If you’re a media person and going to the Agricultural Media Summit then StollerUSA is giving you some incentive to stop by their booth at the Info Expo.
For starters, if you stop by and talk about Bio-Forge you get a $20 iTunes card.
Then you can get entered into a contest for an iPod Nano. They’ll be giving one away each session.
Oh, and they’re in booth #313. I’m going to be stopping by.
To be an ambassador you’ve got to be passionate about your subject. These ladies are definitely that.
Pictured are (left-right) Carol Abrahamzon, ANCW, project manager from Minnesota, Joann Strom, South Dakota, Londa Johnson, Minnesota, Amanda Rankin, California and Christie Molinaro, Pennsylvania.
I asked them what it means to be a beef ambassador and what they do.
One of their most memorable experiences included getting to meet President Bush in Washington, DC. Another one was distributing beef samples at the Dover International Speedway during a Nascar Race.
Listen to my interview with the Beef Ambassadors here (6 min.): cisc-07-ambassador.mp3
The executive committee is hard at work here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference.
They took a short break and before they got started again Diane Henderson, CBB staff, and I got them together for a photo.
I’ll be able to do some interviews later. They’re going to be going out to the new Cattlemen’s Beef Board offices for lunch to see what it’s like. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures of that for you too.
The media room here at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference is being sponsored once again by Merial.
Pictured here are Kevin DeHaan, director of technical services, Igenity, a division of Merial, and Wendy Mayo, Bader Rutter.
I talked with Kevin about Igenity and what it can do for cattle producers, both beef and dairy. He says that right now is a good time to think about getting some DNA profiling done to enhance the weaning process. More information is always better. I’ll let Kevin explain how and why.
Listen to my interview with Kevin here (6 min.): cisc-07-dehaan.mp3
The Cattle Industry Summer Conference isn’t the only thing going on here in Denver. The National Dairy Council is also meeting at the same time/place for the first time. The NDC started off with a general meeting this afternoon. Here’s what they’ll be doing tomorrow.
A unique highlight of this year’s Summer Conference will take place Tuesday, July 17, when the National Dairy Council and the Beef Checkoff team up for a nutrition symposium. The session will examine the common nutrition environment currently faced by the beef and dairy industries. Topics will include areas that the two industries work on together – the Nutrient Rich Foods Coalition, the importance of high-quality protein in the diet, and putting fatty acids into perspective.
I think this makes a lot of sense. Dairy producers are in the beef business and are paying the Beef Checkoff too.
I am pretty sure I was the first customer at the promotional items booth.
I’m the proud owner of a Beef Board denim shirt and cap.
You can get yours too. If you’re not here there’s a place to make purchases online.
The executive committee of the Beef Board is already at work here in Denver. They get together to make sure everything is in order before everyone else arrives at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference. At their lunch meeting I spoke with CBB chairman, Ken Stielow. He provides us with an overview of the conference from the Checkoff perspective.
Ken says that they’re going to be BUSY. For one thing he says they’ll get to see a new set of creative advertising that’s being proposed. That’s going to take some time and thought. Although it’s fun to see the new ideas he says they take it very seriously since there is a big responsibility to spend Checkoff dollars wisely.
Ken says that while the Beef Board is meeting the dairy checkoff organization will also be meeting. He says this will provide an opportunity for better support and understanding on the part of dairy producers. He’s also hoping that by meeting together they’ll find some synergy in some of the promotional efforts each organization is working on.
Listen to my interview with Ken here (4 min.): cisc-07-stielow.mp3
The masters of the media room are Joe Schuele and Grace Webb. Once again they’re setting up for the media. This time at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference.
Things don’t really get cranked up until tomorrow but us bloggers are on the scene early (actually I’m the only one here at the moment). I interviewed Joe and Grace as they were working. You can tell that they’ve already lost too much sleep and we’ve got a long way to go. However, I did get some serious comments out of them during the interview.
Joe says that some of the issues being discussed here this week include the farm bill and energy bill since both will have an impact on the pocket books of cattlemen of which he expects about 1,000 to be here during the conference. Grace says they’re expecting about 35 to 40 media representatives.
Here’s my interview with the media room masters: cisc-07-media-room.mp3
Here’s some evidence to show how serious podcasting is becoming. It’s a new group that’s just being formed to address standards with downloadable media like podcasts. It’s the Association for Downloadable Media. The initial mission statement is:
To provide leadership in and organization of advertising and audience measurement standards, research, education and advocacy to all those involved in portable media (Podcasts/ATOM/RSS media enclosures) across the Internet, iPods, MP3 players, mobile devices, P2P and other upcoming platforms.
Here’s an excerpt from their news release earlier today:
Industry leaders from the podcasting community announced today the formation of the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM). The goal of the ADM is to develop standardization of audience measurement and advertising for downloadable media. The ADM will focus primarily on the world of podcasting, downloadable media and portable content monetized by advertising and sponsorship. The ADM will create a landscape that facilitates the commercialization of this growing audience.
The purview of the ADM includes revenue generation from advertising and sponsorships of podcasts, vodcasts (aka vidcasts, video podcasts, or vlogs), and other audio/video digital content distributed via RSS, ATOM, peer-to-peer, mobile devices, downloads from Web sites and other platforms to come.
The organization has been formed to focus specifically on any content downloaded by consumers, and will work in collaboration with related industry organizations, publishers and agencies such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA).
Great idea and I’ve already submitted my name to be one of the first to join as soon as membership is available. Now do you think we could have a committee or offshoot organization called the Association of Downloadable Farm Media?
At the 2007 InfoAg Expo I had a nice conversation with Paul Schrimpf, editor, CropLife Media Group. His company was one of the key organizers of the event and the Precision Ag Awards from the Precision Ag Institute. In the photo he was announcing the award winners.
While talking with Paul he explains how they are involved with the conference. We also talked about how technology is changing the way we communicate as much as the way we farm. For example, he says that they’ve surveyed precision ag farmers and they’re likely to have high speed internet so that’s making his publication company pay more attention to what they’re doing online. For one thing, they’ve kind of re-launched PrecisionAg.com and Paul’s even making blog entries.
The program ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network and Andrew Pfaff. The song is “Information Technology.” After all that’s what we’re talking about!
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 128 (17 min MP3)
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zimmcast128-7-15-07.mp3The 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.
