With less than two days until Christmas, it&rsquo;s more likely that you&rsquo;re reading this blog remotely from your smart phone or iPad than from your office desk. So whether you&rsquo;re waiting to board a flight, sitting in a shopping mall food court crossing names off your gift list, or at home sipping eggnog by the fireplace, I wish you a Happy Holidays and thank you for reading Ethanol Producer Magazine&mdash;in print and online&mdash;in 2013.
I&rsquo;ll save my New Year&rsquo;s hopes (and resolutions) for next week and offer you one simple idea for maximizing your holiday downtime this week by purchasing something for yourself: Register and reserve your hotel room for the 2014 National Ethanol Conference (NEC). It will be one less thing you&rsquo;ll have to do when you return to the office next week.&nbsp;
With more than 1,100 attendees from 41 states and 21 countries, the NEC is the U.S. ethanol industry&rsquo;s must-attend winter event. This year&rsquo;s agenda is chock-full of vital and timely content. And if the annual &ldquo;State of the Industry Address&rdquo; from Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen isn&rsquo;t, by itself, enough to get you on a plane to Orlando, Fla., in mid-February, a host of other big-name speakers should be.&nbsp;
The NEC couldn&rsquo;t be timelier. The U.S. ethanol industry is at a crossroads. The comment period on the EPA&rsquo;s 2014 renewable volume obligation (RVO) proposal will conclude just two weeks before the event, so the fate of next year&rsquo;s contentious RVO&mdash;and the future of the U.S. renewable fuels standard&mdash;will be topic No. 1 at the show. Other issues on the NEC agenda include overcoming the blend wall, growing the international ethanol marketplace, E15 implementation and auto industry perspectives on higher ethanol blends. Panels will include speakers from Marathon Petroleum Co., Gilbarco Veeder-Root, GE, DuPont, Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines, Mercedes-Benz and many other companies.
What&rsquo;s more, the 2014 NEC is at one of my favorite conference destinations: the JW Marriott Orlando, which shares acreage with The Ritz-Carlton. In addition to great networking and meeting spaces, the JW has a terrific, family-friendly pool complex, and the hotel offers complimentary transportation to and from Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld. So think about bringing the family. The RFA has locked in specially negotiated room rates ($269/night), but you&rsquo;ve got to register for the conference before you can take advantage of it. Act soon. The deadline to reserve your room and register for the conference at the early-bird rate is just four weeks away. &nbsp;
Check out the <a href="http://www.nationalethanolconference.com/" target="_blank">NEC website</a> for more info. &nbsp;
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Put the NEC on your own gift list

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