I don’t think Ray Gilmer, BASF Group Communications Manager, could have scripted a more perfect evening to close out their Media Summit here in Washington, DC.
We just finished our final dinner on top of the Hay-Adams Hotel right across from the White House which makes a great background for a picture. I’ve got quite a few more in the photo album so check them out. Thank you Tricia Braid Terry, RFD Radio Network, for taking the picture.
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
Before I get to BASF innovation I just have to let you know this is post # 5,000 on AgWired. Talk about some new media innovation!
Our first speaker this morning at the BASF Media Summit was Dr. Stefan Marcinowski, BASF Executive Board member. His job was to provide us with an overview of the company and a key word in his presentation was “Innovate.” Keeping with the theme of From Research to Reality, he says that BASF invests significantly in R&D which leads to innovation and that fuels the constant re-invention of the company.
I like his remark that the future is the “time zone where we’ll spend the rest of our lives.”
According to Dr. Marcinowski, BASF is the number one chemical company in the world in sales. He says their income has tripled in the last 10 years.
Here’s his remarks so you can download and listen to them: 
Remarks by Dr. Stefan Marcinowski (20 min MP3)
Or listen to them here now:basf-media-summit-4.mp3
Dr. Marcinowski was also on AgWired Live TV this morning as well. I interviewed him after his presentation.
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
I know I already posted an interview with our BASF Wine Cellar hosts but this morning I did one with video while I was broadcasting live.
So for those of you who got to listen to Katja Schweder and Bernhard Wolff, now you can watch them.
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
Wow. What a morning here at the BASF Media Summit. After doing some live video streaming, interviews, pictures and recordings we got to have lunch with USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, Bruce Knight.
Bruce talked about the farm bill of course. He used a description from a story in the Washington Post which called the current proposal “an overstuffed turkey.” When he was asked about so many farm groups coming out in support of the proposal he basically said that if he was a special interest group he’d be pretty pleased with it too. However, he said that just because a lot of groups support it, that doesn’t make it good for Americans.
I recorded his remarks so you can download and listen to them: Undersecretary Bruce Knight’s Remarks (30 min MP3)
Or listen to them here now:basf-media-summit-3.mp3
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
Apparently we’re going to be moving to different rooms this afternoon so this morning’s episode of AgWired Live TV is over but I have several recorded interviews like the following one with Mike Heinz, BASF President, Crop Protection Division.
Thanks to all of you who watched and made it through our internet access disappearing for a few minutes.
I didn’t know we had internet access here in the BASF Media Summit presentation room so I had to move my set up but we’re live and I’m going to stay live for the rest of the day.
You can see the live stream showing up on my Mac here in the back of the room.
Right now we’re near the end of the first session of speakers.
Somebody just turned the air conditioning on which has been really needed here this morning.
This is going to be a fun day of live web streaming activity. Hopefully I’ll bring you some live interviews during our breaks.
I’m sort of in the way back here in the room but hopefully people will get used to walking around my tripod and cables.
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
The BASF Media Summit is underway and we’ve got a big group of journalists here. I didn’t count but most seats are filled.
I’m recording the presentations and will be doing one on one interviews with each of them as well as having some on AgWired Live TV at the times listed in the last post.
Our first speaker, Dr. Stefan Marcinowski, BASF Executive Board member, just finished his presentation which included an overview of the company and their priorities. Right now we’re hearing from Dr. Peter Eckes, Senior VP, Global R&D, Crop Protection.
Stay tuned because there’s more to come.
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
Here’s the schedule for when I intend to be live on AgWired Live TV.
10:15 – 10:30am
12:00 – 12:15
3:00 – 4:00pm, eastern time. Approx. live break times.
Our sessions are across the hall in a different room where I don’t have internet access so I’m going to be be bringing people to the media room for some live interviews. Check us out:
AgWired Live TV
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
Our hosts for this evening’s dinner and wine tasting were (l-r) Katja Schweder and Bernhard Wolff, BASF Wine Cellar. Katja was German Wine Queen in 2006-2007.
I interviewed them prior to dinner and learned that BASF has a wine cellar with 1 million bottles of wine, including over 4,000 kinds of wine. Picking a selection to go with menu items like salmon, venison and lamb chops had to be difficult but they did it with ease. In fact, each of them picked a different wine for each course. To top it all off we were treated to a 1929 Maury wine which you would have to taste to believe.
Katja says that for her, working for BASF is “the next step up” from being Wine Queen. She’s got a bright future ahead of her.
You can download and listen to my interview with them here: Interview with Bernhard & Katja (4 min MP3)
Or listen to the interview right now:basf-media-summit-1.mp3
For each course of our meal Bernhard and Katja “performed” by describing each of the wines we tasted. You can hear Katja describing a Riesling here: basf-media-summit-2.mp3
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
This evening the attendees at the BASF Media Summit were treated to some of the finest wines in the world along with a fabulous dinner.
The man who has helped put this all together is Group Communications Manager, Ray Gilmer, who welcomed us before the dinner started.
Ray has put together a great program and tonight’s dinner was the perfect way to get it all started. As you’ll hear in my next post, we had some talented people here from Germany to make sure we had the proper wines to go with the menu.
AgWired coverage of the BASF Media Summit is sponsored by:
