Anyone still sitting on the fence about whether to attend the 2017 Banff Pork Seminar, consider this:

* Best rates available for you and your family to stay in one of the world’s favourite hotels

* Easy access to world class skiing

* Beautiful mountain scenery

* Yet another opportunity to raise a glass with friends and colleagues at the late Frank Aherne’s favourite pub.

And here’s another gentle nudge: Speakers booked for the morning plenaries include advertising guru Terry O’Reilly, host of CBC’s Under the Influence and, from the World Wildlife Fund, Sandra Vijn, a director of its sustainable food team.

The session wraps up this year with a return of the dynamic duo, Steve Meyer and Kevin Grier, who will give a gloves-off presentation of their perspective on where the swine industry is heading in the months and years to come.

Meyer and Grier’s closing session replaces the Thursday afternoon Boar Pit, which invited delegates to engage with a panel of speakers on the hottest topics of the day.

“We had these two do a joint presentation a few years back and they had a chemistry that obviously hit the mark with delegates because each year we get requests to bring them back,” program co-chair Ruurd Zijlstra said in an interview with Meristem Land & Science, the official communications team for Banff Pork.

He advised people to book their travel plans to allow time for the closing plenary, to run from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Sandwiched between the morning plenaries and the closing session is a series of breakouts where delegates can get the nitty gritty from people with a wide range of expertise, including some familiar faces and some first timers.

Seminar chair Mark Chambers, who has worked his way up the ladder with Sunterra Foods, said he hopes to see the seminar continue to evolve as an important information and networking resource for producers and service providers.

“The program committee tries to keep the program current with what is happening in the industry and in the world,” Chambers told Meristem Land & Science.

“It needs to be geared to the relevancy of the industry in North America, because that’s our biggest audience, but also to cover things going around the world.”

Banff Pork Seminar, a joint venture of the University of Alberta, Alberta Pork and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, was established in 1972 as a technology transfer meeting for the pork industry.

The 2017 seminar will run in the conference centre at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Jan. 10-12.

Program details and registration are available online at www.banffpork.ca. •

— By Brenda Kossowan