can do to not make them feel that way is a huge win.

Josh: I think a lot of times people think “I’ve got so much invested in my current software/system that I don’t want to think about changing”. This is the opposite of that, you’re working *with* your current system.

Ann: Correct. And somehow conveying that to them, it’s the working with them that we are looking for.

Paul: These are great comments, thank you.

Ann: Any other thoughts?

Kay: It might not hurt to show who are all the members of AgGateway, because they will recognize names on there.

Ann: The only downside I can see with that is that we are not wanting to brand it as a complete AgGateway event. We are trying to leave it ambiguous, so they don’t think they have to join another organization when they get done.

Kay: Maybe he can come up with a creative way of saying here’s some people who are doing this kind of thing.

Josh: You probably want to use the folks who have connected, because if they reach out to them, we want them to hear something positive.

Ann: Maybe that’s how we state it, here are some people currently connected.

Kori: You could tie it in with the success stories.

Uriah: Tie it in with the manufacturers, if they see the success stories, they’re more likely to come. They don’t care if Ceres is doing it, but if they know Bayer is they’re more likely to come.

Ann: That’s a good point, letting them know you can connect with the four major seed manufacturers. That goes along to the QC document, maybe we link to that as well so they can see that booklet.

Paul: We can build a page that links to a QR code that you can click on instead of throwing a ton more paper at them.

Ann: If we can do the success stories, case studies, they can look at many of them.

Kay: It’s that fine balance of giving them enough to entice them to look for more.

Ann: And not overwhelming them once they get there. Paul, I’ll let you take the comments and work from there. When you get another draft, please put it out there and let the group know so we can review it again that would be great.

Paul: Will do.

Ann: Back to the checklist: Brent has started putting together lists of different invitees, so that will be good. One question we did have through this process…someone on the IA line might consider going to the NE meeting vs the IA meeting based off of time. Someone on the IL line could probably choose between IA or IN, whichever may be closer to them. When we send that invite out, what is the best way to handle it…you don’t want to send out an invite for NE on 2/22 a couple weeks ahead of time in December, but if they were wanting to go to IA vs the NE one, they wouldn’t have known about it. What is the best way to deal with getting the dates out there so everyone knows there are three, but not having the invite get lost?

Paul: I think everyone gets the same invitation with all the dates on it. You never know how far people will travel; I think we make them all aware of all the dates so they can go over what is convenient. Those are the kinds of things I’ve received before and attended something far away from me because I was there for something else.

Ann: Okay. Some of the manufacturers, will you guys help us in the list of people that would be great invitees? You know who your customers are that you’re currently working with, we would like to work with you and Brent will probably contact each of you for the best way to get an all-inclusive invitee list to get as many people as possible. We are going to work with ARA (Darren Coppock) to get a list of retailers from them, and working on getting a list from the different states associations. Does anyone have thoughts on other ways to come up with a list of invitees?

Paul: If anyone has relationships with, I’ve contacted Bill from IA and he’s on board but if anyone has relationships with NE or IN, I don’t personally have any and am ready to establish them. If you have that please let us know.

Ann: If anyone has thoughts let us know.

Ann: The other thing we need to start thinking of when we get closer is what we need from the facility, how we want to set up the table formats, A/V, etc. We don’t need to do that today but it’s on the checklist. Lastly we need to work toward an agenda, which will be more-so the fact that we are covering the different messages out there, looking at value propositions so each person knows what they can get out of this. We will keep it at a high level and not delve into the weeds, maybe some rough things of connections and what it takes to connect. Any thoughts of what else we should include in the meeting?

Josh: I think how to get started; that’s important so people understand that it’s not climbing a mountain, there’s already people who have gone down this path and understand it.

Ann: Very true. That’s all I have on the traveling roadshow. Does anyone have thoughts or agenda items you’d like to add to the next meeting for this part?

Josh: At some point, are we going to assign dates and put a due date on some of these checklist items?

Ann: I would say that’s to come, we just finish the rough draft of the invite and the invitation list, so along that same line, when do those invites need to go out? Paul, can you help with that thought process?

Paul: Because it’s a one-day event it’s not going to take a lot of planning, but it would be nice to get it on their calendars prior to Thanksgiving and then it will be reminders going forward, making sure people continue seeing it and keeping after them so they don’t lose sight of it. The start is important but the continuation of reminders and hopefully getting some kind of a “for more interest sign up here” where we are collecting names, and then keeping them apprised of developments, it’s got to be a steady drumbeat. It could go out sooner, there’s no reason to not announce it as soon as we have everything ready but after that it’s follow-up and reminders.

Ann: I agree. Once we have the final dates, and I know once Brent gets final confirmation from the venues, there’s no reason we can’t start pushing out all the information and promoting it.

Paul: Absolutely.

Ann: I think we should see that hopefully in the next two weeks from Brent. I think those are the biggest things we need to put time and date too, getting that invite out and getting the dates set.

• 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