New Leadership At Osborn & Barr

Chuck Zimmerman

Steve KunkelThere’s some new leadership at Osborn & Barr Communications. Like Steve Kunkel here who is now Vice President of Client Services for the St. Louis office.

Steve came to O&B with a proven record of business growth. Prior to joining the agency, he served as managing partner and account director at Copper Advertising in Kalamazoo, Mich. and directed new business efforts that won accounts with AAA Michigan, HoMedics Personal Care Products and Cielo Baths by Whirlpool Corporation. Steve also served as a vice president and account supervisor for The Puckett Group in St. Louis, where he played an instrumental part in helping the agency more than double its billings and staff in five years.

Suzan KneseSuzan Knese has been hired as the Director of Human Resources and oversees all human resources activities within the agency. She also serves as a valuable member of Osborn & Barr’s management team.

Suzan gained extensive knowledge of the advertising industry and the human resources needs of an agency during her nine years as the vice president/director of human resources at D’Arcy Advertising, where she implemented new evaluation plans and assisted the corporate officers with culture integration during two mergers and acquisition. Her prior experience also includes running her own human resources consulting firm, Source One.

Agencies

Iraq Wheat Harvest

Chuck Zimmerman

Iraq Wheat HarvestHere’s a timely report from Paul McKellips, Global Outreach Officer, US Embassy Baghdad, The Green Room – Public Affairs GO Team. It’s almost time for Commodity Classic which will include wheat this year so finding out what’s going on with wheat production in Iraq is nice to know. It looks like seed cleaners are making all the difference in the world.

The southern Iraqi Province of Wassit shipped more than 110,000 tons of wheat and 90,000 tons of barley to state silos this past harvest. This is a record yield for the province and four times higher than the 2005-crop season’s 48,000 tons combined. Countrywide, Iraq produced 1.2 million tons of wheat and 144,000 tons of barley. The record harvest can be attributed to American help and improved technology.

Full Report (Word doc)

Listen to his report:

iraq-wheat-harvest.mp3
Audio, International, Wheat

40 iPods in 40 Hours

Chuck Zimmerman

Elanco 40 iPods in 40 HoursThe most interesting direct mail piece I’ve received for the upcoming Cattle Industry Convention Trade Show comes from Elanco Animal Health. It’s 40 iPods in 40 Hours.

You have to go to their booth to register for one of 40 iPod Nanos they’ll be giving away from their booth (#761).

You’ve got to love a company that’s so committed to new media. And since they are why not give away iPods? You’ll be hearing more about Elanco’s commitment to new media in this week’s ZimmCast since I have an interview with Truffle Media Network and we talk about their commodity podcasts which are all sponsored by Elanco.

Agribusiness, Cattle Industry Conference, Podcasts

IFAJ E-News Member Survey Results

Chuck Zimmerman

IFAJThe latest IFAJ E-News is out and it contains a summary of the results of an online member survey that was just conducted. The results are interesting. Here’s a selection of what the survey found:

While we only received a small number of responses, the trends were clear. Getting your stories published, limited career opportunities and low salaries all rated highly, each selected by almost 47% of respondents. Limited training or professional development opportunities were important, but did not rate as high, at 33%. Respondents were less concerned about personal safety (only 7%).

Some comments were published too like these:

  • “Readers quite often don’t know the difference between an ad and an article. Some papers are owned by the national farmer’s organisations and the companies that advertise sometimes expect to have news articles written about them, otherwise they won’t continue to advertise.”
  • “A decline in advertising revenues continually pressures editors to do more with less. That means fewer staffers and less time to produce the quality stories it takes to compete in today’s competitive ag journalism arena.”
  • “Low salaries, especially with entry-level positions, makes it difficult to compete with advertising and public relations agencies that pay more. Hiring qualified employees is just more difficult.”

I’m betting that all journalists feel these same concerns today. This new media world is changing the rules. Add in the consolidation that’s taking place with media companies as well as corporations and things just aren’t going to be the same. I look at these times as ones of opportunity though. I’d rather adapt and grow than sit back, complain and wish for the good old days.

IFAJ

Magnetic Attraction

Chuck Zimmerman

Poultry Expo ExhibitorThanks to Arnold Huelsmann, The Arnold Company, Al Crawshaw, Puritan Magnetics got his picture taken with me and I just have to post it. Arnold, you should be in public relations.

I went to set my camera down in the booth here but Al stopped me before I set it on top of a huge magnet. That would have been a serious problem with a memory card filled with pictures!

I hope you had a good show guys.

Farm Shows, Poultry

Tale of Two Expos Part Two

Chuck Zimmerman

Poultry Expo Don DaltonHere’s Don Dalton, President of the U. S. Poultry & Egg Association, along with Lakeisha Futch, who’s been very helpful here in the media room.

I interviewed Don a little while ago but don’t have my sync cable for my iPod with me so I’ll add the interview here later. Don gives his perspective on the co-location of the Poultry and Feed Expos and it sounds like he’s pleased with how things have gone.

Listen to my interview with Don:

poultry-expo-dalton.mp3

By the way, today is Lakeisha’s birthday – Happy Birthday!

Ag Groups, Audio, Farm Shows, Poultry

Robotic Palletizer In Action

Chuck Zimmerman

Feed Expo PalletizerThere’s lots of equipment on display here at the International Poultry & Feed Expos.

Take this palletizing machine by Columbia Okura.

For over 10 years Columbia/Okura has been the premier provider of four-axis, multi-articulated robots, proven end-of-arm tooling, controls, conveyors, guarding… everything your company needs to increase productivity and decrease unnecessary costs.

The show is about over and I haven’t even visited the other exhibit hall which has much more equipment. Too much for one lone blogger to handle.

Farm Shows, Poultry, Video

From Feed Mills To Ethanol Plants

Chuck Zimmerman

Poultry & Feed Expos James DoddThe word ethanol has been used many times here at the International Poultry & Feed Expos. Often in positive terms but not always. The word was prominently displayed on the backdrop to the AGR International (password protected website?) booth so I stopped in since we do so much work for the ethanol industry.

AGR International has traditionally been involved in the construction of feed mills but is now expanding its services to work with ethanol plant designers since the front and back end of an ethanol plant has a lot of similarities. I spoke with company president, James Dodd who talks about this new area of business development.

Listen to my interview with James:

poultry-expo-dodd.mp3
Audio, Ethanol, Farm Shows, Poultry

iPod Vending Machine

Chuck Zimmerman

iPod Vending MachineI’ve heard about iPod vending machines but have never seen one until this morning walking into the Georgia World Congress Center for the last day of the International Poultry and Feed Expos.

This machine is right out in a main hallway and contains everything you could want as accessories and all the currently available models. Just plug in your credit card and enter your order and boom, you’ve got your iPod, earbuds, speakers, microphone.

I wonder if any of the poultry producers here bought one so they could listen to the PoultryCast.

I’m getting ready to wander the show and take more pictures and do more interviews. I just interviewed Don Dalton, President of the U. S. Poultry & Egg Association and will have that interview for you later today.

Farm Shows, Poultry

Got Poop?

Chuck Zimmerman

Poultry Expo Got PoopIn the Flame Engineering booth they had some pretty cool giveaway lip balm. It’s got a funky name but it works really well.

It’s Chicken Poop and you’ll have to read the website to find out why it’s called that since the label says “THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS NO POOP!!”

You can not only find the product on their website but they’ve got shirts and other items you might like to look into. I like the dispenser which is in the shape of a chicken. You’ll have to see it to figure out which part of the chicken it comes out of.

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