Are you busy March 14th through the 19th? If you can spare a little time, there is no more productive use of that time than to head off to Ithaca, New York, and attend The United Fresh Produce Executive Development Program.
Developed in partnership with Cornell University, this is an incredible program, in which the freedom to think is nurtured by a few days on Cornell’s beautiful campus. The bonding with your classmates occurs in the fire of intellectual ferment as ideas are discussed and debated among a student body that knows an awful lot more than it did when you went to school.
There are some industry stars… this year Bruce Peterson and Steve Grinstead… but mostly the program is taught by an interdisciplinary team of ace Cornell professors, hand-selected by Ed McLaughlin, the Robert G. Tobin Professor of Marketing and Director, Undergraduate Business Program, and the dean of academics with an ear on the marketing end of the produce industry.
Now here is the thing: Unless someone drops out, there is exactly one chair left in the class of 2010 — and if you can, and you’re smart, you’ll put your name on it.
You can see some of the topics to be covered this year here.
Download a brochure here
Get general information here.
Find registration info here
And actually register here.
Oh, by the way, we’ll see you there. Since the founding of the program, we’ve been honored with an opportunity to serve on the faculty and present the “hot topic” of the year, which animates much of the other work done during the program.
In the inaugural year of the program, we focused on food safety; then we did sustainability before sustainability was cool; as the recession hit, we showed the strategic implications of a new “Age of Expediency” in the industry, and this year, well, we never reveal the topic until we actually present it in Ithaca.
So if you want to know, you better act fast — remember, unless someone cancels, there is only room for ONE more. Will that one be you?
You should try to make it so.
