We all wonder what kids are being taught about agriculture in schools today. In New York City, one high school has a complete 4 year agricultural education program with a very good percentage of graduates going on to careers in ag. In this week’s program we’ll hear all about it.
The idea for this week’s program came from an announcement by Eastern NAMA and Gibbs & Soell. They’ve awarded two $500 scholarships to John Bowne High School students, Katherine Vegas and Nigel Calderon. They’re pictured with Eastern NAMA President Catherine Wang, Gibbs & Soell (left). I interviewed Catherine and also Steve Perry, John Bowne High School Assistant Principal who describes the program and the support they receive from the community and faculty.
The grants, sponsored by NAMA and Gibbs & Soell Public Relations, were presented to Vegas and Calderon for their outstanding scholastic achievement and contributions to the FFA program at the school. Making the presentation was Catherine Wang, NAMA Eastern Chapter president and an agribusiness communications professional at Gibbs & Soell.
John Bowne High School, located in Flushing, N.Y., has a specialized agriculture program that is nationally recognized as an outstanding urban agricultural education offering. The school’s agriculture program is the most extensive of its kind in the state.
A graduating senior of the animal science program, Vegas has been an FFA member for her entire four years of high school. She plans to study wildlife management at the State University of New York – Cobleskill. As an agriculture major, Calderon gained broad experience in animal health studies on the Small Animal Care and Exotic Animal teams at John Bowne. He plans a career in zoology or veterinarian medicine.
“Katherine, Nigel and the other John Bowne High School students represent the future of the agriculture industry,” Wang said. “By recognizing the achievements of these hard-working students, we hope that they are encouraged to vigorously pursue their careers in animal health.”
This week’s program ends with some music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song titled, “Words and Teachings” by Messian Dread. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
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Although this is about my interview with Scott Mortimer, Successful Farming, I didn’t have a photo of him and Betsy Freese is better looking. I think Cindy took the photo when Betsy and I were creating Twitter accounts for AAEA and Ag Media Summit in our booth at the NAMA convention.
I asked Scott what’s new with Successful Farming and he says that it’s social media. He says that they’ve been in the social media business since 1995 when they started Agriculture.com. Today they’re excited about their Farmers For The Future.com website which is a social networking site for young and beginning farmers . To date they have over 1,300 registered young farmers and ranchers who have uploaded over 4,000 photos and videos. He says that at times now they start their presentation with advertising customers with what they’re doing online and that leads to a discussion of what they’re doing with the magazine.
You can listen to my interview with Scott here:
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The definition of the word “Novus” is new - and that describes Novus International’s cutting edge approach to animal health as well as the company’s involvement with NAMA this year.
Novus was one of our two NAMA coverage sponsors this year and we were happy to see Stephanie Gable and Jeremy Lutgen when they stopped by our trade show booth. Stephanie is no stranger to NAMA, having served as 2007 national president. She joined the Novus team in September and was excited to tell us all about the company and what else they do. “Novus is new working with NAMA but they already have a great commitment level to other associations and activities,” Steph says. That includes a commitment to sustainability and supporting future leaders in the industry - which you can see by the posts John has done on the student undergraduate working day that Novus helped sponsor last week.
Listen to my interview with Stephanie here:
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Novus has become a regular sponsor of event coverage here on AgWired, especially events that have an international flavor - like World Pork Expo and the International Poultry Expo. Jeremy says because they are a technology-based company they think we are a good fit for their promotional efforts. “It’s a good way to communicate around the world, because we are an international organization, so it’s a good way to get our message out and to support the industry at the same time,” Jeremy said.
He also told us about the upcoming ribbon-cutting of their new building in St. Louis, scheduled for early June.
Listen to Jeremy’s interview here:
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Cindy and I are in post-NAMA recovery. However, we may be physically tired but we’re emotionally charged. Those of you in agricultural marketing and communications will be too once you hear this week’s program which features an interview with Curt Blades, Successful Farming. They just finished the 2009 Farmer Use of Media Study and Curt shares some of their findings. To get the full story you’ll need to contact him. He’s pictured here speaking to the student luncheon at the NAMA convention.
As you would expect, farmer use of the internet as a source of news and information has skyrocketed and this study provides further documentation of that fact. Curt says the study is projectable and provides breakouts for age and income demographics. Once again it shows that the higher the farm income level, the higher the use of the internet. He says they also found that high speed internet access is much more widespread than many think. I think you’ll enjoy hearing about this new study of farmer media use habits.
This week’s program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. It’s a song titled, “Surgery Successful Oh Yeah”, by Scott Clous. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 216 (20 min MP3)
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The opening general session keynote speaker at the NAMA convention was Scott McKain, pictured here in front of the flames of ???? (you supply the description). The flames actually made for a very cool stage background and conversation topic throughout the event.
Scott is Vice Chairman, Obsidian Enterprises, author of What Customers REALLY Want and a new book: The Collapse of Distinction. I spoke to him just prior to his session and he says that the most important thing today for any business, including agribusiness, is to “distinguish yourself from the competition.” His talk focused on ways to do this.
For one thing, he says, social media provides a good opportunity to do it. He says you “have to do social media in today’s world. The only other option is failure.” He says we need to be in the lead on social media. He also says that creativity is vital and just pick one point or way you can stand out from your competitors and focus on it.
You can listen to my interview with Scott here:
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This morning we had a truly awesome session on social media at the NAMA convention. Here’s me and the panel. Yes, we’re shooting video with a Flip, taking a photo with an iPhone, tweeting via iPhone and pounding on a Mac. I like this picture. Some may ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?” I say nothing. We’re just socializing, interacting and engaging. Included in photo are me on the right and panelists: David Coustan, Vice President, Digital, Edelman Digital, Kyle Flaherty, Director of Marketing and Social Media, BreakingPoint Systems, David Brazeal, General Manager, Learfield Data.
There are more photos from the session in the photo album which is being update as I type. During the session we showed a live feed of all #NAMA tweets via Twitter and there were a bunch. Thanks to everyone who participated. I’m not sure if I have the right number but I think there were at least 165 Twitter posts during the hour of our session this morning using the #NAMA hashtag! Pretty awesome. I’m going to go back through them and do some responding later. We had over 100 people in the session and it’s very possible we had that many more “watching” and participating online. It was a great live example of the impact and how you can use these new tools, especially when promoted ahead of time. I’ve been promoting it along with our panelists and others that I’ve noticed in the online discussion.
Thank you to Brownfield for providing our internet access and to Dave Patterson, John Deere Credit, and the whole planning committee and other session sponsors for helping put this together. I hope we get to do it again.
Cindy and I are taking some “down” time with local family and will be off the grid in rural Georgia for a couple days but we’ve got lots more NAMA to post so don’t think you’ve seen all of the NAMA action here on AgWired yet. Until then . . .
The NAMA convention is in the home stretch and to unwind a little bit Brownfield came through once again with an awesome party at the Hard Rock Cafe.
We were entertained by The Party Nation and they were a blast. As usual it was a tight packed crowd of us “old timers” and newcomers to NAMA. But old or new we all share a common passion for the business of agricultural marketing. That doesn’t mean we can’t let our hair down a little though does it?
The NAMA Connection Point trade show is over for 2009 and ZimmComm had a great time.
We’ve really enjoyed visiting with so many of our friends and clients who took the time to stop by for some hot tweets and to learn a little more about this phenomenon called Twitter.
The winners of our drawing are:
HP Mini Netbook: Zach Tassell, McCormick
Desktop Cube Speaker for iPod: Amy Wieberg, FCS Financial
Right now we’re getting ready to go rock at NAMA with Brownfield. There’s lots more to come from this year’s Agri-Marketing Conference so don’t go away.
Celebrating in wild abandon at this evening’s student NAMA awards is Paul Redhage, FMC Agricultural Products. He “de-throned” two time Hard Ass award winner, Mike Gustafson.
I’m not exactly sure how this award is determined. You’ll have to ask the judges. I’m just thinking that I’m glad that trophy will be hanging on Paul’s wall! This award is given to a student competition judge who is very “hard” on the competitors.
Gator NAMA showed today that it’s not just the football and basketball teams that can win multiple national championships. Today the University of Florida student NAMA chapter won the marketing competition for the second year in a row!
How ’bout them Gators? We’ll have more to post about this inspiring victory later including video.
Way to go team. And congratulations to all the finalists for making it to that elite round.
Hello from the Imperial Room at the Marquis Marriott in Atlanta. We’re live in the student finals room and ready to see the competition. I hope you enjoy it.
Post Update: We had approximately 170 people watch the live stream from the competition today. I think we’ll do it again next year! We’ll plan ahead this time and have a better video feed. Thanks for joining in.
Highlights of this morning’s general session at NAMA 2009 included the presentation of the annual Agribusiness Leader and Marketer of the Year awards.
CHS Energy Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Leon Westbrock was named the 2009 NAMA Agribusiness Leader of the Year. Leon is responsible for refineries, pipelines, refined fuels sales, marketing and distribution, lubricants and propane. He joined the cooperative system in 1976 and managed three local cooperatives before joining the regional system. Westbrock was born and raised on his family’s 640-acre small grain and dairy farm near Browns Valley, Minn.
Jon Anderson, President of OPEN ROADS, received the 2009 NAMA Marketer of the Year award. Jon and two of his colleagues created the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, business growth and development services firm, in 2002. Last year, Anderson and his team at OPEN ROADS celebrated their six-year anniversary of the firm. Starting their business with no clients and no business, Anderson has helped grow OPEN ROADS into a highly successful business growth and development firm. Their business now includes 12 clients and a half dozen consulting associates.
Thanks again to Denny Eilers for the photos. We just haven’t been able to be everywhere today - but we are working on getting that cloning done!
Thanks to Denny Eilers for providing me with photos of our Best of NAMA award winners for each category.
First up is Best of Show, Advertising
(Left to Right)
Tom Bigelow, Bigelow Advertising
Rick Radermacher, Bigelow Advertising
Chris Lund, AGCO Application Equipment
The next ones are Best of Show, Public Relations
(Left to Right)
Paul Durham, Martin/Williams
Kim Dawson, Syngenta
Kerry Henderson, Gibbs & Soell
And then we have Best of Show, Specialty
(Left to Right)
Richard Williams, Archer>Malmo
James Ward, Archer>Malmo
Mike Butler, Archer>Malmo
On of our Best of NAMA Award emcees this evening was Sally Behringer, Nicholson Kovac, Inc. You can ask her to explain the makeup and costume. There are more photos in the online album.
She and Kyle Bauer, KFRM, announced the winners of our annual awards. Thanks to AgriMarketing Magazine you can learn more online.
Winning Best of Show were:
The pre-conference workshop for NAMA 2009 on Wednesday was tailor-made for today’s challenging economic climate.
Kevin Ochsner of Adayana Agri Business Group was captain of the ship for “Charting Your Course in Uncharted Waters - Strategic Decision Making in Uncertain Times,” which focused on gaining insight into the key principals of scenario-planning. “Now, more than ever, we have to both personally and professionally have a process that helps us sort through some of that uncertainty to make decisions as good as we can,” Kevin says.
Kevin will also be moderating a break out session on Thursday afternoon on “Thriving During Times of Uncertainty and Change.”
You can listen to my interview with Kevin here:
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NAMA Chapter Leaders had a workshop then a lunch this morning.
I didn’t make it to the workshop but I did make it to the lunch. I have my priorities you know. The workshop presenters were Paige Gilligan, Agrestic Solutions, and Diana Monsen, CAPC. You can see them in the photo bottom left. I interviewed them after lunch to find out what they did during the morning program. Basically, they identified a few chapter leadership challenges and broke the participants up in groups to come up with creative ideas to address them.
You can listen to my interview with Paige and Diana here:
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Our NAMA President-Elect, Susie Decker, Farm Progress Companies, spoke to students at their lunch today. She made a very nice gesture and gave out her “tractor numbers” to the group and told them that whoever found them should bring them to her and she would give them her tractor.
In case you don’t know what that means, AgriMarketing Magazine provides scale model tractors each year in each NAMA Connection Point booth. All registrants get a number and if you find a tractor with your number on it, you get it. This year we have McCormick MTX150 Tractors.
After Susie spoke, luncheon emcee, Curt Blades gave out some of the NAMA student scholarships and announced the student marketing competition semi-finalists. They are competing now and include:
Wisconsin-Madison
University of Florida (Go Gators - I graduated in ‘80)
New Mexico State
Iowa State
Michigan State
Virginia Tech
North Dakota State University
Purdue
Wisconsin-Platteville
Mississippi State
Ohio State
Nebraska
The NAMA registration desk has been very busy this morning and the staff is hard at work as you’ll see in this video clip. We’re having a great time blogging and tweeting here in the Marquis Level at the Marriott.
Guess how many photos we've got in our archives that are tagged "farm." Let's just say, it's a lot..
Twittering Farmer
Farmers are twittering and then there's The Twittering Farmer.
He's Steve Tucker and my interview in this week's program. Steve and I discuss the story that featured him on CNN today and the feedback he's received which has been kind of overwhelming. He's a great advocate for agriculture who now has more Twitter followers than there are residents in his home town.
We all wonder what kids are being taught about agriculture in schools today. In New York City, one high school has a complete 4 year agricultural education program with a very good percentage of graduates going on to careers in ag. In this week’s program we’ll hear all about it.
The idea for this week’s program came from an announcement by Eastern NAMA and Gibbs & Soell. They’ve awarded two $500 scholarships to John Bowne High School students, Katherine Vegas and Nigel Calderon. They’re pictured with Eastern NAMA President Catherine Wang, Gibbs & Soell (left). I interviewed Catherine and also Steve Perry, John Bowne High School Assistant Principal who describes the program and the support they receive from the community and faculty.
Although this is about my interview with Scott Mortimer, 
The definition of the word “Novus” is new - and that describes 
It is time for another edition of “Guess Whose Boots.”
As you would expect, farmer use of the internet as a source of news and information has skyrocketed and this study provides further documentation of that fact. Curt says the study is projectable and provides breakouts for age and income demographics. Once again it shows that the higher the farm income level, the higher the use of the internet. He says they also found that high speed internet access is much more widespread than many think. I think you’ll enjoy hearing about this new study of farmer media use habits.
The opening general session keynote speaker at the NAMA convention was Scott McKain, pictured here in front of the flames of ???? (you supply the description). The flames actually made for a very cool stage background and conversation topic throughout the event.
This morning we had a truly awesome session on social media at the NAMA convention. Here’s me and the panel. Yes, we’re shooting video with a Flip, taking a photo with an iPhone, tweeting via iPhone and pounding on a Mac. I like this picture. Some may ask, “What’s wrong with this picture?” I say nothing. We’re just socializing, interacting and engaging. Included in photo are me on the right and panelists: David Coustan, Vice President, Digital, Edelman Digital, Kyle Flaherty, Director of Marketing and Social Media, BreakingPoint Systems, David Brazeal, General Manager, Learfield Data.
The NAMA convention is in the home stretch and to unwind a little bit 
The NAMA Connection Point trade show is over for 2009 and ZimmComm had a great time.
Celebrating in wild abandon at this evening’s student NAMA awards is Paul Redhage, FMC Agricultural Products. He “de-throned” two time Hard Ass award winner, Mike Gustafson.
Gator NAMA showed today that it’s not just the football and basketball teams that can win multiple national championships. Today the University of Florida student NAMA chapter won the marketing competition for the second year in a row!
Highlights of this morning’s general session at NAMA 2009 included the presentation of the annual Agribusiness Leader and Marketer of the Year awards.
Jon Anderson, President of 
Thanks to Denny Eilers for providing me with photos of our Best of NAMA award winners for each category.
The next ones are Best of Show, Public Relations
And then we have Best of Show, Specialty
During our Connection Point session tonight the finalists for the NAMA Student Marketing Competition were announced and here they are.
On of our Best of NAMA Award emcees this evening was Sally Behringer, 
The pre-conference workshop for NAMA 2009 on Wednesday was tailor-made for today’s challenging economic climate. 
NAMA Chapter Leaders had a workshop then a lunch this morning. 
Our NAMA President-Elect, Susie Decker, Farm Progress Companies, spoke to students at their lunch today. She made a very nice gesture and gave out her “tractor numbers” to the group and told them that whoever found them should bring them to her and she would give them her tractor. 
Farmers are twittering and then there's The Twittering Farmer.
