Special Events

Welcome To Fort Worth Reception

Friday, February 9, 6:30 p.m – 7:30 p.m.

Don’t miss this special corporate-sponsored event where you can greet old friends and make new ones. There will be an open bar and light hors d’oeuvres will be served. 

Sponsored by
Amvac Chemical Cormpany; Cherokee Fabrication Co.; Dow AgroSciences; Farm Press Publications; ICE Futures U.S., Inc.; Lummus Corporation; Monsanto; Netafim USA; Samuel Strapping Systems; Syngenta; and Valent USA Corportion

 

Keynote Address at Program Committees:
Joint Meeting and Economic Outlook

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway

Saturday, February 10, 8:00 a.m.
Texas Ballroom EF

Serving his seventh term in the House of Representatives, Congressman Mike Conaway represents 29 counties in Texas’ 11th congressional district, including the cities of Midland, Odessa and San Angelo. Rep. Conaway believes in the principles of lower taxes, smaller government and a secure nation. His background as a CPA gives him a unique perspective on fiscal responsibility and ensuring every taxpayer dollar is being spent wisely. Rep. Conaway is chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and serves on the Armed Services Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He is a deputy Republican whip, a position held since the 112th Congress. A native Texan, he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from Texas A&M University-Commerce in 1970. After serving in the Army at Fort Hood, he returned to the Permian Basin with Price Waterhouse and settled in Midland, later working with George W. Bush as the chief financial officer for Bush Exploration. An ordained deacon in the Baptist church, Rep. Conaway and his wife, Suzanne, live in Midland and have four children and seven grandchildren.

Sponsored by

Signode Packaging Systems

 

Saturday Luncheon with Mike Allen

Saturday, February 10, 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Texas Ballroom EF

One of Washington’s most influential and well-connected journalists and who The New York Times called “The Man the White House Wakes Up To,” Mike Allen has been praised for his dedication, passion, and unmatched ability to give a political story dimension and context. He is the co-founder and executive editor of Axios, a new company delivering news and insights on politics, business, media, and tech. Allen was a co-founder at POLITICO, the digital media company that upended and revolutionized political and policy journalism in Washington, New York, and Europe. He served as POLITICO chief White House correspondent and won the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Merriman Smith Memorial Award for “Outstanding presidential coverage on deadline” in 2004.

Allen, this luncheon event’s speaker in 2013, also was the founding father of the successful daily email tip-sheet Playbook – which rapidly became the early-morning must read source for movers and shakers in politics and media. Vanity Fair, which said, “Reading Playbook is as close as you can come on a Washington morning to knowing everything,” named Allen to its 2017 “New Establishment List,” an annual compilation of industry titans. Allen also is the creator of the daily newsletter, Morning Money, which gives readers insight into the intersection of Washington and Wall Street, and has co-authored of two e-books focusing on the 2012 presidential campaign -- Politico Playbook 2012: The Right Fights Back and Inside the Circus: Romney, Santorum and the GOP Race.

Tickets are $60 per person.

Sponsored by

Bayer CropScience

 

Prayer Breakfast with Dr. Paul Pettit

Sunday, February 11, 8:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m.
Texas Ballroom EF

Start your day with a refreshing of heart, mind and spirit at the National Cotton Council’s 42^nd annual Prayer Breakfast. Dr. Paul Pettit, a former sportscaster and current seminary professor, will offer an inspirational message. Born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, Dr. Pettit currently teaches in the Department of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary where he also serves as director of Placement. He speaks to numerous organizations and has authored multiple books. A graduate of the University of Kansas and the Moody Bible Institute’s Advanced Studies Program, Dr. Pettit also has earned Master of Theology and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Pamela, and their five children live in Rockwall, Texas, where they are actively involved in their church.

Tickets are $40 per person.

 

Address at the General Session

The Honorable Ted McKinney
USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs

Sunday, February 11, 2018, 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Texas Ballroom EF

In October 2017, Ted McKinney was confirmed by the Senate to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs – the first holder of that post since it was created by Congress in 2014. When nominated by President Trump a few months earlier, McKinney was serving as director of the Indiana Department of Agriculture. He also was serving as director of Agribusiness Economic Development for the state’s Economic Development Corporation. Previously, he spent 14 years with Elanco, where he was director of Global Corporate Affairs after having worked 19 years with Dow AgroSciences. Raised on a family farm in Tipton, Indiana, McKinney has held prominent positions with the Indiana Future Farmers of America and the Indiana 4-H Foundation. He earned a B.A. in agricultural economics from Purdue University where he received the G.A. Ross Award as the outstanding senior male graduate. McKinney and his wife, Julie, have three children.

In November 2017, Under Secretary McKinney traveled to India on his first international trade mission and later went to Colombia and Panama to highlight the mutual benefits of the United States’ free trade agreements with both countries.

General Session sponsored by

Dow AgroSciences

Farm Credit

 

Video Presentation at the General Session

The Honorable John Cornyn (R-TX)
U.S. Senate

Sunday, February 11, 2018, 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Texas Ballroom EF

Senator John Cornyn has served the people of Texas for the last three decades, first as a district judge and later as a member of the Texas Supreme Court and Texas Attorney General before being elected in 2002 to the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate. During that time, the San Antonio native has earned a national reputation as an articulate and powerful voice for Texas and conservative values in Washington. Senator Cornyn serves as the Majority Whip and on the Senate Committees for Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary. He received his undergraduate degree from Trinity University, his law degree from St. Mary’s School of Law, and his LLM from the University of Virginia Law School. The Senator married his wife, Sandy, in 1979, and they have two grown daughters. 

General Session sponsored by

Dow AgroSciences

Farm Credit