4th H&N Distributor Conference, Istanbul 2023

Have you ever boarded a time machine to look at your own potential future? That’s what we did at the 4th Distributor Conference. With 85 participants in total, this one was a truly special event! Starting with a welcome dinner and a special appearance of three dancing dervishes, we took a deep dive headlong into three and a half days of genetics, biosecurity and business updates with a lot of interactive collaboration. And hard partying, too!

Three external speakers contributed their insights: Luis Carrasco, founder and CEO of the agency AgriNews, spoke about achieving marketing excellence with digital marketing and social media. One thing to remember is to create regular appeal and plan social media campaigning ahead with the target audiences’ needs in mind. We called it playtime in the afternoon, introducing our special edition of a popular board game we named “Trivial Poultry” to do a quiz about marketing, genetics, business, customers and markets—and of course, the genetics of H&N International. 

“Our evening was spent on the Bosporus aboard a dining ship with music and dancers entertaining. And the second day continued to power us forward fast.

The afternoon saw us paying a visit to the two famous mosques of Istanbul: the Sultan Ahmet or Blue Mosque from the 17th century and, opposite, the Hagia Sophia that was built some 1,000 years earlier in the 6th century, with its dome often called the eighth wonder of the world. Traffic in Istanbul was against us, but boosted by energy we got off-and-on the bus again in almost no time to dress up and head for the gala party. And we certainly did some partying then!

Former director of Swiss BMILab and self-employed business coach Lutz Koegler led us through a fascinating fast-forward workshop catapulting eight small groups seven years ahead in time. What megatrends affect businesses? How can we prepare for them? How can we re-invent and develop our own business models? How can we be resilient and adaptable to future trends and market requirements all at the same time?

Creativity was one key ingredient. And it was great to see how much of it each group applied to their virtual journey to seven years from now!

This evening culminated in the gala dinner and award-giving ceremony for the best flocks of white and brown parent stock. In 2023, the “Arty”, proudly named after our founder Arthur “Art” Heisdorf, went to Agromix from the Netherlands for the best white flock parent stock. The best brown flock parent stock is—again, for the second time in a row—to be found at Cabanha Barhy, Argentina.

Recovering from a rather short and colorful night, our last half-day started with wine again: our last speaker on financial excellence knew all about the challenges and opportunities of leading a family company, establishing structures, taking decisions and creating a sense of belonging. Pedro Ruiz, CEO of the iconic Spanish winery Alma Carraovejas, led us on a fascinating journey of planting grapevines and thinking way ahead, all towards the end product that customers will enjoy only years after.

Introducing all of the many marketing tools and support we currently offer required a bit of a tour de force, as there are very many things we tried to highlight in such little time, including KAI and KAI personal trainings. KAI can turn anyone into an able staff member, yet another reason to test it and book a free demo session with one of the appointed KAI ambassadors: Dr. Pratap Rananavare, Dr. Emilio Scappaticcio or Saskia Riedel. Too fast? Rewind and check out the presentations in our campus.