Plan to join your colleagues and friends at the Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront hotel in Melbourne, Florida this April 1 & 2 for EMDA’s 2022 Spring Management Workshop. EMDA President Mark Tibbitts, General Implement Distributors, Salt Lake City, Utah, has put together a program you won’t want to miss.
Plan to arrive in Melbourne, Florida on Thursday, March 31 in time for a Welcome Reception from 6p-7p
Friday morning, April 1, kicks off with a presentation/roundtable discussion about EMDA’s Market Intelligence project. The EMDA Board has been working with Randall-Reilly, Charlotte, North Carolina, in putting together a Market Intelligence program. The Board is looking for feedback on the project and this session is your opportunity to help shape a valuable new service for EMDA members.
Friday also features Michael Bird and Ashley Weaver of EMDA Associate member Spindustry in Des Moines, Iowa, who will present The Farmer’s Buying Journey: Remixed and Applied, a review of the results of two studies with 750 farmers citing their attitudes and preferences as they work towards making informed purchases and a second survey of distributors and dealers. While you can likely guess the Internet plays a role in everyone’s decision making, how different groups use the Internet and when they choose not to may surprise you.
Beyond the study, Michael will then share several tips you can do right away to lean into the learnings from the research. After that, Michael will walk through a number of your websites as time allows to offer his on-the-spot recommendations. Mark has volunteered the General Implement Distributors web site and we’re looking for another to review. If you’d like your site specifically considered for review, email Michael at mbird@spindustry.com with subject EMDA 2022 and maybe you’ll share the spotlight at this great event!
Saturday, April 2 you’ll see why the Melbourne Coast area was chosen for the meeting — we’ll take the group for a field trip/tour of Deseret Ranches in St. Cloud, Florida. For more than 60 years Deseret Ranch has farmed and ranched the beautiful Florida landscape. With a focus on raising high-quality calves and increasing the productive capacity of the land, they are proud to carry on Florida’s ranching heritage.
They are also proud to take care of the natural resources found in Florida and the many species of wildlife that share the landscape with them. Deseret Ranch’s commitment to innovative and responsible agricultural practices has made it one of the most successful multiple-use agricultural operations in the country. Through years of hard work and careful stewardship, their land has been made commercially productive for beef cattle, citrus, and timber. Deseret’s landscape is a mosaic of pastures, citrus groves, wetlands, and woodlands. All told, the Ranch is comprised of about 295,000 acres, or 450 square miles, stretching across Orange, Osceola, and Brevard counties.