CoBank presents its 2018 Central Customer Meeting
An Outstanding Program
CoBank’s 2018 Central Customer Meeting will feature presentations from leading experts on the economy, the mid-term elections and political environment, business leadership, and other important topics and trends. Our program is designed to provide directors and managers valuable knowledge, insight and information they can use every day in both their business and personal lives.
Speakers
Tom Halverson ~ President and Chief Executive Officer, CoBank
Charlie Cook ~ Editor and Publisher, The Cook Political Report
Jim Lovell ~ Former NASA Astronaut and Commander of the Apollo 13 Mission
Susan O'Malley ~ Former President, Washington Sports and Entertainment
Marci Rossell ~ Economist
Who will benefit
We welcome managers and directors of all CoBank customer and partner organizations, including:
- Agricultural cooperatives and other agribusiness enterprises
- Rural electric cooperatives
- Rural water companies
- Rural communications service providers
- Farm Credit System banks and associations
Additional Information
Please click on the registration tab to access our online registration site. There is no charge to attend the conference beyond your travel and hotel expenses. Please review this section carefully in regard to the registration and cancellation policies.
Be sure to make your hotel reservation as soon as possible to ensure availability. Please click on the hotel tab for additional information on making your hotel reservation. Please also review this section carefully for hotel reservation and cancellation policies.
For further information, contact CoBank’s Corporate Communications Division at 303-740-6442 or by email at corp.comm@cobank.com.
Dress code for this meeting is business casual. You may wish to wear a jacket for dinner, but ties are not required.
Speakers
Our speaker program is designed to provide managers and directors from CoBank’s customer organizations with valuable insight and information they can use in their business and personal lives. Bios of speakers for the 2018 Central Customer Meeting are listed below. Following the meeting, the speaker presentations that we have permission to distribute will also be available on this page.
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Tom Halverson
President and Chief Executive Officer, CoBank
As CoBank’s president and chief executive officer, Thomas Halverson is responsible for implementing the bank’s strategic and business direction as set by the Board of Directors. Previously, he served as CoBank’s chief banking officer where he was responsible for the bank’s Agribusiness and Rural Infrastructure banking groups as well the Banking Services group and Corporate Communications. Mr. Halverson is the chairman of CoBank’s Management Executive Committee and serves as chairman and director of Farm Credit Leasing.
Prior to joining CoBank in 2013, Mr. Halverson spent more than 15 years with Goldman Sachs. He was most recently managing director and chief of staff for Goldman Sachs Bank USA, a $120 billion commercial bank subsidiary of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Prior to that he served in a variety of executive positions at the firm, including head of credit risk management for Goldman Sachs in Asia (ex-Japan) and executive director of credit risk management and advisory in London. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Halverson served as principal credit officer for country risk at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London.
Mr. Halverson earned a British Marshall Scholarship and completed a doctorate in war studies at King’s College, University of London and is a summa cum laude graduate of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Charlie Cook
Editor and Publisher, The Cook Political Report
For more than three decades, Charlie Cook has served as one of the nation’s most trusted and accurate political analysts. As publisher of The Cook Political Report, he provides election analyses and polling data on presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races.
The New York Times has called The Cook Political Report “a newsletter that both parties regard as authoritative,” and Bob Schieffer of CBS News calls it “the bible of the political community.” Mr. Cook is one of the most called-upon sources in the nation for those who want to know what is happening behind the scenes in American politics.
Mr. Cook is also a political analyst for the National Journal Group. He has served as a political analyst for NBC News, and his balanced, nonpartisan insights also have been featured on ABC, CBS, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN and National Public Radio.
Jim Lovell
Former NASA Astronaut and Commander of the Apollo 13 Mission
A great American hero, astronaut Jim Lovell is most famous for his role in the American space age and for his calm and careful command of Apollo 13. Capt. Lovell stoically articulated the five-word message, “Houston, we have a problem,” which quickly became a part of the American lexicon. Through teamwork and decisive leadership, he and his crew modified the lunar module into an effective lifeboat to safely return to Earth. As captain, he was instantly transformed into a national hero.
For his courageous spirit, Capt. Lovell was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and his pioneering role was immortalized by Tom Hanks in the blockbuster film “Apollo 13.” Earlier in his career, he was named Time’s Man of the Year after his Apollo 8 mission became the first manned mission to orbit the moon.
Capt. Lovell is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, the University of Southern California’s Aviation Safety School, and the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He has earned many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, two Navy Distinguished Flying Crosses, and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Today, he is the owner of Lovell Communications, a business devoted to disseminating information about the U.S. space program.
Susan O'Malley
Former President, Washington Sports and Entertainment
Susan O’Malley became the first female president of a professional sports franchise when she took the helm of Washington Sports and Entertainment, which runs the NBA’s Washington Bullets (now Wizards), in 1991. During her tenure, her ground-breaking business ideas and proactive approach to customer service brought her – and WSE – to the top of the sports business world.
Under Ms. O’Malley’s guidance, the company improved both its bottom line and its winning percentage. In her first season handling off-court activities, the team experienced the largest ticket revenue increase in the history of an NBA franchise. The 2005–2006 Wizards season saw the franchise tally 14 sellouts, averaging over 17,000 fans per game en route to their second consecutive trip to the NBA playoffs. Her accomplishments also include innovative marketing and customer service initiatives that are still in use today.
After leaving Washington Sports and Entertainment, Ms. O’Malley earned her law degree from Georgetown University, where she also taught a sports business marketing class and was awarded the Adjunct Professor of the Year Award. She served as St. Joseph’s University’s first sports marketing professor and is currently a full-time faculty member at the University of South Carolina. She is also a consultant with the Sports and Entertainment Company (Sports-EntCo).
Economist Marci Rossell has a unique ability to take complex financial issues and make them relevant to people’s lives, families and careers.
Now the chief economist for Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, Ms. Rossell is best known for the time she spent in broadcast television as chief economist for CNBC. She has also served as a corporate economist and investment spokesperson for Oppenheimer Funds, one of the nation’s largest mutual fund companies. She began her career as an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Ms. Rossell earned a doctorate in economics from Southern Methodist University, where she was also named Young Alumni of the Year in 2002.
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Registration
Please register as soon as possible for the 2018 Central Customer Meeting. There is no charge to attend CoBank’s meeting or meals beyond your travel and hotel expenses. To register, please use this link to our Online Registration Form. Simply fill in the requested personal information and complete the agenda page by selecting the events in which you plan to participate.
If you are registering on behalf of another individual, please make sure to use their email address when completing the form so that their registration information will be unique. Only one registrant per unique email address will be allowed. There will be an opportunity for you to add your information in as well so that you will receive copies of the confirmation details.
Registration Policy
Each attendee is welcome to register one spouse or adult guest to attend the meal functions of the meeting, including the welcome dinner with guest speaker, Jim Lovell. To make this process easier, you can add your guest as part of your registration by simply clicking on the box that says, “I plan to bring a guest” and then provide his/her personal information as requested. Please be sure to correctly indicate the number of attendees for each meal function with the drop-down choices.
Please note that due to space constraints, only one adult guest per invited attendee can be included and pre-registration is required. Thank you for your consideration so that we may accommodate all our customers who would like to attend.
If you are registering more than one person from your organization, click on “Add Another Person” and complete their information and agenda as well.
Once you have completed the information for all registrants, be sure to click on “Finish my Registration” in order to finalize your attendance at the meeting. Once you have completed this process, you will receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive a confirmation email, your registration is incomplete. Please contact CoBank’s Corporate Communications Department at 303-740-6442 or by email at corp.comm@cobank.com for assistance.
Cancellation Policy
If you / your guest are unable to attend the meeting, it is required that you cancel your online registration a minimum of 3 business days prior to the start date of the meeting. To cancel, use the link in your email registration confirmation to change or cancel your registration record. Or you can simply send notice of cancellation to corp.comm@cobank.com. Thank you for your courtesy in this regard as late cancellations and no-shows represent a significant cost to CoBank.
Hotel
Bloomington-Normal Marriott
201 Broadway Avenue
Normal, Illinois 61761
309-862-9000
The meeting will be held at the Bloomington-Normal Marriott. CoBank is holding a room block at the Marriott as well as at two other area hotels for the conference: Hyatt Place Bloomington, across the street from the Marriott, and the Hampton Inn and Suites. Please see below for reservation and cancellation details for each property.
CoBank respectfully requests that you be considerate of all our customers when reserving hotel rooms at our conference hotels. Please make reservations only for confirmed, registered meeting attendees rather than reserving a large block of rooms for potential attendees. While we understand that you want to ensure space for your board and management teams, this practice creates artificial sell-out situations and prevents other customers from staying at the conference hotel. Additionally, please cancel rooms you will not use as soon as possible to make space for others who are on a waiting list to get in.
Bloomington-Normal Marriott is located at 201 Broadway Avenue, Normal, IL 61761. To make your hotel reservation online, please use this link to the hotel’s reservation system. Or, if you prefer, call the Marriott reservations at 1-888-236-2427. Mention your CoBank affiliation to receive the preferred room rate of $139. The number of rooms available at this rate is limited, so please make your reservation as soon as possible. For each reservation, a deposit of one night’s room and tax will be required. After the reservation deadline of February 22, 2018, the group rate will no longer be available. For more information, please click here to visit the hotel website.
Check in time is 3:00 p.m. / Check out time is 12:00 p.m.
Please note: If you need to cancel your reservation at the Marriott, please do so 7 days prior to arrival date to avoid cancellation charges.
Hyatt Place Bloomington-Normal is located at 200 Broadway Avenue, Normal, IL 61761, across the street from the conference hotel. To make your hotel reservation online, please use this link to the hotel’s reservation system and enter the group code G-COBA to get the group rate. Or, if you prefer, call the hotel at 888-492-8847. Mention your CoBank affiliation to receive the preferred room rate of $139. Please make your reservation before the reservation deadline of February 7, 2018. For more information about the Hyatt Place Bloomington-Normal, please click here to visit the hotel website.
Check in time is 3:00 p.m. / Check out time is 12:00 p.m.
Please note: If you need to cancel your reservation at the Hyatt Place, please do so 24 hours prior to arrival to avoid cancellation charges.
Hampton Inn and Suites, Bloomington/Normal, is located at 320 S. Towanda Avenue, Normal, IL 61761. To make your hotel reservation, please call the Hampton Inn at 309-452-8900. Mention your CoBank affiliation to receive the preferred room rate of $131. Reservations must be made by March 1, 2018. For more information, please click here to visit the hotel website.
Shuttle service will be provided between the Hampton Inn and the Marriott for conference attendees.
Please note: If you need to cancel your reservation at the Hampton Inn, please do so 48 hours prior to arrival date to avoid cancellation charges.
Check in time at all three hotels is 4:00 p.m. / Check out time is 11:00 a.m.
Parking: At the Marriott, hotel garage parking will be free for conference attendees, and the gates will be raised at the conclusion of the dinner and meeting events. If you need to depart at a different time, please ask for a parking pass at the CoBank registration table on the day of the meeting. Valet parking is available at a rate of $10 per day or $15 overnight. Complimentary self-parking is available at the Hampton Inn and the Hyatt Place Hotel.
Attendee List
Please click on this link for a downloadable list of registered attendees for the meeting.