ARC Board Meets

Chuck Zimmerman

Agricultural Relations Council Board Mtg.The board of the Agricultural Relations Council just concluded meeting a little while ago. Joining them was their scholarship winner, Katie Knapp, from Magnolia, IL, who’s attending the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She’s in the middle of Carroll Merry (left) and Jeri Omernik (right).

The board discussed several issues as they continue to guide ARC through a re-organization process. Topics included increasing membership and increasing awareness of the ARC, holding the Golden ARC Awards, public relations accreditation, and meetings next year.

I’m late to our afternoon program so I’ve gotta go.

ARC

ARC & AMS At The Hilton Milwaukee

Chuck Zimmerman

Hilton HotelIt’s a beautiful morning in Milwaukee. The Hilton is where all the action will be, starting with the Agricultural Relations Council meetings today, then the kickoff of the Agricultural Media Summit tomorrow.

I got up early and ran down to the lake. It was nice and peaceful with the seagulls echoing off the buildings downtown before getting to the waterfront. I hope I can be motivated enought to do that every morning! We’ll see what happens.

Look for lots of posts and pictures over the next several days.

Ag Media Summit, ARC

Special ZimmCast With Diane Johnson, ED For LPC

Chuck Zimmerman

Agricultural Media SummitI’m here in Milwaukee now. Nice breeze coming in off the lake. Downtown is busy because it’s Germanfest. I thought it was Germanfest here every weekend. Actually I think it is for some people.

For those of you who aren’t coming I think you should listen to my interview with Diane Johnson, Executive Director for the Livestock Publications Council. Diane is one of the main coordinators for this event and she’s probably very stressed out right now since it kicks off the day after tomorrow. Maybe she’s not stressed out. I don’t know. I’m not. I’m enjoying a Leinenkugel Honey Weiss while typing on the keyboard!

You can listen to my interview with Diane here Download MP3 File (6.2MB)

Ag Media Summit, Audio, Publication

Podcasting At The University of Florida

Chuck Zimmerman

University of FloridaI haven’t had a chance to plug my alma mater yet but just got a chance. The University of Florida is podcasting University News! Very cool I think. Just a demonstration of how you can use this tool. If a college can do it so can you. You can subscribe to their podcast using this link.

Podcasts, University

Complete ABM Agri Council Study To Be Released At AMS

Chuck Zimmerman

ABM Agri CouncilThis is going to be my last post until I’m in Milwaukee. That’s because I’m driving and will be most of tomorrow. So I thought I’d get in one last post about the Ag Media Summit. One of the 3 main organizing groups, the American Business Media Agri Council, will be presenting the complete results of their media usage study next Tuesday. We pointed you to it recently and the webcast just touched on the highlights. I’ll try to get more details to provide you next week.

Until then, I hope you enjoy some of the interviews we’ve recently posted relating to the AMS & ARC meetings:

Jeri Omernik
Susan Davis
David Markey

Ag Media Summit, Media, Publication

Special ZimmCast With IFAJ President From Ireland

Chuck Zimmerman

International Federation of Agricultural JournalistsI hope you like an Irish accent because you’ll get one in this special edition ZimmCast. The president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists is David Markey. He’s CEO of IFP Media in Dublin, Ireland and he’s my guest in this interview program. He’s also presenting at the Agricultural Media Summit that gets underway this weekend. I caught up with him in his office and I think you’ll enjoy hearing him talk about IFAJ and why it’s good for us to get together and trade information from around the world.

You can listen to my interview with David here Download MP3 File (5.9MB)

Pioneer Hi-BredAgWired reports on IFAJ Congress 2005 are sponsored by Pioneer Hi-Bred.

Ag Media Summit, Audio, IFAJ, ZimmCast

AMS Final Schedule Available

Chuck Zimmerman

Ag Media SummitThe steering and planning committe of the Agricultural Media Summit just released the final schedule and related information about the conference. You can download the PDF file here: Schedule

See you in Milwaukee!

Ag Media Summit

New Dupont Advisory Board Member

Chuck Zimmerman

DupontWhen you’re an international company you should have an international advisory board shouldn’t you?

DuPont Announces New Biotechnology Advisory Panel Member

WILMINGTON, Del., July 28 – DuPont today announced the addition of Mr. Chebet Maikut to its external Biotechnology Advisory Panel. Mr. Maikut is the president of the Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE), one of the largest farmer organizations in Uganda. He joins the ranks of seven other distinguished panel members who bring important and diverse viewpoints to the broad area of biotechnology and its application in agriculture, food and bio-based materials.

“Chebet Maikut’s knowledge of African agriculture will provide valuable insight into biotechnology policy and acceptance from the perspective of a developing country and market,” said DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles O. Holliday, Jr. “He brings a strong voice that represents both African opinions on biotechnology as well as prospective customer segments in this emerging market.”

For more information contact Desiree Fletcher-Hayes for DuPont, +1-515-334-6768.

Agribusiness

Can’t We All Just Get Along

Chuck Zimmerman

World Trade OrganizationThe DG for the WTO is getting more serious about trying to push countries into a cooperative mode so something will be accomplished in Hong Kong. Can you do that with trade negotiators?

SUPACHAI URGES INTENSIVE WORK FOR HONG KONG SUCCESS
Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, in his final report as Trade Negotiations Committee Chairman, said on 28 July 2005 that achieving a successful Ministerial Conference this December is still possible provided members dedicate themselves to “a politically engaged, results oriented, decision making mode of operation immediately after the (summer) recess”. He said that as he prepares to step down as Chair, he wished to remind members that the negotiations “must be a means of improving economic opportunities and helping to fulfil the hope of development… (and thus) problems in the negotiations cannot be allowed to defeat us”.

You can find the full report here: Trade Report

Uncategorized

University of Minnesota Partners With PMN

Chuck Zimmerman

Plant Management NetworkIt’s always good to partner with a university when you can.

University of Minnesota Partners with the Plant Management Network

St. Paul, Minn. (July 25, 2005) The Plant Management Network (PMN), an innovative website designed for plant and agricultural professionals, is pleased to welcome the University of Minnesota as its 25th university partner.

“This partnership will greatly enhance our research, education and extension missions by providing an excellent image database, access to four science-based applied research journals, and links to numerous fact sheets, web-based agricultural resources, and field trial publications,” said Nancy Ehlke, Professor and Head of the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota.

For more information contact Joan Quam, Phone: +1.651.454.7250.

University