This October, Farmers Mutual Hail held their first National Agent Summit. The event took place in downtown Des Moines, Iowa and brought together nearly 200 agents and FMH employees to discuss ways to innovate and elevate their businesses to success.

This three-day conference opened with TED Talk Presenter and Hall of Fame Speaker, Mike Rayburn. Mike’s high-energy performance and inspirational message set the tone for the event. The summit included seven additional keynote speakers who presented on a range of topics – everything from sales improvement to ag industry news.

Professional corporate speakers Theresa Rose and Bill Cates, along with Purdue University’s David Downey, discussed modern techniques to improve sales and target the right customer. Ag industry lobbyist Mary Kay Thatcher delivered updates on the latest farm bill and midterm election news while Iowa State University’s Steve Johnson provided insight into upcoming agriculture trends.

Keynote speakers Roland Chan and George Hartman, both with FindBob, discussed their company’s unique take on succession planning and their solution for ensuring a successful transition of business ownership. They ended by unveiling a new agency networking platform in collaboration with Farmers Mutual Hail: FMH Bridge. FMH Bridge is a web-based agency support tool designed exclusively for FMH agents to help identify growth opportunities between agencies.  

“We chose speakers who could talk about the issues that are important to our agents and to our industry,” added Johnson. “Multiple attendees commented that these topics were relevant to their business today, and they really found value in what they learned at this summit.” The event also included several new product launches, including RAMP Forward Plus and the P&C Cyber Risk Protection suite.  

Breakout sessions between speakers allowed attendees to customize their learning experience at the summit, and included topics such as grain marketing, women in business, property and casualty updates, and digital marketing. Summit attendees also had opportunities to network with one another and FMH employees throughout the event.

Sales recognition awards were presented to agents at the event. A listing of recipients will be included in the December Cloud.

“The National Agent Summit is an opportunity for Farmers Mutual Hail to showcase our commitment to the crop insurance industry and our commitment to the partnership we have with our agencies. It’s a great forum to introduce new tools and services that can elevate agencies and FMH alike,” said Johnson.

The FMH National Agent Summit will be held every three years. The next summit will be held in 2021.