Welcome to the Ag Media Summit. Registration is open.
I heard that it’s already about 100 degrees outside. This evening we’ll be on a river cruise aboard the Portland Spirit. Maybe it’ll be cooler on the river or they will have air conditioning!
I’m sure I’ll get some good photos tonight and post them tomorrow.
It’s a beautiful day here in Portland. I got out early to run along the Willamette River walk.
I didn’t know they were having a major race or I would have signed up. It’s the Cascade Run Off.
I have absolutely no idea what the significance of the stag is that sits in the middle of a street a couple of blocks from the river. It’s an elk stag and it’s in what’s called Chapman’s Square.
This is my creative picture of the day. I walked back by after Church and took a midday picture of this dude.
If you attend my agriblogging and farm podcasting workshop on Monday morning here at the Ag Media Summit you’ll find out about “The Long Tail.” If you’re not going to be here then go out and purchase “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. You might also start reading his blog.
Here’s a place where you can get a pretty good description of the Long Tail. One way of looking at it is “products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough.” Examples being Amazon and Netflix. If you don’t think this idea applies to agriculture then we need to talk.
I got my copy on the way to the airport today at a Barnes & Noble in Independence, MO. I haven’t made it very far but I know how important this book is to anyone involved in marketing in today’s world. This includes you agrimarketing professionals! Even the introduction is filled with some great stuff and I’m going to find time to bring some excerpts to you like:
The great thing about broadcast is that it can bring one show to millions of people with unmatchable efficiency. But it can’t do the opposite – bring a million shows to one person each. Yet that is exactly what the Internet does so well.
Increasingly, the mass market is turning into a mass of niches.
Seen broadly, it’s clear that the story of the Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance – what happens when the bottlenecks that stand between supply and demand in our culture start to disappear and everything becomes available to everyone.
Welcome to the Portland Hilton & Executive Tower. This is going to be the scene of the next several days as we attend the Agricultural Media Summit. I say “we” because we’ll be doing it together.
I’m using my Sprint Mobile Broadband card and it’s working great. It’s another hotel with internet access for about $10/day. Not me. This should save about $40 this trip.
Just for comparison purposes. In Kansas City this morning I connected at 460K download and 128K upload. Here in Portland I just measured 415K download and 106k upload. Not as good as I’d like to see but it will get the job done.
Things don’t get started until tomorrow evening but I’m sure I’ll find something to share with you before then.
Brownfield, Ag News and Indiana Pork are teaming up for another teleconference coming up July 26.
Called “Open Phones,” the teleconference session allows callers to listen and ask questions of a panel that will discuss the emergence of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV2), which affects growing pigs and causes respiratory problems and weight loss.
The hour-long open phones session starting at 8:00 p.m. (EDT) on Wednesday, July 26, will focus on what producers need to know about preventing and controlling PCV2, and provide lessons about what producers have learned first-hand about the disease. Read More
We had a great going-away party for Steve Taylor today in Columbia, MO. Stevie “Wonder” is going off into the sunset to Moscow, ID. He’s leaving behind the Beef Babes, current and future.
Aren’t they cute? The Missouri Beef Industry Council office was all decorated. We had a bluegrass band, hamburgers and cake. Good luck with the move Steve and great job Beef Babes.
I’ve been in a lot of airports lately. Take today as an example. We got out of Raleigh okay and then had to circle St. Louis for a while. Then we got to sit on the tarmac for a while until the plane at our gate got out of the way. Then it only took 45 minutes for baggage to show up.
So, when you’ve got time in an airport you look around. And see things like this advertisement for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and The Arthritis Foundation. The cow caught my eye and at first I thought it was weird that anyone was worried about a cow with arthritis. But then I noticed that the focus is on the woman’s leg. Duh.
So, next it’s off to Portland and some more airports. My knee is feeling a little sore. You don’t suppose . . . nah. You can learn more about knee pain here.
Ahh, the “Interim” position. Hopefully in Doug Jeske’s case it will become permanent. That would be cool Doug. Doug is the Interim President of The Meyocks Group since:
Donna Tweeten, president of The Meyocks Group, will leave the agency in mid-August to take a position as assistant vice president of communications and brand management with Hy-Vee, Inc., the agency’s parent 
company. Doug Jeske, agency senior vice president, will lead The Meyocks Group as interim president during an internal and external search for Tweeten’s successor.
Jeske joined The Meyocks Group in 1993. A native of Eldora, Iowa, he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Iowa State University and then completed a master’s degree at Northwestern University. He worked in corporate communications at Sandoz Agro before accepting a job with the agency.
Doug was one of the first ZimmCast interviews I did and you can still listen to it.
Congratulations to my good buddy Rich Keller. Rich is now the Editor for AgProfessional and AgLender publications (the Food 360 people). He previously contributed to Vance publications as a freelance writer.
With a BS in journalism from Iowa State University, Keller’s most recent position was with American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) as director of news services. He previously worked at a daily newspaper and agricultural newsletter production company before switching to agency and policy work.
Keller has 20 years of experience in advertising and public relations with communications agencies for major crop protection companies, including DuPont, FMC and Bayer. He has led communications for new product introductions in the Midwest, South and California for row crops, specialty crops and industrial vegetation control. Working with Bayer CropScience, he focused on direct communications and relationship marketing with corn and soybean producers. He changed emphasis to public policy communications for an association by working for AFBF.
I thought it would be appropriate to make my last post from Syngenta Media Day include an interview with Mary-Dell Chilton. Mary-Dell says she’s way past retirement age but still gets in early each day to get to work. Why? Because she thinks it’s exciting and important.
In my interview with her she talks about the turning point in the development of what we now know as biotechnology. She also thinks that the safety of the food made from the products developed by Syngenta is completely safe. She says the testing is rigorous for example.
You can listen to my interview with the first Executive Director of this facility here: 
Mary-Dell Chilton Interview (5 min MP3)
