January 2010

Welcome to 2010 By Tim Hodson

In early December, we found out that GPN had won a 2009 Gold Eddie Award. The September 2008 issue of GPN was selected as the best single issue in the "Business to Business: Agriculture/Farming" category.

You're probably wondering, "What the heck is an Eddie Award?" Well, let me tell you.

The Eddie Awards competition is kind of like the Olympics for publishing professionals, where similar magazines compete to be the best in their category. The awards program is presented by Folio: magazine, the publication for people who produce magazines. It is the largest awards competition in the publishing industry.

According to Folio: General Manager Tony Silber, "The Eddies distinguish excellence in editorial work, and unlike other [magazine] industry competitions, publications compete with relevant peers in 35 market-specific categories."

This year's Folio: awards competition drew more than 2,000 entries that were evaluated by a judging panel made up of more than 65 publishing experts. These judges deemed GPN as the best in class and awarded us the gold for 2009.

Winning the Eddie Award is a nice accolade, but I'd like to think it just reaffirms that we are fulfilling our editorial mission by producing the best publication possible with the information our readers need to do their job better and be successful.

What a Year

2009 was a very good year for GPN. The Eddie Award was our second award for editorial excellence: In July, right after OFA Short Course, that same issue (September 2008) also won a 2009 Tabbie Award for Best Single Issue. Similar to the Eddie Awards, the Tabbie Awards — the nickname for Trade Association and Business Publications International (TABPI) — recognize a publication's overall editorial and design quality. The organization received more than 500 submissions from around the world this year, and this is the third time in five years that GPN has won a Tabbie.

'Leadership in the Recovery'

If you are a large commercial grower serving the mass merchants, and you're looking for the latest strategies for dealing with the challenging economy and the demands of big box retailers, consider this your invitation to the 2010 Big Grower Executive Summit: "Leadership in the Recovery." It is the only industry conference dedicated to big grower business strategies and is designed to be a forum for new perspectives and solutions for large growers (with a growing space of at least 250,000 square feet).

The Executive Summit will convene the week of Feb. 21 in Tampa, Fla. For more information, check out the January issue of GPN's Big Grower at www.biggrower.com.