37th Annual Almond Industry Conference
Modesto, Dec. 9–10

Dear Industry Members,

The 37th Annual Almond Industry Conference is right around the corner! This year's conference focuses on Driving Value through Innovation, which is really at the heart of all of our efforts, especially as the industry works into larger crops and looks for ways to increase grower returns on each pound of California Almonds. This innovative spirit permeates the conference agenda, exhibits and ambiance, highlighting the potential for greater reward based on creating new uses and applications for the unique characteristics of each variety of California Almonds. Clearly, one of our industry's strengths lies in the diversity of the varieties that we produce.

Conference planning has been under way throughout the year and, once again, ABC staff has pulled together a wide variety of industry topics to be presented, discussed and debated during the two days we will be assembled. Virtually all of the invited speakers have confirmed their attendance and they promise to enhance the quality of the proceedings. I invite you to review the conference agenda and meeting details by visiting the ABC's conference Web site.

The two mealtime keynote speakers this year will, no doubt, provide attendees with a lot to ponder! Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes magazine, will return after his appearance at last year's conference to follow up where he left off on predicting what the Obama administration and Congress would accomplish during 2009. And, the great adventurer, Bear Grylls, will share with us his experiences which have involved driving survival through innovation as he has had to land on his feet in the most precarious of situations around the world.

We are once again looking forward to achieving a record attendance and are extremely grateful to the conference's metal sponsors, who contribute in a very significant way to offsetting conference expenses—BASF, the Chemical Company—Platinum; Jose Borrell—Gold; Bayer Crop Science—Silver; JackRabbit—Bronze; and Satake—Copper.

Registration for the conference is complimentary so be sure to sign up at your earliest convenience.

I'm looking forward to seeing you on Dec. 9 and 10 when we'll work together to determine how to drive more value through innovation in this great industry.

Sincerely,

Richard Waycott
President and CEO
Almond Board of California