Dixie Gray is Executive Director of Commercial LifeKnowledge

Chuck Zimmerman

Dixie GrayDixie Gray has been appointed to be the Executive Director of the Commercial LifeKnowledge team at the National FFA Organization.

As Executive Director, she is responsible for licensing and customizing FFA’s LifeKnowledge and collateral materials for other national youth organizations. “Dixie joins FFA from Indianapolis based @Work Solutions, a consulting firm providing human resources and information technology solutions to the career development industry,” said Tom Kapostasy, senior director of business operations.

“Her experience in adapting existing software to meet both local and Department of Labor needs for workforce development systems fits well with both the content of the LifeKnowledge lessons and our strategy of mass customization.” “I am pleased to accept this new responsibility and to join FFA to positively change the lives of students,” she said.

Ag Groups

Clyde Lear With a Mac

Chuck Zimmerman

Clyde with a MacThis is too good a picture to pass up. Clyde Lear, Learfield Communications, with a Mac. Way to go Clyde. I can just see this happening. Clyde starts using the Mac, realizes it’s pretty cool and contacts Charlie in Learfield Engineering to discuss a company-wide conversion. Next stop is short Roger/Stan/Greg conference call to talk about how much sales revenues need to go up to cover the cost of this decision.

Of course this will cause some heartburn in the news rooms as “we’ll have to learn to do what?” is uttered over and over. The production people will all be saying “hooray” since they know editing on a Mac is way more fun. Same in sales support where they have to constantly be designing creative new materials to help the staff obtain the money to pay for all this.

Am I missing anything? Let me know when this all comes to pass.

So, if you see Clyde at the NAMA convention next week at the Brownfield party (I assume he’ll be there once again) congratulate him on his Mac. I sure will.

Thanks for the heads up Steve.

Media

Is Blue Better

Chuck Zimmerman

Why Blue is BetterI was looking through my latest issue of Living The Country Life and saw an ad for New Holland. It features a blue cow out in front of a red, green and a sort of off-white cow. All it says is “Looking for a new tractor? whyblueisbetter.com.” That leads you to a website showing off some tractors.

You can listen to different ones starting up and watch videos of various features of each.

Pretty cool website. It also includes a dealer locater.

By the way, Living The Country Life features an electronic version which gives you multiple format choices to download, including I’m happy to see, a Mac OS version.

Agribusiness, Internet, New Holland, Tractor

NIAA Symposium Release

Chuck Zimmerman

National Institute For Animal AgricultureThe National Institute For Animal Agriculture has just sent out its final virtual news room release from its annual meeting out in California. Just like earlier this week they’re using AgNewsWire.AgWired.com to produce and distribute the release.

The National Institute for Animal Agriculture annual meeting in Sacramento this week featured a symposium titled “Impacts of Animal Production Safety Practices on the Food Supply.”

Included in this release are links to audio interviews, photos and power point files from presenters at the symposium. All audio interviews are 96 kpbs mp3 files and can be downloaded from the link. If you would prefer to have the file emailed directly to you, please contact us.

Download Full Release Here

Ag Groups, Public Relations

Let’s Meetup in Dallas Next Week

Chuck Zimmerman

ZimmComm/Truffle MeetupHello all you AgWired fans. How about an AgWired Meetup?

Next week is the 2007 Agri-Marketing Conference and Trade Show as if you didn’t know. Most of the activities kick off on Wednesday but I know a lot of you will be there early, like me. So the Truffle guys and I are inviting you to stop by and say hello on Tuesday afternoon. We’ll be hanging out in Monduel’s, the Hyatt Regency atrium bar and we’ll buy you a drink. We being yours truly, Ned Arthur and Aaron Gilbertie. (Aaron’s buying, right Aaron?). It’s easy to find. Just come in the lobby entrance and look up since it’s up a level by escalator.

When you stop by we’ll give you a card to bring by our booth at the Trade Show so you can enter to win an iPhone. Get in on your chance to win the coolest phone of the decade. You’ll also be able to listen to sample podcasts on our listening stations in the booth just in case you’re not already subscribing to one of our podcasts.

Of course I’ll be NAMA blogging not only on AgWired but also on the NAMA Blog. I’m sure there will be pictures taken at our meetup but don’t get all shy on me. So if you’re coming from the golf tournament, heading to the student competition judges reception or just hanging out with nothing else to do plan to stop by and see us in Monduel’s.

Then plan to stop by the ZimmComm New Media and Truffle Media Networks booth #311 in the Trade Show on Wed or Thursday to enter our drawing. See you there.

(Yes that is a new ZimmComm logo. More on that later.)

NAMA

Webinars on Webinars & Blogging

Chuck Zimmerman

eMarketerIf you’re not a regular reader of eMarketer I highly recommend it. Theirs is one of the only daily e-newsletters I subscribe to and actually read. They also send out an eMarketer FYI on timely subjects. The latest is on a GoToMeeting webinar on the Top Ten Webinar Best Practices. I’ve had a number of clients asking about webinars lately and thought you might want to check this out if you’re thinking about conducting one for your company or client.

Webinars are an increasingly important channel for sharing a wide variety of useful content and broadening the reach of any size organization. Learn how leading innovators have mastered the key aspects of Webinar planning, delivery and analysis to boost revenue, reduce costs and drive productivity in their organizations.

This webinar will take place on April 11 at 10am-pdt or 1pm-edt. The speakers will be Michael Osterman, Founder, Osterman Research and Eric Choi, Product Marketing Manager, Citrix Online. Here’s where you register.

PR NewswireAnother webinar you might want to check out is on blogging and being offered by PR Newswire. It’s called “Blogging: Get in? Get out? or Get out of the way?” You can probably guess what my answer is.

PR Newswire has brought together a panel of online veterans to discuss blogging as it pertains to the PR professional and the news reporter. Learn how blogging has changed journalism, how it has opened new lines of communication outside the traditional press and how PR professionals should (or shouldn’t) react to the trend.

This webinar takes place on April 12 at 2pm-edt. Here’s where you register.

Internet, Public Relations

New Media Workshops at the Ag Media Summit

Chuck Zimmerman

2007 Ag Media SummitThanks to the Livestock Publications Council’s latest newsletter I’ve got an early peak at the program for this summer’s Agricultural Media Summit. You can find a general program outline on the Ag Media Summit website.

If you want to see the detailed schedule then join LPC or give me a call and I can share it with you. I do want to point out two workshops though. Why? Because I’m the presenter. I conducted my first workshop ever at last year’s Summit and I guess I didn’t alienate anyone. In fact, I had quite a few people ask me to come back and develop the topics from last year’s session. So that’s what I’m doing. Last year I gave a pretty basic overview of blogging and podcasting. This year I think agricultural journalists are much more familiar with how these new media channels work and they want to know more about how to apply it in their businesses.

The two workshops I’ll be giving are:

Publishing: Blogging for Business – Monday, July 30 8:30-10am

Publishing: Podcasting for Publishers – Tuesday, July 31 10:15-11:45am

Registration opens on April 15. I hope to see you there.

Ag Media Summit

Mangoes From India

Chuck Zimmerman

You are definitely not going to see this on CNN or Fox News. At least not until they have their event in June. I can only imagine what Florida or California mango growers think of this idea. How big of a need do we have for mangoes anyway?

U. S. - India Business CouncilToday, the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) met with U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Susan Schwab, to advocate for import of Indian mangoes to the United States this season. “The possibility of mango export to the U.S. assumes commercial as well as symbolic significance, as access to the global marketplace will benefit Indian farmers and consumers, together with their American counterparts,” USIBC’s president, Ron Somers, said.

The Bush administration, working through the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is actively clearing the way for Indian mango exports to the U.S. this harvest season. USIBC’s member-companies are spearheading the private sector lobbying effort to ensure these exports. “The U.S.-India Business Council hopes to host in Washington, D.C. the first-ever Indian Mango-Tasting Festival this harvest season — at USIBC’s 32nd Anniversary ‘Global India’ Summit,” Ron Somers said.

That Summit takes place June 27th.

Agribusiness, International

Land O’Lakes Makes Better Animals

Chuck Zimmerman

Better Animals.orgIt’s “The place where animal lovers come together.” It’s a new interactive website by Land O’Lakes Purina Feed. You need to be a member to be able to take advantage of the features offered on the site.

Land O’Lakes employees, members and customers now have a fun, interactive way to learn about Land O’Lakes Purina Feed’s Better Animals program. Visit www.betteranimals.com, the place where animal lovers come together, and become a member. Membership grants access to newsletters, future information, product offers and the ability to post pictures and stories about your favorite animals by clicking on “Show and Tell.”

Land O’Lakes Purina Feed is also producing a 13-episode television show called Animal Makeover TV, airing on RFD-TV, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST starting May 8. Each episode will highlight animal Ph.D. experts, veterinarians and researchers discussing animal environment, health, equipment, tools and nutrition with insight and solutions to help viewers make better animals. During each episode, viewers will be encouraged to visit www.betteranimals.com to view clips from the show and find additional resources.

Agribusiness, Internet