The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) is going paperless for its 12th International Marketing Conference and 55th Annual Membership Meeting in Heredia, Costa Rica.

All meeting materials including agendas, minutes, background papers and financial reports will be available only in electronic form.

Meeting participants will be able to access USGC meeting materials through smartphones, tablets or computers but will not receive paper copies of the meeting book or supplementary documents.

Confirmation emails sent by Council staff to meeting attendees this week included instructions for downloading the materials formatted like the traditional meeting book or via the Guidebook app.

The Council encourages all participants to access the materials in their preferred formats before leaving home.

Through the Guidebook app, attendees can view the schedule, meeting agenda, speaker bios and headshots, meeting agendas, hotel map and immediate updates available in the message center. 

From there or a direct link provided in the confirmation email, meeting-goers can download documents in PDF format to print or save to mobile devices, tablets and computers.

Free wifi will be available at the meeting hotel, though accessing the materials early will allow attendees to be fully prepared and avoid any technological frustrations once they arrive in Costa Rica.

Questions on the paperless procedures can be directed to Council staff at grains@grains.org.