It’s never too soon to look forward to food on Thanksgiving. The folks at All Recipes have some great information for you if you have any questions. I’ll be doing some gourmet cooking at hunting camp later this week and sharpening my skills in time to whip up a holiday feast at the Zimmerman home.
To help America’s intrepid home cooks achieve the most relaxing holiday possible, the experts at Allrecipes.com have created full, customizable menus perfect for both seasoned Thanksgiving veterans and those new to hosting a turkey day extravaganza. Both categories offer multiple, tried-and-true recipe ideas, including Easy Herb-Roasted Turkey, Savory Turkey Gravy, Holiday-Only Mashed Potatoes, Sauteed Green Beans and Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Gingersnap Crust, preparation timelines and tips that range from how to brine a turkey to the secret to perfect potatoes. All of which will ensure that the only stress you experience on the big day is deciding who gets the last piece of pie, which of course defaults to the cook.
New Homestead Feeds Website
It looks like Hubbard Feeds has a new website.
This website is intended as a comprehensive resource for the niche pork or beef producer who doesn’t want to use antibiotics or rendered animal proteins in their feeds. “The new site will offer a broad range of product information for the enterprising producer that is taking advantage of key niche markets and developing alternatives to the traditional commodity system of selling pork and beef,” says Dr. Robert Musser, head of the Hubbard Feeds swine nutrition team. Homesteadfeeds.com offers product information for every segment of pork and beef production as well as background information on Opticare products.
“ The new Homestead website reflects our continued commitment to offer our customers a wide range of nutrition products that deliver performance including complete feeds, concentrates, basemixes and premixes,” said Musser. “Niche value-added pork and beef production is growing and consumers are looking for more products that are perceived as more wholesome. We decided to create a specific feeding program that helps the producer raise and feed livestock under the strict growing guidelines of niche markets.”
FEMA Past President
I finally caught up with Jim Wessing, Kondex Corporation this afternoon after our session.
Jim is the immediate past president now of the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association. I spoke with him about what FEMA is and what benefits it offers its members. There’s a lot of work this very small staff does out of St. Louis!
Jim said that in the last year the organization has added 84 new member companies and that 31 of them had representatives here at the convention.
Listen to my interview with Jim: fema-06-wessing.mp3
Connect With Your End User
The guy who really got the panel put together here at the FEMA convention today was Connor Flynn, Lessing-Flynn.
Connor was our emcee but started out talking about how flat marketing communications has become.
He stressed the need for companies to connect directly with their customer base.
Listen to my interview with Connor: fema-06-flynn.mp3
Here’s Connor’s PowerPoint presentation.
Your Website Should Make Sales
Another of my fellow panelists this afternoon was Dale Bentlage, Global Reach.
Dale talked about having a well-planned web strategy for your company.
He told our audience how important a company website can be in generating sales.
Listen to Dale’s summary of his presentation: fema-06-bentlage.mp3
Dale sent in his PowerPoint presentation. You can access his slides here: Dale Bentlage Presentation
Who Are Your Customers
On our panel this afternoon here at the FEMA convention was Joe Baitinger, FarmMarketiD.
Joe was here to talk about database marketing. He talked about the importance of developing your customer database and using it. Too often companies tend to collect data and let it sit unused. I like the way he called it a perishable commodity. What good is having thousands of prospective client contacts if you don’t use them. Joe talks about how important it is to know who your customers are in a very segmented industry.
Listen to Joe’s summary of his presentation: fema-06-baitinger.mp3
Joe sent in his PowerPoint presentation. You can access his slides here: Joe Baitinger Presentation
Your Agriblogger At Work
While I was presenting today Connor Flynn got a picture.
See how I make the AgWired community part of the demonstration? You are a great audience, thank you very much.
I know we’re going to see more and more blogging in the agribusiness world. I should have collected the url’s of the blogs that people in our audience have. When I got started on this about 2 years ago most people didn’t even know what a blog was much less have one.
Hey, it only makes sense.
Post Update: Just to clear up any confusion . . . That’s Connor’s Apple notebook in the picture. Yours truly is still a PC guy. Although I’m keeping my options open.
Ready To Represent You
It kind of sounds like a law firm doesn’t it?
It’s just our Marketing Communications Strategies & Tactics session this afternoon at the FEMA convention.
I’ll have some pictures, audio and powerpoint presentations from each of my co-panelists as soon as they email them to me.
We had a full room of people for our session and lots of good questions. Many of them had to do with blogs and the software that we would recommend.
You may know my choice: WordPress.
In Our Marketing Session
Here we are in the FEMA convention breakout session.
This is just before we got started.
We have a full house that includes some bloggers. I’m happy to see that and think it’s a “trend?”
Maybe.
More in a moment.
He’s Incoming President
So if Jim Wessing is the outgoing president of FEMA, who’s incoming?
He’s Richard Heiniger, Hemisphere GPS. Jim got introduced at the beginning of today’s general session here at the FEMA convention.
Later this afternoon I’m on the panel of a breakout session on “Marketing Communications Strategies & Tactics.” I’m going to be using these posts in my presentation. Hey, they’re even better than PowerPoint slides don’t you think?
I’m sure all the folks here will want to be in the Ramsey Room here at the Hilton at 2pm to see what we’ve got to say. It should be interesting.