Having Fun With EPIC

Chuck Zimmerman

Reece Nanfito and MeHere’s Reece Nanfito, EPIC director of marketing and me having fun at the GasAmerica pump promotion. We weren’t even drinking ethanol yet.

Laura took this picture. I think it captures the essence of working with a client your really enjoy doing business with. I’ve spent a lot of time with the folks at EPIC and truly appreciate not only their mission but their support in sponsoring my coverage of events and allowing us the opportunity to do other work for them too, like re-building their member website.

2007 Indy 500 Photo Album

Indy Racing

Winning a Flex-Fuel Silverado

Chuck Zimmerman

Green Flag Sweepstakes WinnerHANK FM, along with Gas America and EPIC ran the Green Flag Sweepstakes with the winner being picked yesterday afternoon after the pump promotion. HANK was doing a live remote throughout the event. Here’s how it worked.

Participants had to listen to the station or visit a Gas America station for keywords. Then they had to text the word to the station and if they were a winner they got a bounce back text message saying so. The winners all had to show up to press a buzzer and if it played “Dixie” you won a 2-year lease on a Flex-Fuel Chevy Silverado!

Well the winner is Kathleen from Franklin, IN. She was very excited as you can tell. I interviewed her to see how she felt and what she thinks of ethanol. indy-07-kathleen.mp3

2007 Indy 500 Photo Album

Audio, Ethanol, Indy Racing

Media Coverage of Pump Promotion

Chuck Zimmerman

Al Pell and Jeff SimmonsThe Gas America pump promotion here in Indianapolis generated about the most media coverage I’ve seen at one of these. I’m sure EPIC is happy.

We had two tv choppers hovering overhead throughout the event and there was a big backup of cars trying to get in for $2.25 gas. By the way, have you seen the bumper sticker yet that says, “Beer, Now Cheaper Than Gas, Drink Don’t Drive?” That’s a good one.

2007 Indy 500 Photo Album

Ethanol, Indy Racing

Al Pell and Jeff Simmons

Chuck Zimmerman

Al Pell and Jeff SimmonsIt just looks like Al Pell, U. S. Farm Report, is proposing to Jeff Simmons, driver of the Team Ethanol Indy car. Al was actually interviewing Jeff for the show at yesterday’s Gas America pump promotion.

I talked with Jeff and he seems to be very upbeat going into race week for the greatest spectacle in racing.

2007 Indy 500 Photo Album

Indy Racing

Laura Meets Ron

Chuck Zimmerman

Laura and RonI didn’t get to meet and talk with Indianapolis Speedway director of photography, Ron McQueeney (pictured on the right) until after I’d been covering Indy Car races for a year or so. Laura got to meet the man on her first trip out. She seems pretty comfortable jumping right in there and is getting some great shots. I took this picture at yesterday’s Gas America ethanol pump promotion.

We’re taking lots of pictures here this week and a selection is being put into our online photo album. If you see something you’d like a higher res version of let me know and I can email it to you when I get time.

The Ethanol Summit just got over with a little while ago and we’re in the Speedway media center doing some photo and audio editing.

2007 Indy 500 Photo Album

Indy Racing

Our Healthy Land Talks About Farm Bill

Chuck Zimmerman

American Farmland TrustAmerican Farmland Trust is providing tools for people to use when lobbying Congress on the farm bill. It’s on a new section of their website called “Our Healthy Land.”

“Congress is Talking About Your Food” and the corresponding website, www.ourhealthyland.org, give consumers an overview of the federal farm bill, and suggests ways in which they can become informed and join the 2007 Farm Bill debate. The website also offers consumers access to specific resources for further information concerning U.S. farm and food policy. To obtain quantities of the brochure for distribution, please call (800) 370-4879, ext. 17.

The brochure and supporting website are a joint project Coleman Natural Foods (CNF) and American Farmland Trust (AFT) through the Coleman Eco-Project 2015, a decade-long conservation program created to raise awareness about the link between conservation, healthy land, healthy food and healthy people, and connect consumers with where and how their food is raised and produced.

Ag Groups

Hefty Competition at Ag PhD

Chuck Zimmerman

AgMinuteI don’t know how familiar you are with Brian and Darren Hefty of Ag PhD but they’ve just started making their television show available on their website. They also produce a regular radio feature called “The Ag Minute.”

“As farmers ourselves we understand that it might not always be possible to watch Ag PhD as often as farmers would like,” said Brian Hefty, co-host of Ag PhD with his brother, Darren Hefty. “This gives the farmer an opportunity to download that latest information to their computer or other portable media player. We really appreciate the feedback that viewers continue to give us on how the show helps them in their operation, and it’s viewer feedback that has led us to develop an online product.”

Entering it’s tenth year of production, Ag PhD is a weekly half-hour television program that currently airs on 13 affiliates in the upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest, as well as nationwide on the RFD-TV Network (DirecTV channel 379 and Dish Network channel 231).

The brothers sound pretty competitive since they’re currently running a poll to see which one won the weekly “sibling showdown debate.”

Media

Laura McNamara Contributing to AgWired

Chuck Zimmerman

Laura McNamaraHello AgWired fans. In order to keep you even more up to date on what’s new in agribusiness we’d like to welcome Laura McNamara as a contributing editor. Laura is helping me here in Indianapolis this week covering ethanol related activities including the 91st Indy 500 this Sunday. She’s also helping me with posts on our Domestic Fuel website. We spent the day at a local pump promotion and I’ll have some more on that for you by tomorrow.

Let me tell you a little bit about Laura. She spent the last nine months covering Missouri state politics for a statewide radio network, The Missourinet. Before working there she spent last summer working in Rome, where she mostly covered news from the Vatican. She did work for the television news agency, RomeReports. Laura earned her broadcast journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. While a student, Laura also worked as a Laura McNamaratelevision reporter and fill-in anchor for KOMU NewsChannel 8 in Columbia and as a radio reporter for Missouri Digital News out of the Capitol in Jefferson City.

Laura’s involved in an interview session with Indy Car driver Sarah Fisher (right) at the pump promotion today in this picture. Yes, she’s using the golden ZimmComm microphone!

Laura wants to expand her reporting experience by covering events all over the world and we’re happy to be working with her. She’s going to be helping me post regular news items on AgWired and with coverage of certain events. You can feel free to send her your announcements as well as to me.

While we’re working together here in Indy you can find a selection of our photos in an online photo album:

2007 Indy 500 Photo Album

Uncategorized

Feed and a Degree on the ZimmCast

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmCast-120 - Feed and DegreeThis week’s program contains interviews with Alltech founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons and Owen Roberts, University of Guelph. You can also hear a song from Jen Elliott and Bluestruck called “Curse on You” from the Podsafe Music Network.

Dr. Pearse Lyons founded Alltech in 1980 and his company has grown into an international agribusiness. Each year he holds a Symposium for his customers from around the world. While there this week I interviewed him about how he started his company and what he thinks about the whole food/feed vs. fuel situation. I think you’ll find that he’s looking for ways to assist all parties so that we not only continue to feed the world but also develop new energy sources that are more environmentally friendly.

Owen Roberts talks about the new online graduate degree program in agricultural communications that will start this fall at the University of Guelph, Ontario. Owen is an IFAJ board member who was attending their board meeting being held in conjunction with the Alltech Symposium.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: Listen To ZimmCastZimmCast 120 (15 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:

zimmcast120-5-22-07.mp3

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.

Agribusiness, Audio, IFAJ, International, ZimmCast

Meyocks Team Grows

Chuck Zimmerman

Kristin OelmannThe Meyocks Group has added two new team members and the president is pleased.

Kristin Oelmann joins the agency as an account coordinator. Previously she was a marketing coordinator with Iowa Realty/First Realty GMAC in West Des Moines.

A native of Ackley, Iowa, Oelmann earned a bachelor’s degree in communication arts at Wartburg College in 2006.

Angel ModtlandAngel Modtland, a former agency intern, joins as an art director. Modtland is from Webster City.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design at Iowa State University this year.

“We’re pleased to enhance our client services by adding the talents and enthusiasm of both Kristin and Angel,” said Craig Clasen, agency president.

Agencies