AgWired

Here’s a couple of groups I’m not familiar with. But I do know they have a new leader. I’ll bet we could all learn a lot more if they would have me blog their annual meeting.

The Commodity Markets Council (CMC), a competitive markets association, announced today that Michael D. Walter has been named President of the organization. Walter, who has almost 30 years of combined experience at ConAgra Foods and General Mills, will lead CMC in its mission to represent some of the most important commodity-related businesses in the grains, energy, metals and livestock industries to advocate for free, open and robust market places.

CMC also announced the promotion of Christine Cochran to the position of vice president, government relations, reporting to Walter and focusing on legislative and regulatory issues impacting the energy, agribusiness and metals industries. Read More

I was waiting to hear what Steve Leer, Purdue University would have to say in his presentation this morning.

His topic is “Interviewing with the Media: Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say.” Instead of the interactive TurningPoint clicker he’s having us write our answers to questions on a notepad he handed out to us. The notepads promote Ag Answers, a joint project of Ohio State University and Purdue.

One of his first questions had to do with the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the media. Most of the answers were negative. Then he proceeded to make sure everyone understands that no matter what they think of the media they’re going to have to deal with it at some point and it’s good to be ready.

We’re onto the subject of “Delivering a Message to the Producer: Present the Facts, You are the Authority!”

This presentation is being done by Fred Whitford, Purdue University. Here’s Fred using some creative props to help make a point.

It took me a few minutes to get a picture since he’s wandering all over the room. He also doesn’t need to use the microphone! He’s got some good advice like, “It’s not who you are but what you say that counts.”

Now it’s time to talk about “Crafting the Perfect Poster: Catchy, Clear, and Concise.”

Christy Sprague, Michigan State University, is doing this presentation and we’re clicking with TurningPoint again. I think she’s really just trying to keep us awake. Not really. Our presenters are doing a great job. I think Vince (right) sat in the first row so he could get in all my pictures.

I’ve always wondered about posters. Christy says that if you aren’t comfortable doing public speaking then do a poster. That makes sense. I know the NCWSS has a student poster contest.

Just like with a talk, making a good poster presentation contains distinct elements and they’re very similar but slightly different. Like Karen in the last presentation you can find Christy’s talk on their website later on.

Here at the NCWSS Convention Communications Symposium we’re onto the next topic which is on “Presenting Research to a Scientific Audience.” She says we’ve got about 12 minutes to make the presentation so she’s going over how we structure our short presentation including a short introduction, describe our methodology and the results or findings.

Our presenter is Karen Renner, Michigan State University (left).

Karen is using a very cool technology called TurningPoint.

Basically we all get “clickers” and we can answer questions she poses and our responses are instantly tabulated and shown graphically and wirelessly.

We can see if we get the right answer and if not, what percentage got it wrong. I have got to get me one of these gadgets for my presentations! I can think of some very interesting questions to pose during my talks.

BTW. You can find Karen’s talk and our next one by Christy Sprague on their website.

The communications symposium is still going on here at the NWCSS Convention. Here’s the next presenter after me.

He’s Kent Harrison, The Ohio State University. He just finished talking on the subject of Scientific Writing: Meeting the Reader’s Needs.

Ken says you can find information on his website.

This is a dark room so I apologize for the picture quality.

Here we are in our new media session at the NCWSS convention.

This is a demonstration post to show how easy it is to use blogging software to manage your website.

Look at all the shiny happy faces behind Vince. They are glad to be here.

I’ve only got time for an overview of blogging and podcasting but during my presentation I’ll be not only showing how to post onto your blog but how to subscribe to a podcast and get it on your iPod.