Don’t forget the National Onion Association winter convention, which is teamed for the second time with the National Allium Research Conference, is just around the corner.
Registration can be done online now through Nov. 2 at www.onions-usa. org/members/noaconventions for the Nov. 30-Dec. 3 event, which is taking place in the beautiful Hilton Savannah DeSoto Hotel. Mail-in registration is also possible, with details available on the association’s website. Later registration will be accepted, the site says. In addition to the convention registration, the site provides information for hotel accommodations at the Hilton Savannah DeSoto, with a link to online booking at http://bit.ly/2aRj0ib.
Please consult the NOA website for full registration information.
The convention’s schedule of events includes committee meetings on Wednesday, Nov. 30 and Thursday, Dec. 1, as well as technical presentations, general sessions, social networking opportunities, the annual banquet dinner and installation of officers, interactive workshops and, of course, tours of onion fields.
The Friday, Dec. 2, tours will take attendees to Bland Farms for a look at “state-of-the-art sorting equipment” as well as the receiving, packing and shipping operation for Bland’s Peruvian sweets.
The tour will also take in the UGA Extension facility and the Vidalia Onion and Vegetable Research Center as well as Generation Farms’ in-field onion transplanting procedures and early direct-seeded plant development.
As part of the NOA General Section/NARC Session II combined event on Thursday afternoon, the NOA will present industry advocacy, public relations and marketing reports, and NARC will have its feature technical presentation from producers, marketers, vendors, researchers and others who all are all “focusing on universally applicable allium industry reports, marketing and consumption trends and scientific research ‘hot topic’ presentations.”
NARC Session III will take place on Friday just preceding the Vidalia onion tour.
Saturday’s agenda includes the combined organizations’ breakfast meeting, with national and state crop reports. The NOA will adjourn at that time; NARC will hold its Session IV.
The spouse/friend program will feature tours of historical Savannah, including the Colonial Park Cemetery and lunch at The Olde Pink House & Planters Tavern, built during the 1700s and a Union Army headquarters during the Civil War.
