Alumni Center helps Ag Econ department engage with community through events
As part of its mission, for teaching and extension, K-State’s Department of Agricultural Economics hosts conferences around the state of Kansas to help the agriculture industry connect with university researchers, students and others in the profession.
Rich Llewelyn ’84, ’88, ’95, an extension assistant in the Ag Econ department, is responsible for organizing these extension conferences across the state of Kansas. For Llewelyn, there isn’t a better place to host these meetings than the K-State Alumni Center.
Each year the Alumni Center is home to the Ag Lenders Conference, the Landowners Conference, and the Risk and Profit Conference for the department.
“The Alumni Center is an awesome place for all these,” he said. “I do meetings all over the state, and this is one of the easiest places I have to deal with. They're on stuff, I show up and everything's set up. And if I do need something, boom, it's there.”
These conferences range from small 40-50 people meetings to more than 150 people including breakout sessions. Llewelyn said the Alumni Center is optimal for both types of events.
Through collaborations like this, the Ag Econ department and the Alumni Association help K-State achieve its goals of being a next-generation land-grant university by reaching a broad variety of constituencies.
Llewelyn said the department has used the Alumni Center as host for these conferences for more than 20 years. The space allows alumni to reconnect with the university and for unaffiliated guests to get a feel for the university and what it has to offer. He also noted that the Alumni Center’s staff including building manager Greg Akins ’93 and event coordinator Abby Boyden, along with other Alumni Association staff members, provide a full-service approach which helps events run smoothly.
“It makes K-State look good and makes us look good,” he said. “A lot of our farmers, bankers and other participants are K-State alums from our department, as well as from other departments here at K-State. For those that aren't, like the landowners conference, it really does present K-State well. It's a great facility for meetings, and the staff do a great job.”
He added that attendees often comment how much they appreciate the K-State memorabilia and displays throughout the building and how the Center showcases K-State pride.
“Folks really get a kick out of standing up in the Tadtman Board Room and looking out on the field and watching the Marching Band practice and how hard those kids work,” he said.
The K-State Alumni Center offers meeting and banquet facilities for the community and the university, and houses the K-State Alumni Association offices. Open to the public, the Alumni Center is a representation of K-Staters’ loyalty and pride for their university. The Center is fully equipped for all types of events, from business conferences to wedding receptions. To learn more about the Alumni Center or to rent the space, visit k-state.com/rent.