By René Hardwick, National Onion Association Director of Public and Industry Relations
It’s 2021. Do you see your shadow?
Having been cooped up for the better part of the year, we hope you will join the National Onion Association in Nashville, Tennessee, this summer.
That’s right, we’re getting a do-over.
We’re going to spend four great days in the Music City, with lots of people needing to get out and mingle, have a little fun and do a little business.
Now, we tried the online thing. And we learned a few lessons. First, online meetings may be the next best thing, but tell us the truth. Were you even engaged in the last Zoom meeting you were in, or were you checking emails like many others, hoping to get a little work done while you listened? The energy of human interaction just isn’t there.
The NOA’s summer online convention attracted roughly half of the people we normally get the pleasure of visiting with each summer. And our online summer auction was a pretty good one this year, even though it was held in cyberspace. In fact, we had some of the best donations we’ve ever had, such as an onion lifter by Top Air Inc., a south Texas deer hunt by Fox Packaging and a great getaway on Lake Ontario, complete with a day fishing charter, by Torrey Farms in New York. But without the energy that comes alive in person, the auction was more of a sales event, rather than an event with a little entertainment complete with great bidding wars.
We can say we made a little lemonade out of the 2020 lemons, but it is time to get back to business and allow our members to engage while possibly enjoying a Bushwacker at a honkytonk down Broadway.
We’re bringing back Austin Booker for our annual summer auction, which benefits the promotions fund. We’re getting some interest in big donations this year again from Top Air Inc., which earned our Promotions Champion award last year for its donation of an onion lifter. We’d encourage others in the industry to think of ways they can donate to help this auction raise money for, frankly, an amazing cause: marketing onions across the nation. All of your marketing dollars go toward putting onions in the spotlight with great recipes and promotions to get in front of a lot of people. And that doesn’t come cheap.
Donations and fundraising for the promotions fund was down considerably in 2020, and we need to make up for it in 2021 while we explore new ways to keep onions as a healthy part of people’s meals and take advantage of a new culture of cooking at home. This auction is open for anyone to donate. If you feel strongly about supporting onion promotions, your donation will be accepted. Only members will be bidding on items at the convention, so you can count on your donation being picked up by someone in your industry.
As of this writing, the agenda has not yet been set, but rest assured, our Executive Vice President, Greg Yielding, will be busy drumming up speakers for good discussions about hot political topics in the industry.
If you’re not a member, consider joining. The National Onion Association is serious about making onions a part of the conversation that deals with ag-related policymaking. You may attend our conventions as a non-member, as long as a current member sponsors you. Feel free to call our office in Colorado to ask any questions: (970) 353-5895.
Our convention this year will be July 14-17 at the Hilton Garden Inn downtown. Check our website often at www.onions-usa.org for rates and the agenda.
