NCBA Press Conference On CBB Audit

Chuck Zimmerman

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Board just concluded a press conference on the Cattlemen’s Beef Board independent account’s report that audited NCBA use of Beef Checkoff funds. This report was released earlier this week. There is obviously a lot of friction right now between the organizations and media were given an opportunity to hear NCBA’s side of the story this morning. Participating in the press conference were NCBA CEO Forrest Roberts, President Steve Foglesong and Federation of State Beef Councils Chairman Scott George. Forrest is at the podium in the photo with Steve on the right and Scott seated to the left.

I’m posting the full press conference here. When you click on the player you’ll get an option to download the file. Please feel free to use the audio if you’re an ag media representative. I’m also uploading new photos from the press conference to the photo album.

NCBA Press Conference

2010 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Beef, Cattle Industry Conference, NCBA

2010 Cattle Industry Summer Conference

Chuck Zimmerman

I have transitioned from Ag Media Summit mode to Beef Board Blogging Mode and covering the 2010 Cattle Industry Summer Conference. To get things started I met with the communications staff of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (l-r) Lynn Heinze, Melissa Slagle and Diane Henderson.

To get us started with an overview of why the Beef Board meets during the summer I spoke with Lynn Heinze, Executive Director of Communications. He says this meeting is important for the planning process before making decisions for the next year. Committees will review proposed funding requests known as authorization requests. There will also be a large group of new members to the board who will be sworn in at this meeting. So we’ve got a number of first timers and I’ll make sure I interview several of them. The conference concludes on Saturday with a board meeting after a morning of committee meetings. Lynn Heinze Interview

I am sure many of you are aware of some issues that have surfaced recently between the Beef Board and NCBA. I will be getting both sides of it and presenting information about it as soon as I can.

I have a photo album started from this year’s conference: 2010 Cattle Industry Summer Conference Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, Cattle Industry Conference

Meet New AAEA and LPC Presidents

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast 268In this week’s program we’ll get to meet the new Presidents of the American Agricultural Editors Association and Livestock Publications Council. They’re both Missouri boys!

First up is Steven Fairchild, MFA Incorporated. I asked him what his goals are for his year in office and he wants to focus on membership since increasing membership is a key goal of the organization.

He says the meetings at AMS reflect the hard work of outgoing president, Karen Simon. He says AAEA will have a new website this fall.

Next is Andy Atzenweiler, Missouri Beef Cattlemen Magazine. He says things are in good shape at LPC and they’re going to “tweak” their website. They want to promote their contest more since there were a lot of changes this year.

At the annual meeting there was some discussion about changing the by-laws to get rid of the language referring to the ratio of service to publication members. It is now about 50-50.

ZimmCast 268

Thanks to our ZimmCast sponsors, Novus International, and Leica Geosytems 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 a Subscribe page

ACN, Ag Media Summit, Audio, LPC, ZimmCast

Get To Know Golden ARC Awards

Chuck Zimmerman

The Agricultural Relations Council, Golden ARC Awards Contest Manager is Amy McDonald, McDonald Marketing Communications. She put together a really good contest and is already working on the next one.

I spoke with her about the awards program so we get a better understanding of what these awards are for, how they are judged and what to look for in the future. The contest began in 1990. This year there were 40 entries and there were 19 Golden ARC Award winners and 9 Golden ARC Merit Award winners. The judging was done by the Florida Chapter of PRSA so these were looked at from the standpoint of the “science of PR.” It’s a more objective judging strategy than other awards in the industry. Next year’s awards will be presented at the ARC annual meeting so the deadline for entries will be announced soon.

Amy McDonald Interview

2010 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Ag Media Summit, ARC, Audio

Last Post From Nanjing

Chuck Zimmerman

Zachary Larson, Borlaug Summer Intern, is on location at Nanjing Agricultural University and providing us with updates this summer of his trip. Here’s his latest. You can also find a photo album he’s got started here: Borlaug Summer Intern Photo Album. The internship is being sponsored by the Iowa State University Plant Sciences Institute.

I predicted correctly that this last week would have been fun, and has been, if not for a just a bit crazy. While I am still frequently going to the lab, but the time to run experiments is quickly disappearing, and these last few days have allowed me more opportunities to see the city of Nanjing, meet a few interesting professors and see some of the history of Nanjing Agricultural University.

I faced the biggest challenge I have faced since arriving here last Saturday when I gave a presentation about my university life in the U.S, my general studies, and life in Iowa. Unlike most of my previous power points, the focus of this one was extremely broad. Nonetheless, I had a very liberal audience, and despite my numerous slips throughout my presentation, they all thought I did an excellent job, and I might give another presentation before I leave on Saturday. As always, I thought I did ok, but in hindsight I could of always done better, Given the fact my Professor Wang ordered me to do the presentation in English, it mattered little nonetheless! Read More

Education, International, University

Ag Media Summit Concludes

Chuck Zimmerman

3 Gregs at AMSThe 2010 Agricultural Media Summit has concluded but that doesn’t mean the coverage on AgWired has ended. So much posting to do and so little time . . .

I’ve got a lot more to post from AMS but I’ve also got 3 more events to attend in the next week before getting back to ZimmComm World Headquarters. So, I’ll be posting interviews and photos when time allows. I’m heading to Denver early in the morning for the Cattle Industry Summer Conference where I’ll be Beef Board Blogging and hoping everything works out okay with the groups participating in the meeting. I’m sure more information on that will be forthcoming.

In the meantime I have updated the AMS photo album. There are some great photos in there and I hope you enjoy it. Like this one of the “3 Gregs” during the closing banquet tonight. All of tonight’s award winners are in there and I’ll try to find a way to post who they all are when I get a listing. You’ll know many of them.

2010 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

ACN, Ag Media Summit, LPC

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Farm Journal has completed four sold-out sessions at its popular Corn College event held near Bloomington, Ill., with graduates from more than 29 states and 2 providences in four different sessions during the 2010 event.
  • The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association brought Mike Deering to the communications team to focus on grassroots advocacy and trade media relations.
  • Jane DeMarchi joined the staff of the National Association of Wheat Growers as director of government affairs for research and technology.
  • Founders of the Cattle Feeders Hall of Fame awarded the very first Industry Leadership Award to Richard McDonald, former president and CEO of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA).
Zimfo Bytes

ZimmComm Wins Two Golden ARC Awards

Chuck Zimmerman

The revived Golden ARC Awards were presented today at the Ag Media Summit. The Agricultural Relations Council is very pleased with the participation and ZimmComm New Media is very happy with the judges (Florida PRSA Chapter).

ARC President Deron Johnson, Rhea & Kaiser and Golden ARC Awards Contest Manager, Amy Keith McDonald, McDonald Marketing Communications, presented the awards. ZimmComm New Media won two awards in the Tactics Division. Working with BCS Communications for John Deere we won for the blog, DriveGreenTractors.com. Working with the Renewable Fuels Association we won for the podcast, The Ethanol Report. These are the first Golden ARC Awards we’ve ever won and Cindy and I are very excited about it.

I interviewed Amy about the awards program and will post that for you soon. Photos of all the winners are in the AMS photo album. Thanks to Mike Opperman for taking my photo!

2010 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Ag Media Summit, ARC

Even InfoExpo Has Spam

Chuck Zimmerman

Ag Media Summit Pork CheckoffInfoExpo got started with a bang at Ag Media Summit. This really isn’t spam, or rather it is Spam. You can get some in the Pork Checkoff booth.

I don’t know how many exhibitors we’ve got at this year’s AMS but it seems like a record to me. I will be back to conduct some interviews to feature on AgWired in coming days. Today was a time to renew friendships and talk about what to talk about.

In the meantime please enjoy the updated photo album.

2010 Ag Media Summit Photo Album

Ag Media Summit

Introducing AgWired iPhone App

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmComm New Media announces the first agricultural news media app for the iPhone – the AgWired iPhone App. The app offers one-touch access to all the latest news and information in the agribusiness and agricultural marketing world posted on Agwired.com, including audio, photos and video, and connections to other ZimmComm news sites. The AgWired App features a news tab drop down menu to select ZimmComm News Network feeds as well as individual news on AgWired by category.

The app is now available for iPhone users to download, free of charge, in the Apple iTunes store. You can find the AgWired App in the iTunes Store with this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/agwired/id382820712?mt=8

Apps just make on-line access from an iPhone quicker and easier. We wanted to be the first to develop an iPhone application to show that it can be done and that there is a demand for this new technology tool in the agricultural world. And of course, the AgWired iPhone App is open for sponsorship. Who wants to be the first?

We’re looking for feedback on our first app. Let us know what you like, don’t like and wish it would do and we’ll try to incorporate your suggestions in a future update. Thanks.

ZimmComm Announcement