Don’t Miss Out on the Communicating Renewables Webinar Series

Joanna Schroeder

communicating renewables webinar seriesCalling all communications professionals. What is one of the most difficult challenges we face? Developing campaigns that will garnering consumer support and product adoption. An example of just how difficult this can be is the corn-ethanol industry. Consumer support has been dwindling for months and this has in part, been driving by media hostility and biased reporting.

So what is the most effective way to communicate your message to ensure your product survives in a crowded marketplace? 

This question and more will be answered in the Communicating Renewables Webinar Series. This program is designed for those involved in or seeking information about the alternative energy arena. The webinar series is designed specifically to help arm communications professionals with the tools they will need to approach, head on, the challenging task of getting the positive message about renewable energy, technologies and research out to consumers, stakeholders, policy leaders, and the media.

Topics include:

  • » Web 2.0: how to harness the newest online tools to ensure your message reaches your target audience
  • » Strength in numbers: building coalitions with unlikely partners to add legitimacy to your messages
  • » Pit Bull Media Relations: how to pitch reporters who don’t support your product
  • » Grant Writing and Fundraising 101: how to bring additional funding to your organization
  • » Pitching Energy Reporters: the do’s and dont’s to securing coverage and featuring our very own Chuck Zimmerman
  • » Developing Effective Media Relationships: how to work with overburdened and time-starved reporters

Don’t miss this ground breaking and affordable webinar series. Most sessions are only $49. The first session is June 2, 2009. To learn more and to register go to www.CommunicatingRenewables.com.

Education, Energy, Public Relations

Brewing Kentucky Ale

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Trent Loos and Ken LeeYou might look at this picture and say, “That looks like a dangerous group,” but you’d be wrong. We’re just some lovable guys enjoying a frosty end-of-day beverage in the pub at Shrewsbury Hall. This is the pub next door to the Alltech Lexington Brewing Company. In the photo with me are Head Brew Master, Ken Lee (center) and Trent Loos (right). I had not ever visited the brewing company for Kentucky Ale and arrived shortly before Trent. While I was waiting for him I interviewed Ken. Then when Trent and Sarah Muirhead, FeedStuffs, arrived he took a turn with an interview. Sarah took our picture.

Ken says Dr. Pearse Lyons bought the brewery in 2000. His background is in brewing so it’s where his first love is (fermentation). He’s continued to develop the brewery with new products. The main one is Kentucky Ale which is a blend of a pale ale and an Irish red ale. Now they’re taking it and finishing it in freshly emptied bourbon barrels to make a Bourbon Barrel Ale. The barrels come from local distilleries. Distribution for Kentucky Ale is still pretty local but I’m sure there are plans to grow it outward in the future. Ken says they’re going to be challenged to meet demand which will increase when the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games take place.

Listen to my interview with Ken here: alltech-symposium-09-lee.mp3

I spoke with Trent about the animal welfare/animal rights issues that seem to be surfacing more and more around the country. We both believe that American farmers care very much for their animals and go out of their way to treat them well. They’re being demonized though by groups like the Humane Society of the United States which has no affiliation with your local animal shelter and works hard at sensationalizing isolated incidents for their fund raising efforts for lobbying against animal agriculture. I also got an update on Trent’s Pork On A Fork contest. The entry deadline for this contest to win an all expense paid trip to World Pork Expo is this weekend so get your pictures in.

Listen to my interview with Trent here: alltech-symposium-09-loos.mp3

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Audio

Sustainability Questions And Responses

Chuck Zimmerman

Alltech Aidan ConnollyOne of the highlight sessions at the Alltech Symposium is The Great Debate. This is a roundtable discussion and featured well known panelists Michael Boehlje, Professor at Purdue University, Lutz Goedde, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Philip Wilkinson, 2 Sisters Food Group. The moderator (pictured) was Alltech Vice President, Aidan Connolly. The subject was “Sustainability – For realists or for dreamers?”

Before Aidan got into the questions for the panel he reviewed the results of a pre-Symposium survey they conducted with Watt Publishing. Some of the interesting results I made note of included the following:

When asked “What does agricultural sustainability mean to your organization?” 64% of respondents said “staying in business” and 62% said “being environmentally friendly.” A majority said that their commitment to sustainability has remained the same or increased in 2009.

When asked “What are barriers to sustainability?” 68% said “cost,” 56% said “lack of information and management” and 35% said “lack of reliable measures.”

There is a lot more information from the survey which you can hear Aidan summarize in his opening comments which I recorded for you.

Listen to Aidan’s remarks here: alltech-symposium-debate-summary.mp3

You can also download the remarks here: Aidan Connolly Debate Remarks (mp3)

Alltech Symposium Photo Album

Alltech, Audio, Sustainability

Is This The End Of Traditional Radio In Home?

Chuck Zimmerman

VTech IS9181I’m not saying you should go out and buy one of these today but it sure is tempting. I found this story on Podcasting News and I’m going to let James tell the story because he does it very well. My main reason to post this is to keep you up to date on what’s happening with technology that will continue to change the way we communicate. Notice that he does point out “in the home” since these aren’t real portable YET.

VTech has introduced a new $200 WiFi radio that promises to make traditional radio irrelevant.

The horribly named VTech IS9181 is a Wi-Fi music streaming device, designed to make accessing the near-infinte variety of Internet radio as easy as traditional radio.

The IS9181 connects to any wireless network (802.11 b & g) and lets you access more than 11,000 free Internet radio stations worldwide. It also lets you access audio files (MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, Real) stored on you Wi-Fi-enabled computer (PC or Mac). The IS9181 also offers localized weather (based on zip code).

The End Of Traditional Radio In The Home?

The IS9181, and devices like it, are going to rapidly make traditional radios obsolete.

The device works like a radio, but it gives you access to thousands of stations that you can’t get on a traditional radio, while still giving you local weather.

How long can traditional radio, and even satellite radio, last with competition like this?

Uncategorized

Novus Holds Sustainability Roundtable

Cindy Zimmerman

Novus roundtable Charlie ArnotThe World Ag Congress concluded in St. Louis at midday on Wednesday, but the discussion continued with about 50 of the congress participants who attended the Novus International sustainability roundtable.

Four speakers presented sustainability-related topics and the first was Charlie Arnot, CEO of the Center for Food Integrity (CFI) who talked about how building and maintaining public trust and confidence in contemporary U.S. food production is the only way to have a system that is truly sustainable. “We define sustainability as systems that are ethically grounded, scientifically verified and economically viable,” Charlie said. “If they aren’t all three, we don’t believe they are sustainable, nor will they be supported by consumers.”

Charlie says their consumer research has discovered that confidence, resulting from shared values and ethics, is most important to consumers who are unfortunately completely disconnected from food production, which diminishes their level of trust in the system. “What they tell us is, we trust farmers, but we’re not sure that what you are doing is farming because of the size and the scale and our use of technology,” he said. “That’s the challenge we have to overcome.”

To do that, CFI is launching a consumer-directed web-based campaign on a state basis, starting in Ohio. They will be offering a year’s worth of free groceries giveaway to encourage people to go on-line and learn more about real farmers and ranchers in their state. “We’ve got to do it by connecting people to people,” Charlie said. “People are telling us they don’t trust systems or companies, they trust people who share their values.”

You can listen to my interview with Charlie here: waf-09-arnot.mp3

Download the interview here: Charlie Arnot

Audio, Novus International

World Ag Congress Climate Change Discussion

Cindy Zimmerman

World Ag Forum Jerry HatfieldNo forum on world food security issues would be complete without a session on climate change and that was how the World Ag Congress concluded its roundtable discussions Wednesday.

While the issue may be debatable, there is no question that agriculture should be taking every opportunity to decrease greenhouse gas emissions – including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Panalist Jerry Hatfield with USDA’s National Soil Tilth Laboratory talked about how nitrogen stabilizers can make a major difference in nitrous oxide emitted from the application of nitrogen fertilizer. “Nitrous oxide is 320 times more powerful than CO2, so one molecule of nitrous oxide saved is like saving 320 carbon dioxide,” Jerry said. “So we can have a major impact on total greenhouse gas emissions by reducing nitrous oxide.”

Jerry told me that USDA-ARS has found that the use of stabilized nitrogen not only reduces emissions of nitrous oxide, but it is also better for plants because it makes nitrogen more available later in the season when the plant really needs it. “So, its a win-win – a win for the plant and a win for the environment simultaneously,” he said.

He says nitrogen stabilizers are readily available in various forms for farmers from companies like Dow and AGROTAIN.

You can listen to my interview with Jerry here: waf-09-hatfield.mp3

Download the interview here: Jerry Hatfield

Flickr Photo Album for World Ag Forum

AgWired coverage of the 2009 World Agricultural Forum World Congress is sponsored by:
Novus.

Audio, Fertilizer, Novus International, USDA

How to Make Your Pages Rank

Amanda Nolz

In B to B Magazine, I recently read an article titled, “How to Make Your Pages Rank.” It gives tips and tricks for making your website more prominent on the web. The writer, Christopher Hosford, summarizes a study on how different search engines weight the level of importance of different websites. Here is what he has to say…

In a new study on factors that affect search engine rankings of Web pages, marketing analytics company Covario reported that the number of inbound links from other Web sites is the single most important factor in a page showing up prominently in search results.

Covario’s study—“A Statistical Analysis of Features Affecting Rank in Search Engine Results”—cited external inbound links from educational (.edu) sites, the Delicious social bookmarking site, government (.gov) sites, the blog indexer Technorati.com and Wikipedia, in that order, as returning particularly high page rankings.

To read the rest of the article and learn about the different preferences of Google and Yahoo, link here.

Media

The First 11 Characters…

Amanda Nolz

I ran across an interesting article on the importance of the first eleven characters in an online document. Now, I know most writers cringe at having to utilize “key words” or pay attention to the meaning of their first eleven characters of text, but studies show this makes a difference if readers decide to click on your link in a search engine or not.

Users typically see about 2 words for most list items; they’ll see a little more if the lead words are short, and only the first word if they’re long. Of course, people don’t see exactly 11 characters every time, but we picked this number to ensure uniformity across the sites we tested.

Users don’t need to predict a link’s destination with 100% accuracy based solely on its 11 leading characters. In real life, links aren’t truncated on the page. Even if users see only the first 2 words or so during their initial scan, they can immediately read more if their eyes stop on the link.

To be most effective, website hosts need to do the following:

-Allow users to confidently predict what they’ll get if they click.
-Be clearly differentiated from the other links.
-Not be misleading or promise too much.

To learn more about this study, link to Jakob Nielson’s Alertbox on “The First Two Words”.

Media

Geared with New Gadgets

Amanda Nolz

img_1871Thanks to some much appreciated financial support from graduation monies, I have purchased some new gadgets to help me get my start. I bought a new MacBook and a Zoom H4 Recorder. Now the trick is getting accustomed to these new gadgets, and fast! A busy writer doesn’t have much time for reading instruction manuals, right?

ZoomAnd, now I have some questions. If you are a Mac user, what do you like best about them? What are your favorite tools on a Mac? Next, which editing software do you prefer for podcasts? Which ones are most user friendly?

Thanks for all of your support and advice! It means a lot to me!

Technology

Grains Council Launches The Grain Board

Chuck Zimmerman

The Grain BoardAnother ag group has joined the agriblogging ranks.

The U.S. Grains Council welcomes you to “The Grain Board.” This blog was created to serve as a sounding board for the latest trade developments, U.S. agriculture, Council happenings and whatever else comes to mind. We encourage you to comment on the postings, ask questions and share with your friends. Posts on “The Grain Board” are produced by U.S. Grains Council staff. Feel free to contact the bloggers at thegrainboard@grains.org.

Ag Groups