Meeting Season Cranking Up

Chuck Zimmerman

AFBF LogoAlthough the next two weeks seem very busy, they’re nothing like what the schedule will be like after the holidays. It’s winter meeting time and I’m sure a lot of state organizations are actively meeting. Our annual Missouri Governor’s Conference on Agriculture is kicking off today at Lake of the Ozarks.

On the national level one of the first ones to get things going in the new year is the American Farm Bureau Federation annual convention. I won’t be attending this one but I’ve got a number of others I’m working on. If you’re in the media and haven’t registered for AFBF yet you can find the form to do so here (Word doc).

Some of the ones I’m confirmed to attend include International Green Week, Cattle Industry Annual Convention & Trade Show, National Biodiesel Conference and Commodity Classic. Others I may be attending include Beltwide Cotton Conference, National Farm Machinery Show and National Ethanol Conference. Do you have one you’d like to have covered personally on AgWired? If so give me a call and let’s get it on the schedule.

Uncategorized

Morgan & Myers Cooking Up Iowa Corn

Chuck Zimmerman

Morgan & MyersIowa Corn just picked Morgan & Myers to handle their account from their Waterloo office. They’ll be taking care of membership retention; government, research and business development; and market development, which includes ethanol. Iowa Corn is the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and Iowa Corn Growers Association.

“Iowa Corn is excited to be working with Morgan&Myers,” says Mindy Williamson, Iowa Corn director of communications and public relations. “Their industry knowledge speaks for itself. Morgan&Myers has the staffing and the reputation to work with consumer audiences and traditional agricultural markets. We’ve hit the road running and look forward to what we can accomplish in the future.”

According to Morgan&Myers’ Janine Whipps, a partner and leader of the agency’s integrated marketing communications practice area, “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Iowa Corn during a time when so much is happening on the corn new usage front, with ethanol and E85 leading the way.”

Ag Groups, Agencies, Corn

THE Microphone For the iPod

Chuck Zimmerman

Griffin iTalk DemoHere’s the newest recording sensation for the serious farm podcaster. The Griffin iTalk attached to a video iPod. The iTalk is the little thing about the size of pack of chewing gum at the bottom of the iPod.

I really think it’s eerie that I’ve been doing similar posts to my sensei Steve. He demos his with his Nano.

Not only does this little gem have built in stereo microphones but you can record in mono or stereo and plug in an external microphone or audio source. It records in .wav format so you can edit it in just about anything.

Last night on Blog Business Success Radio the host, Wayne Hurlbert, said that my website seemed to be all about podcasting. I don’t know where he gets that idea.

iTalk Demo: italk-demo.mp3

Audio, Podcasts

The Blog Business Show Went On

Chuck Zimmerman

Wayne HurlbertThese Canadian guys are ahead of the curve when it comes to blogging and podcasting. One of them is Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World.

Even as we were being attacked (AgWired was by spammers) last night the show went on. That is the Blog Business Success Radio show on Blog Talk Radio.

We had a nice hour long conversation which Listen To Audio you can still listen to if you missed it live. We talked about agricultural communications, Talking News Releases, blogging, podcasting and all from the perspective of how these new communications tools can be used for business purposes.

So, if you have time feel free to listen in.

Audio, Podcasts

Website Attack Update

Chuck Zimmerman

As I posted previously, it looks like the spammers were out in force big time yesterday. We have ways to deal with this but unfortunately my hosting company support staff freaked out and disabled a vital part of the website. That’s why you’re seeing my old theme as of this posting. You can trust the fact that I’m not happy about this and will be having a discussion with them this morning.

We’ll be working on this some more this morning to get everything back to normal.

In about an hour late yesterday afternoon we had almost 4,000 spam comments thrown at us which all generated corresponding emails to my email account. That’s unbelievable. AgWired was the only site hit of our network. We normally receive about 100 a day.

Uncategorized

We’ve Been Attacked

Chuck Zimmerman

In case you may have been wondering where AgWired disappeared to, it was an attack. Someone spammed our comments and our hosting company had to shut us down temporarily because it was overloading the server. I’m not sure what kind of person gets their kicks doing this kind of thing but I’d love to have a few minutes alone with him.

I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused and by the time you can see this post everything should be back to normal. He said hopefully.

Uncategorized

Holiday Promotions at Osborn & Barr

Chuck Zimmerman

Osborn & Barr CommunicationsJust in time for the holidays, Osborn & Barr Communications promotes a few people. Now that’s a nice Christmas gift.

Bob Wells, who started with Osborn & Barr a decade ago, was recently named group creative director for the Monsanto seed trait accounts. The NORDYNE, Inc. account also utilizes Bob’s 18 years of creative experience. Bob has worked on Telly, Addy and Best of National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) award-winning campaigns. He is a member of the St. Louis Ad Club, NAMA and The Central Illinois Creative Underground.

Cindy Hackmann, a seven-year employee of Osborn & Barr, took on the role of account supervisor for the United Soybean Board, Ohio Soybean Council and FCS-Financial clients. Cindy manages daily client interaction, project management and strategic communications planning for these accounts.

Vicky Ho was recently promoted to senior graphic design specialist. Her promotion is recognition of her consistent work and project coordination for the Graphic Studio within Osborn & Barr. Her position requires her to coordinate projects through the Studio, work with art directors in design and production of projects, and work with print production to determine proper production techniques.

Osborn & Barr promoted Michael Berry from account coordinator to assistant account executive on the Account Management team. Michael assists in the project management of the Monsanto Dairy account and also manages trade show participation for the Propane Education & Research Council account. Earlier this year, he served on the 2006 National AgriMarketing Association Boot Camp Planning Committee.

Agencies

Working Breakfast With MBIC

Chuck Zimmerman

Andrew McCrea and John KleiboekerThe Missouri Beef Industry Council leaders are on the job here in Springfield, MO. Here’s chairman Andrew McCrea (left) and executive director, John Kleiboeker listening to a report from Missouri Cattle Association executive vice president, Brent Bryant. Andrew is also an award winning farm broadcaster for Brownfield.

I came down just for breakfast and am heading back to the office. We produce the weekly MBIC Report, which is a weekly interview program started long ago by the MBIC. It became a podcast last year. (Subscription link)

I interviewed new board members Pat Wood and Gerald Campbell as well as MBIC Director of Marketing, Dawn Thurnau. Those interviews will be used as weekly reports in coming weeks which will be posted on the MBIC blog.

I wish I could stay but until later . . .

Ag Groups, Beef, Podcasts

Listen In On Blog Talk Radio Tonight

Chuck Zimmerman

Blog Talk RadioOne of the first people I found when I got started blogging was Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World. It was a lot of his ideas about how to use a blog as a business communications tool that formed some of my ideas about how to use this great platform.

Well, Wayne’s a podcaster too and on something called Blog Talk Radio. Tonight at 8pm (Eastern) I’ll be his guest on his program “Blog Business Success Radio.” You can listen in live or use these instructions from Wayne if you can’t:

If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.

Let’s talk with Chuck Zimmerman about podcasting and talking press releases and how they can take your media relations to the next level, on Blog Business Success Radio.

Podcasts

Mobile Markets For Christmas

Chuck Zimmerman

Merry Christmas From Midwest Seed GeneticsOne of our advertisers is Commodity Update and I can’t tell you how excited I am to watch this company grow. There are a lot of ways Joel’s product can be used and here’s one he shared with me today. One of his clients is Midwest Seed Genetics. Their lucky customers will be receiving a Christmas card from the company with the cover pictured here.

Inside the copy will read, “Our passion is helping you succeed. To that end this holiday season we are pleased to offer you a way to stay informed while you’re on the go. It’s our gift to you. The enclosed gift card provides a complimentary gift subscription to a service that will provide commodity market information directly to your cell phone. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and great success in the year to come.”

Commodity Update Gift CardHere’s what the gift card looks like.

So their customers will receive a very useful tool to help them stay on top of the markets as long as they’ve got cell phone service. Do you know any farmers (your customers) who don’t have a cell phone? Can you think of a better gift for a farmer this Christmas?

Great idea guys. In fact it’s so good that Joel says Silveus Insurance is doing it too!

Agribusiness