"Discover" more at PDPW's annual business conference set for March 17-18
The month of March heralds in the season of spring and the annual PDPW Business Conference.
This year's conference set for March 17-18 at the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells, lives up to its theme “Discover" featuring 28 sessions and 44 speakers bringing new ideas, research and perspectives from around the globe to improve every aspect of your dairy farm and your own management skills.
The two-day event moves to the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Wisconsin Dells, featuring state-of-the-art conference rooms and technology. PDPW will follow all current CDC-recommended guidelines throughout the conference, including providing masks and hand sanitizer in training kits for each attendee.
What's new
The PDPW annual Business Conference will unveil two new features for attendees of different ages.
- All-new Nexus™ stage featuring TED Talk-style presentations introducing new ideas to improve dairy productivity and sustainability, with the opportunity for dairy producers to ask questions after each presentation.
- All-new youth-leadership programming, providing four separate fast-paced, engaging sessions for teens 15 to 18 years old to boost their communications, teamwork and collaboration skills. Sessions include: You, your world, your path; Discovering your leadership style; Building a team with potential and Practical tools in today’s world. There is not a teenager on this planet that won’t love this program.
Tried and true events will also be a part of the event.
- Hall of Ideas and Equipment Trade Show is the best place to connect with allied industry and fellow producers to see the latest technologies and ideas at work.
- Five keynote presentations designed to inform, inspire and prepare you for success in our ever-changing marketplace.
- Learning Lounge sessions held inside the Hall of Ideas and Equipment Trade Show will take a focused, deep dive into key topics.
- Interactive Hands-on Hub sessions will feature practical first-response techniques to prepare your team for emergencies. In addition, attendees will get an up-close look at varying soil and land-management strategies complete with a water-runoff simulator to replicate actual seasonal and weather-related impacts on the land and water you manage.
General Sessions
This year's keynote speakers for general sessions include:
- Economist Dan Basse who will summarize current macro-economic forces and outline what can be expected in the seasons ahead.
- Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré will speak on resilient leadership, needed in our dairy industry each day, whether it’s making a tough business choice in the personnel we work with or in practices that are no longer optimal, we’re called on to direct our business day in and day out.
- Capt. Charlie Plumb who helped develop the Navy Fighter Weapons School known today as "Top Gun". Plumb will share his harrowing adventure of being shot down over Hanoi five days before his end of tour and being held captive for nearly six years as a prisoner of war.
- Evangelo "Vann" Morris, former nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submariner, combat veteran and retired U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer will help to remind attendees of their blessing despite living in a world where we are more divided than united and a country where we’re more conflicted than compassionate.
- Pam Jahnke will serve as the conference emcee
Safety top priority
PDPW Executive Director says the health and safety of attendees is their highest priority.
"The Kalahari Resort has been safely hosting in-person group events throughout all of 2020 and is well-equipped to accommodate social distancing in all sessions," Mayer said. "Capacities have been calculated for each room with seating arrangements that allow attendees to reposition chairs to ensure safe distances. During the evening, empty rooms are fogged with a sanitization solution to ensure the highest level of cleanliness."
Extra audiovisual equipment will also be set up in overflow areas, and all food and beverages will be individually packaged or served by Kalahari staff. The PDPW is committed to following all current CDC-recommended guidelines throughout the conference, including providing masks and hand sanitizer in training kits for each attendee.
To register for the conference or to view the event flyer visit https://pdpw.org/businessconference/