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.
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. 
For Earth Day I hope to eat some green vegetables. I also turned out the light in my hotel room before I left. Yesterday afternoon, in preparation, I made sure I re-used my plastic beer cup at the Alltech Kentucky Night celebration.
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.