It’s with a great deal of sadness that I have to report that Mike Miller, a friend and award winning farm broadcaster has passed away. Many of you may remember Mike from his days in farm broadcasting. Just prior to moving to Missouri I even lived with Mike in Houston and commuted with him to work each day as we were trying to get a full time satellite tv farm news channel off the ground. I was there in a consultant capacity and moved on to Learfield Communications while Mike kept at it. We had some memorable times there that I will never forget. He was a great talent and last fall I had hoped he was getting back into farm television. Here’s an excerpt from his obituary on the Macon.com.
Michael Douglass Miller -FORT VALLEY – Michael Douglass Miller, 53, died while on a business trip to Istanbul, Turkey on April 12, 2007. Services will be 11A.M. Thursday, April 19, 2007 at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Valley with The Rev. Drs. Donald and Ruth Tate officiating. Burial will be in Ruckersville, Virginia. -Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, to the late Douglass Harrison and Helen Gibson Miller, Mike was a graduate of Woodberry Forest School and Virginia Military Institute. He was the managing director of the ocean marine division of Allen Insurance Group, and had clients in forty nine countries. Prior to moving to Fort Valley, Mike spent the first twenty years of his career in the broadcast new media and won numerous national awards, including an Oscar. He and his wife, Debbie, have lived in Kentucky, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas. -Survivors: his wife of almost twenty five years, Debbie Cook Miller of Fort Valley, originally of Kentucky; sister, Patrice Miller Lifon of Canton, GA; nieces, Anne Douglass Ligon and Sarah Elizabeth Ligon, of Canton, GA; aunt, Charlotte Burrill of Fredericksburg, VA; and several cousins in Virginia. -In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to Saint Andrew’s Memorial Fund, 309 Central Ave., Fort Valley, GA 31030. -Rooks Funeral Home in Fort Valley has charge of arrangements.
The have a guest book you can sign.
AAEA Announces MarComm Awards
This is a very interesting announcement from the American Association of Agricultural Editors. MarComm Awards! We love awards. So quick, get your thinking cap on and start entering.
We are thrilled to announce that the AAEA Board of Directors on April 10, 2007, approved the American Agricultural Editors’ Association 2007 MarComm Awards program. This is our first awards program directed at those who produce great communications work for their companies, associations, clients, and others in the agribusiness world.
The program is open to affiliate members of AAEA, as well as potential members and active members who are eligible for the categories listed below. Entrants may enter any one of five categories and submit as many entries per category as desired. Cost is $20 per entry. These are the categories:
· News Release
· Advertorial
· Media/Special Event
· Media Room Web Content
· Newsletter – Print or Electronic.
Here’s where you can find the entry form. (Word doc)
Road Tripping This Week
This week I’m on the road again making some presentations which is far different from covering an event. My posting might be a little light but then again maybe I’ll find some time.
I have had a few AgWired fans say that their life gets so dull when there’s nothing new so I feel the pressure to bring you ever new and interesting content.
Hey, remember that there’s over 3,000 posts on here so there’s a lot of archives you can search.
A NAMA Retrospective With Eldon White
This past week’s NAMA Convention was Eldon White’s last one as the Executive Director/CEO. I think he’s been with NAMA for almost 16 years. Hard to believe it’s been that long. It seems like just yesterday Rex Parsons was there. Doesn’t it?
Eldon will be moving on to the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and has already made it clear he’ll be a NAMA member. Let’s see how quickly he gets involved! At the end of the convention on Friday I sat down for a little quiet retrospective with Eldon on his time with NAMA. I think you’ll hear why he’s made a great association staff leader. For one thing he believes the staff is there to serve and that the members are the leaders. That sort of unselfish attitude always came across to me and I’ve always enjoyed my relationship with Eldon. I’m sure many would echo that.
We’re sorry to see him leave NAMA but congratulate him on his new opportunity since it sure sounds like a new challenge. Now is a good time for NAMA to look at itself and evaluate its needs as a search will probably soon commence to find a replacement. Good luck Eldon and see you at a NAMA meeting somewhere, sometime. The picture is of Eldon in the NAMA board meeting last week, diligently taking notes.
You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: 
ZimmCast 115 (15 min MP3)
Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:
zimmcast115-4-15-07.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.
NAMA Agribusiness Leader of the Year Dale Ludwig
Our NAMA Agribusiness Leader of the Year is Dale Ludwig, Missouri Soybean Association. He received his award on stage during the opening general session.
Dale says that he has always wanted to win this award. For him receiving the award was like achieving a dream. Dale says that there’s a very bright future for agriculture. He says agriculture feeds the world, is now fueling the world and in the future will be significantly involved in health care. He also says it’s important growing up with a mentor that provides you with a good role model and that we shouldn’t forget to be a mentor to others too.
You can listen to my interview with Dale here:
nama-convention-07-ludwig.mp3Thank You NAMA
I haven’t finished posting everything I’ve got from the National Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show so expect some more to show up in time. I just thought I’d take a moment to say thanks to everyone I met this week. This was probably the busiest convention I’ve ever had. I wish I could have spent more time just visiting with friends and colleagues. For those of you who made a point of stopping by the booth just to say how much you like and appreciate AgWired and what ZimmComm New Media is doing I can’t be more grateful. You’re the people I’m doing this for because I love what we do and have always wished we had some more interactive place to showcase what we do. Your support makes it all worth while, even when it’s not easy.
I also want to thank Ned Arthur and Aaron Gilbertie, Truffle Media Networks, who teamed up with me on our Connection Point booth. We’re working together in several ways that include making some new media project presentations this week in cities like Memphis, St. Louis, Des Moines and Kansas City. Yes it’s another week on the agrimarketing highway. We think our two small businesses complement each other and allow us to offer even more comprehensive new media services to agencies and companies. If you’d like us to stop in and show you what we can do please let me know.
Finally I want to say a thank you to the NAMA staff and especially our outgoing Eldon White. They are all a pleasure to work with and make committee chairmen like me look better than we deserve. Thanks go to my trade show committee too for helping put together what I think turned out to be a really good trade show, in fact, one of the best I’ve exhibited at.
I promote NAMA a lot on AgWired not just because I’m targeting most of my content to people who are or should be members but because I believe in the organization. That’s why I’m a NAMA Advocate. I’ve been in agricultural marketing in some form for most of my 27 years of professional life and it is the single most important membership I hold. If you’re not a member the only way you’ll be able to evaluate it is to become one.
AdFarm Acquires Consulting Division of Issues Ink
I’m trying to catch up on some of my posts from the past week but you might need to give me a couple days. Here’s a story that came in late last week about AdFarm acquiring the consulting division of Issues Ink, an international consulting and publishing firm based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The acquisition will accelerate the expansion of AdFarm’s consulting division, which focuses on providing agribusiness insights to strengthen business and marketing performance.
Robynne Anderson, the current President of Issues Ink will join AdFarm’s consulting practice, as will three other Issues Ink staff members, Heidi Dancho, Kelly Green and Lindy Norris. Anderson will be based in the United Kingdom and Belgium; the other staff members in Winnipeg. Rob Hannam, the general manager of AdFarm’s consulting division, is leading the team from the Guelph, Ontario office.
A broad scope of clientele and projects, both domestic and international, are included in the acquisition. Issues Ink’s consulting practice consists of issues management, public relations, government relations, market information and strategic planning. Clients include agribusiness, government and various consortiums and organizations such as CropLife International.
Issues Ink remains a separate entity and retains ownership and operations of its publications such as Germination, Seed World, seed.ab.ca, Spud Smart, and Flavourful.
Lee McCoy Rides for Cancer
This is Lee McCoy, Southeast AgNet, taking part once again in a ride for cancer research. I know that a lot of people in the AgWired audience know Lee and have supported him in his efforts.
Hallelujah and Praise the Lord. You all did it. Thank you so much for your generosity. As I am writing this e-mail you have not only donated enough funds for the BriarRose Grand Peloton cancer ride that I am participating in for me to reach my original goal of $5,000, but you have contribute $6,125. I am so humbled and grateful. I can’t say thank you enough.
If you’d like to help Lee you can still make a donation here. The proceeds from the event go to the Georgia Cancer Coalition and Research Fund. Lee is a survivor!
DTN Launches DTNAg.com
This announcement came out earlier this week during NAMA. It looks like a very comprehensive DTN website. There’s even a section of blogs. Who would have ever thought that farmers would read blogs? It looks like DTN thinks so.
DTN, the leading provider of real-time market, news and weather information services for agriculture, today announced the launch of DTNAg.com, an interactive Web portal aimed at helping professional producers make better business decisions in today’s rapidly changing agriculture markets.
With the launch of DTNAg.com, DTN expands its coverage of agriculture markets and weather and introduces in-depth coverage of farm business, production and agriculture policy issues. The portal enables producers to interact with DTN analysts, industry experts and other top producers in real time in order to gain access to the information they need to make better marketing, production and business management decisions.
“As a result of rapidly shifting markets, record price volatility, major technological advancements and changing governmental policies, information is increasingly vital to the success of professional producers,” said Robert Gordon, chief executive officer, DTN. “DTNAg.com leverages the company’s extensive proprietary content and tools in order to provide an unmatched, interactive information center and online community that meets the needs of today’s agriculture industry.”
No wonder Robert Gordon, pictured here giving away a magnum of wine during the NAMA Connection Point, was all smiles.
Cheri Johnson Moves to Broadhead+Co
It seems like I have to go places to find out who the latest hires are at Broadhead+Co. No, not all three of these people. Just Cheri Johnson on the right. She’s now an account supervisor in the Minneapolis office. Broadhead just keeps getting broader. I’m sure the official news release is forthcoming but if you’re AgWired you know these things before all the rest.
This is part of the fun of attending NAMA. You get to find out who works where because one thing is for sure, we do move around. Anybody else have any announcements you’d like me to make here on AgWired? Also pictured above are Cyndi Young, Brownfield, (left) and Diane Johnson, Livestock Publications Council, (center).