Scenes from the USW 2019 World Staff Conference
More than 90 U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) staff, stakeholders and customers recently came together in Barcelona, Spain, at what USW President Vince Peterson called the best World Staff Conference (WSC) the organization has held in many years.
The conferences provide a rare but valuable opportunity for USW overseas and domestic staff to meet in person and share challenges and opportunities associated with the organization’s mission to develop, maintain and expand international markets to enhance wheat’s profitability for U.S. wheat producers and its value for their customers.
The 2019 conference included general sessions with all participants and breakout sessions focused on “Proving the Value of U.S. Wheat.” To help bring that theme to life, USW offices brought local wheat foods to share with participants. In addition, many of the sessions also examined and celebrated the significant contribution of veteran USW staff (including special recognition for colleagues who will be retiring in the relatively near future) and welcomed the next generation of people working on behalf of U.S. wheat farmers.
USW wishes to thank the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service for their support of the 2019 WSC and our ongoing work around the world. And we thank our state wheat commission members, our board of directors and many presenters from outside the organization for their contribution to the conference.
In addition to the group photo at the top of this page, here are several scenes from the conference.
Barcelona provided a wonderful backdrop to three full days of activity and learning at the USW 2019 WSC.
Joao Amorin Faria of Cerealis Internacional, Portugal, adds a note of humor to his general session presentation on the wheat performance needs of end use customers at the 2019 WSC.
USW Regional Technical Director Peter Lloyd shares his respected knowledge with participants in a breakout session focused on identifying competitive advantages of U.S. wheat.
The wide range of wheat foods produced using at least some portion of flour from U.S. wheat classes shown here and below added a tasty perspective on the presentations and discussions from the 2019 USW World Staff Conference.
