Dairy Strong set for Jan. 22-23, 2020

Keynote speakers announced

Hundreds of dedicated members of the U.S. dairy community will gather again Jan. 22-23, 2020, at the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center, in Madison, Wis., for the sixth annual Dairy Strong conference.

This past January, more than 600 people from across the country listened to dynamic speakers, engaged in panel discussions and explored educational programs that focused on a wide range of issues affecting the dairy community.

 

 

Dairy Strong organizers are working hard to build content that is relevant to opportunities and challenges faced by dairy farmers today. All sessions are chosen through a public proposal process, due June 14. Topics, speakers and other exciting updates will be determined and announced in the coming months.

Four keynote speakers have already been chosen for the conference:

 

 Dr. Kate Darling will serve as the opening keynote for Dairy Strong 2020. A leading expert in robot ethics, Kate is a research specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, where she investigates social robotics and conducts research on human-robot interaction. Her work addresses the difficult questions that lawmakers, engineers and the public will need to address as human-robot relationships evolve in the coming decades. Forever interested in how technology intersects with society, Kate will draw parallels between her work and the growth of robotics in dairy.

Michael Parrish DuDell will join Dairy Strong as the evening keynote on Wed. Jan. 22. He was recently ranked as one of the most popular business authors by Amazon.com and named “one of nation’s leading Millennial voices” by IBM. He has helped some of the world’s most influential brands, including Kraft, Visa, L’Oreal, Toyota and American Express connect with millennials. Michael will talk through how the dairy community can best appeal to a new generation of customers.

Former Army Intelligence Officer, Brett Scottio will speak on Thurs. Jan 23. As the president and CEO of Aimpoint Research, Brett will fuse best practice and Intelligence disciplines with marketing research methodologies to explain the “farmer of the future”.

Decorated combat veteran and the first female Thunderbird Pilot, Colonel Nicole Malachowski (USAF, Ret.) will close the conference. Calling on stories from her career and personal life, Nicole will encourage farmers and dairy community professionals to rethink the challenges we are facing, urging us to go beyond resilience and become resurgent.

“Dairy Strong brings farmers and dairy professionals from diverse management philosophies together to coalesce around what’s important to our community – today and in the future,” said Tom Crave, a dairy farmer from Waterloo, Wis. and president of the Dairy Business Association.

Dairy Strong provides attendees the chance to listen to unique keynotes, participate in practical sessions and engage with the nation’s leading dairy suppliers on the trade show floor.

Updates and announcements about Dairy Strong can be found at dairystrong.org. Sponsorships and exhibits are also available. Registration will open September 1.