Fox News’ Bret Baier, host of Special Report with Bret Baier and Fox News’ chief political anchor, headlined NCC’s 69th Annual Conference this week. Click through to see photos.
Bret Baier currently serves as anchor and executive editor on the “Special Report with Bret Baier,” the top-rated cable news program in its timeslot and consistently one of the top five shows in cable news. His political coverage over the years has made him one of the most trusted journalists in the past decade. For his outstanding work, he received the Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.
Baier’s extensive reporting experience as former chief White House and national security correspondent brought him through the halls of the Pentagon, to the war fields of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as to the campaign trails of elections past and present. As the anchor of the “must-see” daily program for political news, Baier has traveled the world with various administrations and military officials and reported from 74 countries.
Baier is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including three history books as part of his “Three Days” series, and his most recent book “To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment,” which was released in October 2023.
The National Chicken Council is most grateful for BMO Bank’s continued sponsorship of the keynote speaker at the Annual Conference.
Fox News’ Bret Baier addressing the audience
In addition to Baier, NCC had a full slate of speakers covering topics from artificial intelligence to geopolitics to election forecasting.
Joining Baier were artificial intelligence speakers Andrew Busch, who focused on the future of the U.S. economy and AI’s role in it as well as Hana Bieliauskas, Senior Vice President and Partner at Inspire PR Group, who focused specifically on how AI could transform brands within the chicken industry.
Andrew Busch kicking off the conference
Hana Bieliauskas giving a presentation focused on artificial intelligence
Dr. Evan Feigenbaum, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also joined the program to give an outlook on the current geopolitical landscape and trends in world political economies and security dynamics.
A distinguished academic and practitioner, Dr. Feigenbaum holds a Ph.D in Chinese politics from Stanford University and has served in high-level government roles, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia and Central Asia during the Bush Administration. He has been a trusted advisor to Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice and played a pivotal role in major diplomatic negotiations with countries such as India and Kazakhstan.
Scott Rasmussen, founder of ESPN and now president of RMG Research, a leader in political polling and research, also joined the conference to give insights into the 2024 election and upcoming 119th Congress.
In 1978, the then-new technology of satellite communications dramatically reduced the cost of sending a broadcast signal around the nation. Building upon that opportunity, Scott and his father, Bill, founded ESPN, the cable sports network.
Scott launched his first website in 1994 and became the first pollster to offer data directly to the public rather than filtered through a network reporter. It was also at that time that Scott saw the potential for the concept of automated polling and ultimately revolutionized the polling industry. That led the Washington Post to call Scott “a driving force in American politics.” The Wall Street Journal described him as a “key player in the contact sport of politics.”
The National Chicken Council is most grateful for CJ America’s sponsorship of Rasmussen’s presentation at the Annual Conference.
Rounding out the program was Leslie Sarasin, President and CEO of FMI, The Food Industry Association, who provided an update on building trust through transparency in the food supply chain. Prior to FMI, Sarasin spent nearly 20 years at the American Frozen Food Institute, serving as president and CEO, as well as various positions at other associations.
