The 2015 USA Rice Outlook Conference attracted record attendance as producers and other industry members traveled to New Orleans to learn about new developments in technology and the market outlook for 2016.

The preliminary attendance figure for this year's conference was 925, which exceeds the previous record of 857 set in Las Vegas, Nev., a number of years ago. The final attendance figure will be released at a later date.

Growers also heard decidedly differing views on the 2016 president race as husband-and-wife-keynote speakers James Carville and Mary Matalin discussed the 2016 presidential election. The political “odd couple” – Matalin is a Republican and Carville a Democrat – gave their take on the 2016 race.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in American politics,” said Carville when asked by Brian King of Ritter Grain Services, Marked Tree, Ark., about the large field of candidates vying for the presidency. King moderated the discussion.

“This is unprecedented - you could field two baseball teams,” Matalin said. “We have produced a field that is uncharted territory.”

Attendees also heard from Jim Wiesemeyer, senior vice president with Informa Economics, who included some discussion of the 2016 elections in his Washington Outlook presentation at the conference.

Here are some photos from this year’s event.

For more on the USA Rice Federation and the USA Rice Outlook Conference, visit http://usarice.com/.