The Texas Plant Protection Association hosted its 31^st annual conference at Bryan. This year's theme, "Artificial Intelligence's Impact on Texas Agriculture," brought in guest speakers from Microsoft, Ceres Imaging, Texas A&M University and Blue River Technology to discuss everything from AI to thermal imaging to remote sensing to big data and how it relates to agriculture.

Rapid-fire sessions were also held on topics ranging from new technology and chemistry to fertility management to grain and cotton to ag technology, horticulture and pasture and rangeland.

The Brazos Center Exhibit Hall was filled with ag business booths and the center aisle lined with graduate students with their poster submissions for the Poster Contest featuring their research.

On Day 2 of the event, an awards luncheon was held and the annual "Christmas in Texas" poem given by long-time TPPA member Barron Rector. (If you've never heard him recite this, it's worth the price of admission!)

After presenting the organization's awards including, the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award to Juan Landivar and the Ray Smith Leadership Award to Gary Schwarzlose, TPPA founder Ray Smith thanked his board, outgoing President Clark Neely and conference participants for attending.

"We've got record numbers this year," Smith says. "We continue to grow, and your participation makes this great. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn’t be here. We'll continue to give you good information, good programs and keep this going. Thirty-one years, guys. Thirty-one years."

The luncheon concluded with a changing of the guard. "The way we do it in this organization is every officer moves up a notch," says Smith. And then looking at Neely he said, "This guy right here, commuted a long way. Next year, we've got another commuter from Lubbock but not from Washington State. And we really appreciate Neely's work in keeping this together and making it work."

(Neely, formerly with Texas A&M, took a job last year with Washington State but still chose to fulfill his duties with TPPA.)

After receiving a plaque, Neely handed the gavel to incoming President Adam Hixon.

"I want to extend my appreciation to Ray, Bob and the board for giving me the opportunity to do this," he says. Hixon, a technical service representative for BASF, will serve as president for a year.

Take a look at the photo gallery from the two-day event.