Jan. 16 – 20, 2006

Join no more than 60 of your NAFDMA friends on our inaugural PhD Cruise. This post-conference excursion is designed specifically for “Pretty highly Advanced” agritourism and farm direct marketing businesses. It’s organized for you to spend quality time learning new management techniques, sharing details in small group settings and tweaking your own business strategies for better success. It’s all in an informal facilitated meeting environment directly with your closest peers. And you also get to enjoy a four-day cruise to Mexico!

This school at sea is what so many advanced members have been asking for – excitement and value. It gives you the opportunity to hold intensive discussions in a fun and private setting while leaving the details and decisions of travel to someone else. You can concentrate on getting the most out of NAFDMA’s best asset, and highest rated benefit, networking with other NAFDMA members.

You’ll depart the Austin Hyatt Regency on a specially chartered NAFDMA motor coach on Monday morning, Jan. 16. Your NAFDMA tour guide will provide all the information you’ll need on route. Then you arrive in Galveston, where you’ll board the Splendour of the Seas, a ship of the Royal Caribbean International Cruise Company.

The crew of the Splendour of the Seas will tend to all your cruise needs. Meanwhile, expert facilitators among us, including Mark Saunders, Brent Warner, Charlie Touchette and others, will take turns keeping the discussion on track and directed to ensure this learning opportunity is second to none. It takes previous NAFDMA discussions to the next level. Topics will touch upon financial management, employee relations, group activities, and related business subjects. Be prepared to be brutally honest with your peers—and also with yourself as you delve deeper into topics than you ever have before. It’s a small group by NAFDMA standards. And this post-conference excursion is all about a customized approach to the NAFDMA way of learning and fellowship.

Finally, by joining as a cruiser, you’ll be in the inaugural group of a newly developing NAFDMA Virtual Management Club. On the last day of the cruise, we’ll unveil an interactive advanced management learning tool. With this, you can participate voluntarily for the next full year. You’ll cluster into one of three pods with up to 20 other people, plug key numbers into a data base such as total payroll, advertising dollars spent, earnings from detailed enterprises, etc., and then share in comparative analysis to see how you rate, where you can improve, and whom to speak with because their numbers are awesome in a different category than you excel.

The all-inclusive package price of $995 per person is based on double occupancy and a scenic Ocean View Room. It includes the tour, the bus transportation, gratuities, taxes, meals, drinks, fellowship, materials and a year subscription to the NAFDMA Virtual Management Club.

The excitement is in the cruise. The value is in what you’ll bring home.