Agriculture Keynote Speaker
Agriculture audiences can smell a tourist. Speakers who learned about farming from a briefing document get polite applause and no follow-up. Vance's standing in ag rooms was earned the hard way: he took the stage for the most criticized company in agriculture and chose to engage critics face to face instead of hiding behind press releases. In 2018 he interviewed Dr. Jordan Peterson on the main stage of the American Farm Bureau Federation convention.
His keynotes land where agriculture actually lives right now: consolidation and succession, public skepticism of technology, rebuilding trust with consumers, keeping co-op members engaged, and communicating through economic uncertainty. Farm Credit associations, commodity groups, co-op annual meetings, and ag lender conferences book him because the material comes from their world, not a business-book anthology.
Keynote themes for agriculture audiences
Winning community trust when your industry is under attack. Farm transitions and the succession conversations families avoid until it is too late. Escaping groupthink inside tight-knit rural communities. Engaging your critics instead of retreating. Communicating through economic uncertainty. Each keynote is adjusted to the room: producers, lenders, boards, or mixed memberships.
Beyond the keynote
Organizations that want the skills installed, not just demonstrated, send leaders to the three-day Interest-Based Communication course in St. Louis, and families preserving their story record Legacy Interviews. The keynote is often where both begin.
Common questions
- Has he actually worked in agriculture?
- Yes. Director of Millennial Engagement at Monsanto, board of directors at FCS Financial (Farm Credit), and hundreds of podcast conversations with farmers, ranchers, and ag economists. This is his home industry.
- Does he do co-op annual meetings and member events?
- Yes, frequently. Annual meetings, young leader programs, lender conferences, and commodity group conventions are his most common rooms.
- What does the audience leave with?
- Named techniques they can use the next morning: how to talk to a skeptical neighbor, a worried member, or the next generation at the kitchen table.