Honoring Jim Evans

Chuck Zimmerman

Jim Evans and the Cindy'sThis evening we honored a real friend and mentor of many of us in agricultural communications, Jim Evans. He’s seen here with the Cindy’s (l-r Cindy Zimmerman, Cyndi Young, Jim, Cindy Cunningham).

A reception was held in Jim’s honor and to bring to our awareness a new “Campaign for the James F. Evans Endowed Chair in Agricultural Communications” at the University of Illinois. You are highly encouraged to make a contribution to the fund. I spoke with Jim to see what he thought of all this and in his normal, humble way, he thinks they should do this for “someone more fitting.” Right, Jim. Forget that. You are worthy.

Listen to my interview with Jim here: nafb-08-evans.mp3

NAMA/NAFB Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends in Agriculture/NAFB Convention is being sponsored by:

DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

Audio, Education, NAFB, University

NAFB Convention Opening Panel

Chuck Zimmerman

NAFB PanelWith the NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference over I’ve made the permanent move to the Westin for the NAFB meeting. After a joint meeting with NAMA, the first session for NAFB was titled, “Staking Value, Lifting Tides.” Mike Adams, AgriTalk presided over the session which featured some of our good friends.

You can see Bill Farmakis, J. L. Farmakis, Pat Morrow, BASF, Pat Rosner, Osborn & Barr and Barry Nelson, John Deere. Mike posed questions to them to get things started. The first one was “When you get a proposal, what form do you want it in and what are the criteria you use to decide which broadcast outlet gets a buy?”

Listen to the panelists answer that question here (after a brief introduction): nafb-08-value.mp3

Don’t forget to check out the photo album as it continues to grow:

NAMA/NAFB Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends in Agriculture/NAFB Convention is being sponsored by:

DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

Audio, NAFB

New Media Impact on Rural Lifestyle People

Chuck Zimmerman

You can learn more about the rural lifestyle survey that Susan Spaulding conducted courtesy of Paulsen AgriBranding.

Day two of NAMA’s Trends in Agriculture: Rural Lifestyle Marketing kicked off with a discussion of the impact of new media on rural lifestylers. Susan Spalding of Market Directions and Courtney Yuskis of the Country Living Association looked at the products and services that are gaining the interest of Rural Lifestylers.

NAMA, Video

Survey of Rural Lifestylers’

Chuck Zimmerman

Courtney YuskisThe first session today at Trends in Agriculture was all about a national survey of rural lifestyle people conducted by Susan Spaulding, Market Directions. She worked with the Country Living Association on the survey and the presentation was made jointly by Susan and CLA Director, Courtney Yuskis (pictured).

One of the interesting things I heard was the high level of importance that rural lifestylers’ place on new media. Very interesting. I asked Courtney to tell us some of the things they found out besides this. She says that this group is being hit with a lot of messages from lots of different types of companies and that suggests to me that there may be some real opportunities for companies to do some co-promotions.

You can hear more about the survey in my interview with Courtney here: trends-08-yuskis.mp3

If you’d like to purchase the full survey, contact Susan at Market Directions.

NAMA/NAFB Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends in Agriculture/NAFB Convention is being sponsored by:

DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

Audio, NAMA

Marketing To Idyllic Lifestyle Seekers

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-195 - Idyllic Lifestyle SeekersSomehow this post got deleted so I’m not sure what I originally posted but let me get it fixed.

At the NAMA Trends In Agriculture conference I learned about “Idyllic Lifestyle Seekers” from Dan Duffy, CEO, United Country Real Estate. He was on the program to talk about how they’re marketing to those you like to live a rural lifestyle. I’ve never heard them referred to as that but it works for me.

Dan DuffyDan says the term they use to describe this market came from research they conducted after he started working with the company.

He says that their job at United Country Real Estate is to help people make the transition to the rural lifestyle.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 195 (8 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Dan Duffy - ZimmCast 195

NAMA/NAFB Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends in Agriculture/NAFB Convention is being sponsored by:

DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

The ZimmCast is the official weekly podcast of AgWired which you can subscribe to using the link in our sidebar. You can also subscribe in iTunes

Audio, NAMA, ZimmCast

Get a Hat Like Ryan’s

Cindy Zimmerman

The Ethanol Promotion and Information Council is inviting NAFB members to get a hat while they’re hot.

Ryan HatThe first 30 farm broadcasters who stop by the EPIC booth at the NAFB Trade Talk to do an interview will receive a limited edition Team Ethanol cap – just like the one Indy car driver Ryan Hunter-Reay is wearing in this photo from the 2008 Indy 500. Ryan drove the Team Ethanol car to its best ever Indy 500 finish this year, and had the first ever victory for Number 17 in July at at the Camping World Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, NY.

EPIC Executive Director Toni Nuernberg will be at Trade Talk to discuss a new consumer survey that shows overwhelming support for biofuels as a way to reach energy independence. She will also be able to talk about EPIC’s successful blender pump initiative and how the ethanol industry is faring in the tough economy.

Also on hand at the EPIC booth will be Greg Krissek of ICM, one of the founders of the new ethanol organization Growth Energy. Greg will be able to discuss that topic, as well as any ethanol policy issues and ICM’s dry-frac technology.

Ethanol, NAFB

Rural Lifestyle Marketing From Paulsen

Chuck Zimmerman

Paulsen AgriBranding spoke with the second speaker here at the Trends in Agriculture conference. He was very interesting and will be the interview in this week’s ZimmCast.

So where are rural lifestylers these days? Dan Duffy, CEO of United Country Real Estate, told the NAMA Trends in Agriculture: Rural Lifestyle Marketing conference how agrimarketers can reach this target and how it is holding its own against the recent economic downturn.

NAMA, Video

NAMA Trends From Paulsen AgriBranding

Chuck Zimmerman

Speaking of Paulsen AgriBranding, here’s the first of their Trends in Agriculture video clips with our first speaker.

The NAMA Trends in Agriculture, Rural Lifestyle Marketing conference began with Frank Schuurmans of Decision Strategy International asking if your current strategy is “future proof.” He focused on future scenarios and asked attendees to test how their current strategy would fare.

NAMA, Video

Are You Sure About Your Strategy?

Chuck Zimmerman

Franck SchuurmansThe first speaker at the NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference was Franck Schuurmans, Non-Profit Practices for Decision Strategies International. He really made us work our brains early by speaking about strategies. For one thing he challenged everyone to not be so confident in “knowing what you know” as in “knowing what you don’t know.”

You’ve got to think about that a minute.

Hear some more words of his wisdom in my interview with him here: trends-08-schuurmans.mp3

In the picture Franck is being interviewed by Paulsen AgriBranding because they are once again sponsoring the NAMA Blog and doing short videos of the speakers here.

NAMA/NAFB Photo Album

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends in Agriculture/NAFB Convention is being sponsored by:

DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

Audio, NAMA

Why Do You Attend Trends in Agriculture?

Chuck Zimmerman

NAMA Trends in AgricultureI would have had more posted from the NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference last night but we had major web server work being done. That’s my excuse.

That’s all done with though so expect to see much more today here on AgWired. Let’s start with this.

I asked some of the folks attending why they are here: trends-08-collage.mp3

And of course there’s a photo album started that’s combined with the NAFB Convention here: NAMA/NAFB Photo Album.

AgWired coverage of the NAMA Trends in Agriculture/NAFB Convention is being sponsored by:

DTN/The Progressive Farmer.

Audio, NAFB, NAMA