The National Onion Association’s Summer Convention opened yesterday evening here at the Sheraton at the Falls in Niagara Falls, NY, and will continue through Saturday, July 16, with a full slate of educational sessions, tours, the Friday night banquet and, of course, plenty of time to network and talk onions.
This morning’s (Thursday, July 14, and we’re up early to bring this newsletter to you!) breakfast is followed by Committee Meetings from 8:30-10 a.m. Be advised that the Promotions Committee is set to meet at 8 a.m.
Later today you are welcome to attend the Trustees Meeting from 10:15-11:30 a.m., and lunch will run from noon to 1 p.m., followed by the General Session and Educational Presentations. Among the topics to be covered are trends, challenges and public relations program updates. Speakers will explain some of the current political realities, looking at election-year maneuvers and immigration reform, as well as regulatory matters, including the FSMA rules and how implementation is likely to affect the onion industry and any possible policy shift within the EPA.
From 4-6 p.m. a special guided walking tour will leave the hotel for Prospect Point in Niagara Falls State Park, where you’ll take the elevator down to board the boats for the scenic “Maid of the Mist” tour on river below American and Canadian Falls. That is followed from 7-9 p.m. by a “food tour” at the Atrium of the Niagara Falls Culinary Institute.
Tomorrow morning kicks off with a Top of the Falls guided walking tour for spouses and friends. Convention attendees will be given a combined Agriculture/Attractions Tour, with buses leaving at 7 a.m. and breakfast served in Elba, NY. The scheduled stops include a family business focused on onion harvesting and packing equipment, then move on to a packing facility that will be preparing early transplant onions for market.
The tour will also take in an onion farm in the famed New York muck lands, with lunch at the Erie Canal in Gasport. That’s the site of an onion sorting and packaging equipment company.
Friday afternoon activities are great –white water jet boat through Class V rapids or a tour of Old Fort Niagara. And the Banquet Reception is Friday evening, starting at 7 p.m., followed by the Banquet at 7:45.
Saturday brings the Closing Breakfast Meeting and Crop Reports.
Feel free to contact us in Niagara Falls — call or text Sherise Jones at 208-741-2381, or email her at sherise@onionbusiness.com
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