Swine producers are invited to an Alltech iCast on nutrition. It’s “an online video discussion about trial data that was recently conducted by Cape Fear Consulting.” We’re seeing more and more use of video online.
You are invited to the swine nutrition iCast featuring Dr. Tommy Shipp and Dr. Walter Tibbetts from Cape Fear Consulting. Beginning May 28, 2008 at 1pm CDT, Dr. Shipp and Dr. Tibbetts will share the latest trial data and answer the question does a pig ever get over a good or a bad start.
After the iCast, stop at the Alltech booth, #217, during World Pork Expo June 6th at 10:00 a.m. to meet Dr. Shipp and Dr. Tibbetts and ask questions about the trial.
This online iCast is by invitation only. Register now!
The 2008 Alltech International Animal Health & Nutrition Symposium is over and Alltech President, Dr. Pearse Lyons, provided the final remarks.
He summed up the key concepts that were focused on at the Symposium like the greenest generation, re-defining the industry, new technologies, new business practices, having fun and being socially responsible, supporting young people and re-defining education. Then he left a take away message which was “To have a dream, to conspire with them, to let them make that dream come true.”
The show this morning was great and you can find more from it on the Alltech Symposium Blog. Here are links to some key posts there:
To add punch to the dream concept we had one final chance to hear from opera superstar Reginald Smith, Jr. from Decatur, GA.
You can hear Dr. Lyons’ concluding remarks and Reginald’s song here:
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What a blogging extravaganza this week has been. Besides all the posts on the Symposium you’ve seen here I think I posted 40 times on the Alltech Symposium Blog. I took almost 700 photos, of which over 260 made it into my photo album, did 16 YouTube video clips and I lost count of audio files that were posted (interviews/speakers).
I want to thank Dr. Pearse Lyons and all the Alltech staff for allowing me to be their Symposium blogger. I’ve learned a lot more about this company and their culture and I hope you have as well.
Here at the Alltech Symposium I did a series of video interviews with educational session speakers in addition to participants. They have all been posted to Alltech’s YouTube account.
Here’s an example of one of them with Charlie Elrod, Ithaca, NY.
This evening the Alltech Symposium ended with a series of simultaneous discussion group dinners. I went to the one on biofuels which was moderated by Dr. Mark Lyons.
Here’s my table. Prior to the general discussion we ate and talked at our individual tables. At mine we had folks from the Dominican Republic, Philippines, Korea and the United States. It was interesting to hear the perspectives on biofuels of people living in countries that don’t have our capabilities or feedstocks for conversion into fuel.
You can hear a short sound bite here of what our discussion sounded like:
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The third person on the debate team for the Alltech Greenest Generation debate was Osler Desouzart, President of OD Consulting, Brazil. He is no soft spoken, hold back his feelings kind of guy and I like that. He got asked about his thoughts on how to feed the growing population of the world.
My recorder ran out of batteries when the press conference started so I don’t have his answer to a question he was asked about the idea of people basically quitting their consumption of animals as a way to overcome the current concerns for enough grain, etc, yadda, yadda. He pretty much said that it was a “Stupid Idea.” Yeah. Economic vegetarianism? Who would even come up with such a thing?
You can listen to him answer the first question here:
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After Mike Johanns got the first question in the Alltech Greenest Generation debate it was David Byrne’s turn. He is the former EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection.
He was asked if we can capture consumer confidence on food safety and how can industry and regulators work together to achieve it. Of course he has a very significant amount of experience on this front since he was in his office at the time that BSE was an explosive issue in the EU.
You can listen to him answer the question here:
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Our former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is now running for the office of U.S. Senate and he’s still great talking about agriculture on stage.
Here he is at the Alltech Symposium. The debate was for the most part very cordial. I think Johanns did a very good job of addressing the questions and talking to the issues in a very direct way.
To give you a taste of it I’ve got his answer here to the first question from Alltech’s VP, Aidan Connolly:
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The debate session was over an hour long and followed by a press conference where the issues of food vs. fuel and farm subsidies came up again. The bottom line from all three presenters seemed to be that the market and farmers will rise to meet demand and that new technologies are here now and not off in the future. No one’s starving because of biofuels. No one will.
Right now the Alltech Symposium afternoon general session is featuring a debate with these guys pictured with Dr. Pearse Lyons (top). They are Mike Johanns, former U.S. Sec. of Ag, David Byrne, former EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection and Osler Desouzart, OD Consulting.
Afterward we’ll be visiting with them in a press conference and I’ll have more for you later.
I just finished doing Blogging 101 for the international ag media attending the Alltech Symposium.
Thanks to Liz Broomall, Alltech intern, for taking the photo. Ignore those empty chairs. The crowd was all around there and behind Liz.
I kind of rambled around on the subjects of blogging, podcasting, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. I was also very surprised to be speaking to a group where no one raised their hand to say they have a blog or a podcast! Ag media, hello, it’s a new media world.
As it turns out we did have a couple people here like Ned Arthur with Truffle Media Networks and Emmy Koeleman, All About Feed, who are getting it.
I collected everyone’s cards for a drawing and want to say congratulations to Ing. Agr. Felix Sammartino, Expoagro, who won an “I’ve Been Blogged by AgWired” t-shirt.
Now he can say that he really has been blogged.
I want to thank Alltech for the opportunity to talk about a subject I dearly love and that’s agriblogging and farm podcasting. There were some great follow questions which shows me that these folks are thinking about how their business is changing.
The man in charge of research on a worldwide basis for Alltech is Dr. Karl Dawson. He has been the guy who starts things off, like here at the press conference for the opening of the new Nutrigenomics Center and then again at the opening session.
I spoke to him after this press conference. He says the company has moved into an area that they had only dreamed about with the opening of their new research center. He says it contains an extensive analytical capability for not only product development but also quality assurance. As a company he believes the work they do there will define their future and when you talk about customizing diets for animal nutrition I think I would agree.
You can listen to the interview I did with Dr. Dawson here:
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Dr. Mark Lyons is the son of Alltech founder and President, Dr. Pearse Lyons. At the press conference yesterday he kept getting referred to as the “other Dr. Lyons.” I think he’s used to it. In fact, Mark says his sister has a PhD too.
Mark has been working on international projects for the company and will be heading up the company’s newest project to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Springfield, KY. He’s thrilled with the news the company had last Friday that they’re receiving not only a $30 million grant from the Department of Energy but an additional $8 million grant from the state of Kentucky for the project. He says this will help the company to think even bigger as they develop the facility.
You can listen to an interview I did with Mark here:
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I would dare say that Alltech is one of the most multi-media savvy companies I’ve worked with and I’m sure it’s because of the talent the company has invested in. I’m just proud to be working alongside them here in Lexington at their Symposium in my own little way.
As an example of one thing they’re doing that is just plain “cool,” is the digital signs positioned around the convention center.
In the photo you can see an avatar of a real person (Liz Broomall, Alltech intern) who greets and talks to participants as they wander around the exhibits. I’m going to try to interview her about the project later.
Post Update: I did interview Avatar Liz and you can listen to her describe the project here:
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This morning the latest video in the Alltech YouTube account is one that features highlights from the opening sessions yesterday:
One of the challenges of holding an international educational symposium is language. We wish everyone spoke English but that’s just not the case.
So here at the Alltech Symposium you’ll find very talented translators in booths at the back of each session room.
I’m not sure how many translators are working here but with separate concurrent session rooms for dairy, poultry, beef, equine and aquaculture and multiple ones needed for each, it’s quite a few.
I’m just guessing that it’s not coincidence that the theme for Alltech’s Symposium is “The Greenest Generation” and it’s Earth Day. No, couldn’t be.
But it is Earth Day and Alltech is talking a lot about sustainability, better environmental practices and feeding the world. One of those key speakers is Dr. Ronan Power, Alltech Director of Research, who received the Medal of Excellence award. He spoke at the opening general session and I interviewed him after the following press conference.
He says the award is a big honor for his whole research team and as the leader of the new Alltech Nutrigenomics Center, he says they have a great opportunity to move their research forward to a new level. You can also hear him explain the term, “Nutrigenomics.”
You can listen to my interview with Dr. Power here:
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This evening Alltech treated Symposium attendees to Kentucky Night which is far different than the formal International Dinner of last night. We’ve gone from opera to cowboy bbq and buffalo.
These are two Irish agricultural journalist friends posing in front of where the buffalo were roaming out at Alltech ranch.
The international group had some beautiful weather for Kentucky Ale and steaks and a good band.
Tomorrow it’s back to business with more seminars and and an afternoon session with a former U.S. Sec. of Ag.
The Symposium photo album has almost 200 photos in it now.
This morning we participated in a press conference after the opening general session. On stage (l-r) are Dr. Mark Lyons, who is the son of company founder Dr. Pearse Lyons, next to him, then Alltech BioScience Medal of Excellence winner, Dr. Ronan Power and Dr. Karl Dawson, Alltech Director of Worldwide Research.
For those of you who couldn’t be here to participate I thought I’d post the full press conference audio for you here. There were a lot of questions about how Alltech is accomplishing being “Green” and questions relating to how how they’re communicating their message to the public, their customers and to the regulators.
You can listen to the press conference here:
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Dr. Pearse Lyons is the founder and the President of Alltech. This is his show and it is quite a show. I’ll have more on that later.
I think I heard someone say there were less than a hundred people at the first Alltech Symposium. The fact that we’re near 1,700 here is a testament to how well marketing by education has worked for him.
Speaking at the opening general session this morning he addressed the theme of the Symposium, The Greenest Generation, head on. While a lot of people are expressing dismay and concern about the challenges of feeding the world at the same time as we reduce our impact on the environment by such things as the production of biofuels, he sees this as a time to step up to the challenge. I think it’s interesting to see how a company like Alltech handles the issue of food vs. fuel since it has customers on both sides. I like his approach to talk about how we’re going to solve things instead of worry about what might happen, “if.”
The photo is courtesy of Alltech photographer Tim Webb.
One of the fun things I’m doing here at the Alltech Symposium is a series of video “man on the street” interviews with participants. I’ve done about 6 so far, all from different countries. I started out easy with an American from Ohio by the name of John Nesbett.
There are almost 1,700 participants here at the Alltech Symposium and they all gather outside the doors before the opening general session kicks off. Then it’s a sort of rush to get to choice seats although I don’t think there’s a bad one in the facility.
I was fortunate to get inside early and took a short video clip so you can see what it’s like, especially if you’re planning on attending next year.
Swine producers are invited to an Alltech iCast on nutrition. It’s “an online video discussion about trial data that was recently conducted by Cape Fear Consulting.” We’re seeing more and more use of video online.
The 2008 Alltech International Animal Health & Nutrition Symposium is over and Alltech President, Dr. Pearse Lyons, provided the final remarks. 
To add punch to the dream concept we had one final chance to hear from opera superstar Reginald Smith, Jr. from Decatur, GA.
This evening the Alltech Symposium ended with a series of simultaneous discussion group dinners. I went to the one on biofuels which was moderated by Dr. Mark Lyons.
The third person on the debate team for the Alltech Greenest Generation debate was Osler Desouzart, President of OD Consulting, Brazil. He is no soft spoken, hold back his feelings kind of guy and I like that. He got asked about his thoughts on how to feed the growing population of the world. 
After Mike Johanns got the first question in the Alltech Greenest Generation debate it was David Byrne’s turn. He is the former EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. 
Our former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture is now running for the office of U.S. Senate and he’s still great talking about agriculture on stage.
Right now the Alltech Symposium afternoon general session is featuring a debate with these guys pictured with Dr. Pearse Lyons (top). They are Mike Johanns, former U.S. Sec. of Ag, David Byrne, former EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection and Osler Desouzart, OD Consulting.
The winner of the 
I just finished doing Blogging 101 for the international ag media attending the Alltech Symposium.
The man in charge of research on a worldwide basis for Alltech is Dr. Karl Dawson. He has been the guy who starts things off, like here at the press conference for the opening of the new Nutrigenomics Center and then again at the opening session.
Dr. Mark Lyons is the son of Alltech founder and President, Dr. Pearse Lyons. At the press conference yesterday he kept getting referred to as the “other Dr. Lyons.” I think he’s used to it. In fact, Mark says his sister has a PhD too.
I would dare say that Alltech is one of the most multi-media savvy companies I’ve worked with and I’m sure it’s because of the talent the company has invested in. I’m just proud to be working alongside them here in Lexington at their Symposium in my own little way.
One of the challenges of holding an international educational symposium is language. We wish everyone spoke English but that’s just not the case. 
I’m just guessing that it’s not coincidence that the theme for Alltech’s Symposium is “The Greenest Generation” and it’s Earth Day. No, couldn’t be.
This evening Alltech treated Symposium attendees to Kentucky Night which is far different than the formal International Dinner of last night. We’ve gone from opera to cowboy bbq and buffalo.
This morning we participated in a press conference after the opening general session. On stage (l-r) are Dr. Mark Lyons, who is the son of company founder Dr. Pearse Lyons, next to him, then Alltech BioScience Medal of Excellence winner, Dr. Ronan Power and Dr. Karl Dawson, Alltech Director of Worldwide Research.
Dr. Pearse Lyons is the founder and the President of Alltech. This is his show and it is quite a show. I’ll have more on that later.
Digital cattle news pioneer, Rob Cook, is now working for Vance Publishing after the company acquired CattleNetwork.com.
