The red-shirted Beef Ambassadors have been wandering the halls here at the Summer Conference. I spoke with two of them this morning, Leticia Varelas, NM (L) and Jennifer Rassler, PA. They wanted to make sure I pointed people to their blog: Raising The Steaks. I hope you’ll take some time to see what these ambassadors of the industry are doing.
In my interview they each talk about projects they’ve been involved with like:
Summer Photo Contest: So, our mission for you is to capture those little moments of you washing your animal, leading him around, or how well you take care of them. Let your photo show how your involvement with the beef cattle production project really encourages you to be aware of animal welfare. So what we want from you is your best photo. Send it in to us at our email, which is raisingthesteaks@gmail.com. Feel free to include a caption about your picture. The contest deadline is October 1st, so you’re sure to have the perfect moment for a picture. Be sure to include an email adress where we can contact you. Photos will be judged, and a winner notified. Check back for more details as we get this contest rolling.
Penn State Blood Drive: Jennifer says they held a blood drive that had the slogan, “Beef, It’s What’s For Donors.” They fed donors hamburgers and gave them t-shirts too. She says it was the biggest blood drive they’ve ever held.
YouTube Videos: Both of these ambassadors produced YouTube videos for Earth Day to showcase the positive things farmers do for the environment. You can find Leticia’s video here and Jennifer’s video here.
Listen to my interview with Leticia and Jennifer here:
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Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album
The Agricultural Relations Council announced the winners of their 2007 ARC of Excellence Scholarship Program today and two of the recipients were in attendance to receive them.
First of all we have Melissa Leander, Kansas State, pictured here with ARC president Bob Giblin.
They’ll receive $500 each from the organization.
The next recipient is Katie Allen, University of Missouri.
She was here with her Dad but I couldn’t talk him into getting into the picture.
Not attending today is Jill Goetz, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
In addition to handing out the scholarships we got an update on the Golden ARC Awards which will be returning to life this fall. More information on them will be forthcoming.
2007 Ag Media Summit Photo Album
AgWired coverage of the Ag Media Summit
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Hello professional agricultural public relations people. If you’re going to be in Louisville for the Ag Media Summit (where all the cool people will be) then you need this on your calendar.
Mark your calendars now!
Agricultural Relations Council Breakfast at Ag Media Summit
Tuesday, July 31, 7 – 8:30 a.m., Marriott Louisville Downtown
Stay tuned for details.
It’s NAMA Convention week here on AgWired. I’ll be blogging from Dallas, TX starting on Tuesday. You can hear all about the activities the guys at Truffle Media Networks and I have prepared in this week’s program.
For example, we’re going to be giving away an iPhone at our booth at the convention trade show. You’ve got to register at our booth but you don’t have to be present to win when we do the drawing at the end of the trade show Thursday evening.
Ned Arthur, Aaron Gilbertie and I will have entry cards and they’ll be in all the registration bags too. You can also stop by our AgWired Meetup at Monduel’s (Hyatt Atrium Bar) from 5-7pm on Tuesday evening to get your entry card as well.
This week on the ZimmCast I have a feature interview with Bob Giblin, Senior PR Counsel, Director of Research, Insight & Measurment, Morgan & Myers. Bob attended the recent Agricultural Relations Council spring meeting and gives us a report on what they did and the status of the organization. Bob says they’re working through a new strategic plan that includes bringing back the Golden ARC awards this year. He says there’s never been a better time for an organization like ARC. Here’s the group at an Aquarium visit during the spring meeting.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 114 (15 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
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The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes.
- Agricultural Relations Council: A Consumer-Driven Marketplace A look at the influences consumers have on the food and fiber industries - March 29-31, 2007.
- North American Agricultural Journalists: The annual NAAJ meeting will be April 15-17 in Washington, D.C. The conference hotel will be the Holiday Inn-Capital. Rooms are $223/night. We have a small block reserved, so budget now. The number to call for reservations is 202-479-4000. Identify yourself as being with NAAJ, North American Agricultural Journalists. You must make reservations by March 15.
- The Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association: Next Annual Meeting: May 1-May 3, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Savanna, GA.
If precision farming is the new revolution in agriculture then John Deere has it on display here so growers can get their hands on it. Chrystal Schuck works in the Ag Management Solutions area of John Deere. This is a division in John Deere that uses gps receivers and on-display mapping to reduce costs to growers and allow them to keep records from year to year.
She was working the booth today showing the multiple displays they have set up. I interviewed Chrystal who reviews several of the new technologies they’re offering like Swath Control Pro for sprayers which will soon be available for planters which will further increase field productivity. Chrystal says this is very important to farmer’s bottom line.
Listen to my interview with Chrystal here (4 min):
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AgWired coverage of the National Farm Machinery Show
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At the recent Agricultural Media Summit, one of the “official” participating organizations, the Agricultural Relations Council held a breakfast meeting.
Here’s outgoing(?) ARC President Jeri Omernik leading the meeting. ARC presented 5 recommendations from a task force that evaluated the organization. I couldn’t stay for the end of the meeting so I’m not sure where the discussion went after I left. The five recommendations are:
We offer professional intimacy with others in the same industry;
We offer professional development in ag, science and food-related Public Relations;
We are experts in ag, science and food-related Public Relations;
We extol the value of Public Relations in the agriculture, food and science industries and its continuing development; and
We strive to identify and to advocate best practices in Public Relations in the agriculture, food and science industries.
They consider these five attributes, the “unique selling proposition” of ARC. You can find a membership application here (pdf).
If you’re involved in agricultural public relations are you involved in ARC? If not, why not? If not, then maybe you should learn more about the Agricultural Relations Council. You can do this by attending the ARC breakfast at the Ag Media Summit.
For the first time, the Agricultural Relations Council will be recognized as a participating organization at this year’s Agricultural Media Summit, July 23-26 in Portland. The recognition comes following unanimous approval from the steering committee of the Agricultural Media Summit LLC. “We’re excited to obtain this recognition and formally strengthen our ties with this premier agricultural communications event,” said Jeri Omernik, president of ARC, a service organization founded in 1954 to serve the unique needs of professionals in agricultural public relations. Omernik noted that as a result of the partnership, ARC members will be able to attend the event at Ag Media Summit member rates. In addition, ARC is being asked to provide one or more representatives to serve on the three Summit committees: Program, Sponsorship and InfoExpo. (more…)
I didn’t get to attend the Agricultural Relations Council meeting in Memphis. If you didn’t either you can find out information about the meeting on their website, including powerpoints from presentations made there.
I also noticed that they’ve started a blog.
Have you registered for the Agricultural Relations Council meeting in Memphis yet? Time’s a wasting. You’ve got until March 3 to get the convention rate at the hotel. They’ve got a full program on public relations lined up including one with Kevin Kern, Media Coordinator for Elvis Presley Enterprises.
You can download the program and registration form here. (pdf file)
Here’s a reminder for all you agricultural public relations professionals. The Agricultural Relations Council is holding a meeting in Memphis (one of my favorite towns) March 23 - 25. Can you say “Ribs & Blues?” Yeah, there’s the professional improvement thing too.
Join the Agricultural Relations Council as it goes to Memphis March 23-25 for Public Relations 101-404 with a full day and a half of professional education programming, PLUS the Making and Management of a Legend.
Registration — $300.00 for ARC Members, $350.00 for nonmembers, which includes the Thursday evening Graceland tours and reception, Friday speaker program as well as breakfast, breaks and luncheon, and Saturday program, breakfast and luncheon. Check www.agrelationscouncil.org for more detailed program information as it develops.
So if you weren’t able to attend the Agricultural Media Summit you can still get the flavor of it by visiting the articles that I posted this past week. This is one of those opportunities to use an AgWired category archive. In this case you can visit this link - Ag Media Summit Archive - and you’ll pull up all 30+ articles I did from both the Agricultural Relations Council Meeting and the AMS.
I just uploaded my pictures to a Flickr album as well. Feel free to view them here: Ag Media Summit/ARC Photo Album
If you see a picture you want send me an email and I can send you a higher res file. Feel free to use any of them.
The last panel on the Ag Relations Council program was on Lifestyle Producers. Speaking were (l-r) Gene Hemphill, New Holland, Brad Schu, Purina Mills and Jeff Young, Bader-Rutter. Each presented information about what they’ve learned from research and ways they’re using that information to market products to this very diverse market segment.
At the Ag Relations Council business meeting president, Jeri Omernik, reported that there are currently 74 members and that the legwork has been done to organize and set up new procedures to jump start a solicitation of new members and re-institute the Golden ARC Awards program. She said that the transition from having NAMA oversee the organization is complete and they’re seeing a lot of renewed interest from past and potential members.
German Fest wouldn’t be authentic without polka music right? So that you can get the flavor of the event, here for your pleasure is a cut of polka music from one of the live stages at German Fest in Milwaukee.
You can listen here 
So what do you do at German Fest? You find a good beer and sit down with friends and enjoy. Here’s some of the happy group from the ARC meeting doing just that.
You never know who you’ll run into at an event like German Fest. As we were wandering around we noticed Emery Kleven, current president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters taking a photo. Emery’s not here for ARC or AMS. Just “Festing” along with thousands of his best friends.
The Ag Relations Council group headed to German Fest by trolley just as soon as business was over.
On a beautiful day in Milwaukee the Ag Relations Council was inside discussing ethics in public relations. Interestingly, I checked my subscriptions afterwards and found this one at Adjab on this very subject called “Advertising and editorial get a little cozier.”
Allow me to rant for a moment. While the ARC panel is going on I thought I’d see if I could get a document color printed here at the Hilton. No color printers on site. The concierge sent me on a 15 minute walk to Kinkos. Guess she didn’t know that it closes at 2pm on Saturday. So on my 15 minute walk back I did take this picture of the Milwaukee Riverwalk area. It had a calming effect on my feelings at that moment. It’s hard to see in this little photo but Usinger’s, a fine Wisconsin sausage maker is in the background.
Hopefully I can get my document printed on Monday morning.
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