Sometimes the host becomes the guest. In this week’s program that’s what happens when I chat with Mike Adams, host of AgriTalk. Cindy and I have really enjoyed the fact that Mike and producer John “follow” us around to events all over the country . I’ve actually been on AgriTalk before! I think that between us we cover more miles than most in the ag media world.
So I finally decided to sit down with Mike and talk about the conference we’re currently attending which is the National Biodiesel Conference and how things have changed in the media world we live in. Certainly technology is a key part of that as you’ll hear us reminisce about taking handsets apart on public telephones to connect our tape recorders for feeding audio back to the studio. Really, we’re not that old. I think it’s our active lifestyle and meeting some of the most wonderful people in the world that keeps us young!
BTW. I’m wondering if Mike has just a touch of Golden ZimmComm Microphone envy. What do you think? And thanks to John Herath, AgriTalk Producer Extraordinaire, for the photo.
Events started taking place today for IPE Week in Atlanta and Novus International got their schedule started with a presentation titled, “Like It: Consumers want to hear your expert opinion.” The session was conducted by David Armano, Executive Vice President – Global Innovation & Integration. His focus was on “how cutting edge research influences the everyday consumer via social media.”
I spoke with David afterward. He says he talked about what’s next in regards to social media and digital and how some of the technology shifts are being dictated by our behaviors and the ways we now communicate and do business. He especially zeroed in on the changes in media and talks about a Media Cloverleaf (Mainstream, New Media, Social and Owned). He also shared some polling study information from what they call the Trust Barometer. One of the findings was that traditionally academics and technical experts have been perceived as the most trustworthy. Last year the third most trusted individual was a financial industry analyst but this year it’s someone like yours truly ie. someone like you! I think you’ll find some great information in my conversation with David.
During the Beltwide Cotton Conferences I got to visit with and get to know AgFax with husband/wife partners Debra Ferguson and Owen Taylor. Owen conducted a conference session titled, “New vs. Old Information Sources to Clientele,” as part of the segment on social media in production agriculture. As a new media company, we can relate to that!
AgFax is “Where Ag Goes For Information” and their mission statement is “Make it as easy as possible for our community of readers to find and/or receive needed information.” Owen says they started publishing a cotton newsletter in California 21 years ago. After realizing everyone had a fax machine they started using the mechanism to distribute a growing number of newsletters and information. Then came a website and then came social media. Sound familiar? They work with a number of universities and have developed AgFax.com into a clearinghouse for ag information. And you may not be surprised to learn that they no longer send faxes!
To learn more about AgFax listen in to this week’s program: Getting The AgFax
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.
This year’s Beltwide Cotton Conferences attracted about the same size crowd as last year according to National Cotton Council Vice President of Producer Affairs, Craig Brown. I sat down with Craig to find out how he thought things were going and to talk about upcoming format changes for the annual event.
Craig says this is the second year they have shortened the production conference and added more seminars and educational sessions. There are a lot of them! Workshops were very well attended and in fact Craig says they had to add chairs to some of them. He mentioned the social media sessions which is a first. As Craig puts it, “everyone here’s got something strapped to their hip,” referring to all the smartphones in use. It sounds like the Cotton Council is getting ready to go more “social!”
We also discussed the major changes coming to Beltwide after next year’s event. Starting in 2014 Beltwide will only be a 1 1/2 day event without the production conference and trade show. It’ll focus in on technical sessions. This decision has come after a lot of study and thought during the last couple years.
To learn more about the changes coming to the Beltwide listen in to this week’s program: Beltwide Cotton Conferences
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.
It was just over a year ago that I started doing a series of interviews with the leadership at agricultural agencies. I started out with Diane Martin, President/CEO, Rhea + Kaiser and thought it very appropriate to talk with her again to see how things have been going at the agency.
To start off, Diane says that things are going well with the celebration this year of a couple of milestones with various clients like GROWMARK – 30 years and Bayer at 26 years. Another development is the agency diversification into different industries like construction equipment and higher education. Diane says they’ve also been going through a cultural revolution internally. One example is a renewed effort to liven up client presentations so they become more enjoyable and educational.
There are a number of additional changes that have taken place at the agency during the last year. To learn more about them listen in on my conversation with Diane: Rhea + Kaiser a Year Later
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.
Among the many ways BASF supports NAAA is by sponsoring the convention kick off breakfast, which always features a speaker with an aviation theme. This year, that speaker was Brian Shul, pilot and author of the coffee table book Sled Driver – Flying the World’s Fastest Jet, which is a compilation of the best photos that he took over many years flying the SR-71 Blackbird. It would make a great Christmas gift for anyone on your list who appreciates military aircraft and/or breathtaking photography! You can order yours at SledDriver.com.
I interviewed Brian at the NAAA about the plane, the book, how he got such great shots, and his continuing love of photography – listen to that conversation in this week’s ZimmCast: Pilot and Author Brian Shul
It is hard to believe that the AgWired App has been out for over a year! And the company staking an immediate sponsorship claim was and still is Raven, Precision Simplified. In this week’s program we’re going to learn that Raven has just “Simplified” their website and sees social media as a great opportunity to engage with their customers.
I spoke with Paul Welbig, Director of Marketing and Slingshot Operations this morning. He says that as it relates to information, reaching customers and new technology, the sponsorship of our smartphone application fit right in with Raven’s strategy moving forward, “We thought it was a great avenue to communicate with customers through that venue because a lot of those customers using those types of tools are also going to be customers using Raven and the Slingshot solution in the future.” When it comes to social media Paul says Raven has ample evidence that it is helping them engage with their customers, “That’s what it’s all about is making those connections and really helping support those folks as well.” He says Raven actively watches their social media channels and responds quickly to their customers.
When it comes to the new Raven website Paul says they’ve included a brand new section that provides technical help which you can find at RavenHelp.com. The company is also running a promotion right now where farmers can enter to win a complete RTK system that includes: Cruizer II™ guidance with sub-inch RTK accuracy — delivered by Slingshot® via wireless networks. The company will be exhibiting at a majority of the winter farm shows if you need to see them in person. You can find their schedule here.
Listen to my conversation with Paul in this week’s ZimmCast and learn more about what’s going on with Raven: Raven Simplified
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
This week’s program ends with a song called “Raven” by Mark Shepard from Music Alley. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for listening.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.
He looks very presidential in this photo doesn’t he? He’s Tom Steever, Brownfield and the new President of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. Tom actually takes over officially on January 1, 2012. However, he has been serving as interim President following the tragic death of Lindsay Hill earlier this year. So that kind of makes Tom the “old” and “new” member leader of NAFB.
This morning I sat down with Tom to have a conversation about the state of NAFB, the convention just held in Kansas City and what he sees for the future of farm broadcasting. When it comes to the membership of NAFB Tom says things are in great shape. In fact, membership is up from a low point a couple years ago. He wants to “see the NAFB continue to be and increase in value to its members. I want people to look at their membership in the NAFB as essential to what they do.” One of the ways Tom says NAFB can accomplish this is to continue to develop professional improvement opportunities in addition to promotional ones since they both will add value to the member’s company bottom line. At this year’s convention I chaired the professional improvement committee and we held five sessions on professional improvement that included smartphone technology, streaming audio/video and video production/editing.
I also asked Tom if NAFB has considered becoming part of the Ag Media Summit since we are seeing so much convergence in all of media today. I know it has been discussed and according to Tom “We keep courting. We keep watching one another.” He says things are working well for the organizations involved both at the Ag Media Summit and for NAFB and its convention. That probably is making it difficult to decide that there should be some formal joining of forces. I like to think of NAFB joining the Ag Media Summit like when the Commodity Classic expanded with the addition of sorghum and wheat grower organizations. Maybe the time just isn’t right yet. What do you think?
Listen to my conversation with Tom in this week’s ZimmCast and learn more about what’s going on with NAFB: Tom Steever New NAFB President
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.
If you don’t know our new National Agri-Marketing Association President then give this week’s program a listen. I visited with Beth Burgy, Broadhead, who took over the helm at NAMA during the Trends in Agriculture conference.
Beth says the big project for NAMA is going to be implementing the new strategic plan. That plan includes three strategy areas that are: Increase our strategic partnerships on both the local and national level; Communicate with members and partners more effectively and Grow NAMA membership in non-traditional segments. Beth says NAMA is a growing organization and in great condition.
It has been a year since the announcement of the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance. I remember speaking with Rick Tolman, CEO, NCGA, about the newly formed alliance then. This week USFRA held its first annual meeting preceded by a board meeting. After the program was over I visited with Rick to find out what has been accomplished.
Rick says it’s really exciting to see what’s happening. At the first board meeting the attendance was about twelve or so people and at this year’s meeting there were over twenty with about eighty other people sitting in. He says they raised over $10 million dollars in the first year and have a second year budget of $11.1 million. That’s a big number for farm groups to “put in a pot.” Rick says that a lot of the annual meeting dealt with plans for 2012. In our discussion he talks about what some of those plans are.
Listen to my conversation with Rick in this week’s ZimmCast: USFRA A Year Old
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.
Let’s look ahead to the 2011 National Agri-Marketing Association’s Trends in Agriculture conference. It precedes the NAFB Convention and AgWired will be there covering all the action. Our sponsor for coverage of both meetings this year is BASF!
To get a preview I spoke with Trends committee chair, Gardner Hatch, Bader Rutter. Gardner gives us a review of program highlights and talks about the differences between this fall conference and the spring conference. It’s not too late to register. You can go to the NAMA website or register onsite at the Hyatt Regency at Crown Center in Kansas City, MO. See you from there. And don’t forget to use the official Twitter hashtag for the NAMA conference, #NAMATrends. The one for the NAFB convention is #NAFB.
What’s new in the world of agricultural marketing is Engle Creative Solutions, LLC. This morning I visited with Steve Engle, President. This is another episode in my informal series of interviews with the leadership of agricultural marketing agencies.
Steve started the new venture just last month. Steve says he’s focusing on small to mid sized businesses and wants to help them, “Stand Out In A Crowded World.” He’s offering a “complete array of implementation services, from mainstream advertising and public relations to new media, interactive services, motion media and more.”
It was just a year ago that Cindy interviewed Mark Gale, Charleston|Orwig, while attending World Dairy Expo. That started a series of ZimmCasts with the leadership of advertising and public relations agencies. Now we’ve come full circle.
At this year’s World Dairy Expo I visited with Brittany Unterweger, Account Supervisor for the agency. The agency was having a very busy week since they work with about ten different clients that are involved with World Dairy Expo. Brittany says the agency focus goes beyond the dairy industry though, into overall food systems, “from farm to plate, from producer to consumer.” She says there has been an internal shift within the agency to move beyond just agriculture. Interactive has also grown tremendously and that includes app building and the further development of their blog, Field Assignment.
Brittany says that she’s excited to have a more holistic approach with the food systems concept so they can helpt their clients see the big picture. She says their client list has been growing and that it’s an exciting time at Charleston|Orwig.
ZimmComm loves beef. That’s why we are a sponsor of the National Beef Ambassador program. This past weekend I was a judge for the competition although I had to do it from ZimmComm World Headquarters and not in Wooster, OH. It was very interesting seeing how the contestants responded to an anti-beef blog post. That was one of the things that they were graded on as part of the competition.
To get a full wrap-up report on how the competition went I spoke this morning with Sarah Bohnenkamp, project coordinator. Sarah provides an overview of the purpose of the program and describes the group of contestants and the different types of activities they participated in. You can see a photo of the new team with a list of their names here. We’ll get to see the new team at the Cattle Industry Convention, the first of many events they’ll attend in 2012.
At the beginning of the 2011 IFAJ Congress we heard a preview from Owen Roberts, Co-Chair of the event. Now we’re going to get a look back from Lilian Schaer, the other Co-Chair.
In the photo both Lilian and Owen were thanked during our closing ceremonies and received gifts for all their hard work. Of course, they point to all the other people who volunteered to make this a great event. But it does take good leadership to help bring it all together.
Lilian says the Congress was fantastic on a number of levels, including the fact that there were 260 people from more than 30 countries. She also wanted to thank all the sponsors who made it possible. There were a lot of stand out moments for her. One of them was when the native dancers performed during the opening reception. Another was during the closing session when all the country flags from IFAJ member countries were displayed. Lilian also pointed out that this was the IFAJ Congress with the most amount of social media participation. You can still see tweets happening with the Congress hashtag.
The 2011 IFAJ Congress gets into full swing today. There are some business meetings for the organization as well as an afternoon session called Canada Agriculture 101. I visited with Co-Chair Owen Roberts, faculty instructor at the University of Guelph. We were on the bus last night on our way to Mohawk Racetrack.
In the program you can hear Owen describe the difference between the two pre-Congress educational activities, IFAJ Master Class and IFAJ Boot Camp. Then he runs through what all the ag journalists will be doing the rest of the week. We split apart into groups for farm tours upon leaving Guelph but meet back up in Niagra Falls.
Listen to my conversations with Owen in this week’s ZimmCast: IFAJ Congress 2011
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
This week’s program ends with with music from Music Alley. It’s “Journalism 101″ by Highah Seekah. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
In this week’s program let’s get caught up with Dave Aeschliman, Growth Enterprises. If you don’t know David then you’re missing one of the original Advertising Rat Pack members who took this dude under their wing starting at NAMA meetings once upon a time. We got connected via my post last week about missing Gary McKenna, who was also one of the members of that infamous group.
David has just recently started a new business called Growth Enterprises. He works directly with companies to create a strategic growth plan that’s very comprehensive. He also works on a pay for performance basis. In our conversation he provides a phone number if you want to reach him. His business is so new the website isn’t ready for prime time yet. David says new communications technology have certainly changed the way you do marketing today. I think you’ll appreciate some of his comments.
Listen to my conversations with Dave in this week’s ZimmCast: Growth Enterprises
Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsor, GROWMARK, locally owned, globally strong, for their support.
This week’s program ends with with music from Music Alley. It’s “Oh Canada” by Danny Fong. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired. Subscribe so you can listen when and where you want. Just go to our Subscribe page.
In this week’s program we get a wrap-up of the AgChat Foundation’s Agvocacy 2.0 Conference. I spoke with Michele Payn-Knoper, founder of the weekly AgChat conversation on Twitter and an AgChat Foundation board member and also Amanda Sollman, who took on the project this summer of helping us put on the conference. Michele says we had 115 attendees which is more than double last year’s inaugural conference. Changes in this year’s conference included extended networking times and beginner and advanced sessions on different breakout topics.
Listen to my conversations with Michele and Amanda in this week’s ZimmCast: Agvocacy 2.0 Conference
While the conference was taking place, local news outlet, The Tennessean, had a crew come by and they did a story about what was going on that I thought you might enjoy. It’s titled, “Got a question about your food? Tweet your Farmer.”
The National Agri-Marketing Association held its annual Boot Camp this week in Kansas City. One of the sessions focused on “generations” on the farm. I visited with one of those generational presenting teams, Ken and Brad McCauley, father and son Kansas farmers. The idea of the session was to learn about the challenges and rewards faced by family farmers.
After I spoke with Ken and Brad, Sara Steever, Paulsen Marketing, took her turn (photo). I think you’ll enjoy hearing this father/son team talk about working together and transitioning from one generation to another. Brad has taken an increasingly active part in managing the farm while Ken is enjoying some “down time” and being a consultant to Brad. I hope Brad’s paying a good rate for the advice. We also covered topics like information channels they depend on and social media. Brad says it’s “internet and magazines” with the internet definitely in the lead. Ken is an iPhone/iPad guy who recently bought Brad an iPad!
Listen to my conversation with Ken and Brad in this week’s ZimmCast: Generations On The Farm
The ZimmCast ends this week with some music from Music Alley. It’s “Regenerations” by Ritchie Hernandez. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.
This edition of the ZimmCast features a couple of interviews from the AgCareers.com 2011 Ag HR Roundtable held last week in West Lafayette, Indiana where social media in the spotlight – like it is everywhere!
One of the featured speakers at the event was Eve Mayer Orsburn, CEO of Social Media Delivered, one of the largest social media optimization companies in the world. Eve has developed this multi-national company in just three years, serving clients like GM and Sheraton with consulting, training and managing their social media services. Eve also hosts a weekly radio show called “Social Media for the CEO” and is author of a book by the same name.
Eve spoke to the Ag HR Roundtable about how companies can use social media in their recruiting efforts, as well as their marketing efforts. She will get more in-depth on that topic at an AgCareers.com workshop in Des Moines, October 12-13 titled “Implementing A Successful Social Media Strategy to Boost Recruitment.” The first 25 participants to register for the workshop will get a complimentary copy of her book “The Social Media Business Equation.”
Kathryn Doan coordinates social media efforts for AgCareers.com from the company’s Guelph, Ontario office. Kathryn grew up on a dairy farm and is now a turkey and cash crop farmer with her husband in Ontario. She talks about the AgCareers.com social media strategy and their goals to create conversation within the agriculture and food industries.
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
Chuck and Mike often wind up at the same events all over the country so it seemed like a good idea to do a little AgriTalking about the changes they've seen in the ag media landscape.
Sometimes the host becomes the guest. In this week’s program that’s what happens when I chat with Mike Adams, host of AgriTalk. Cindy and I have really enjoyed the fact that Mike and producer John “follow” us around to events all over the country 
. I’ve actually been on AgriTalk before! I think that between us we cover more miles than most in the ag media world.
So I finally decided to sit down with Mike and talk about the conference we’re currently attending which is the National Biodiesel Conference and how things have changed in the media world we live in. Certainly technology is a key part of that as you’ll hear us reminisce about taking handsets apart on public telephones to connect our tape recorders for feeding audio back to the studio. Really, we’re not that old. I think it’s our active lifestyle and meeting some of the most wonderful people in the world that keeps us young!
Among the many ways BASF supports NAAA is by sponsoring the convention kick off breakfast, which always features a speaker with an aviation theme. This year, that speaker was Brian Shul, pilot and author of the coffee table book 
One of the featured speakers at the event was Eve Mayer Orsburn, CEO of 
Kathryn Doan coordinates social media efforts for AgCareers.com from the company’s Guelph, Ontario office. Kathryn grew up on a dairy farm and is now a turkey and cash crop farmer with her husband in Ontario. She talks about the AgCareers.com social media strategy and their goals to create conversation within the agriculture and food industries. 
In this week's program Chuck talks with Mike Adams, AgriTalk.
