Southwest Water Issues Discussed At ARC Spring Fling

Chuck Zimmerman

Another ARC Spring Fling note from Carroll Merry.

ARC Spring Fling Image

Herb Guenther, Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, speaks with members of the Ag Relations Council at the organization’s Spring Fling meeting held April 19 at the Phoenix Hyatt Regency Civic Plaza. Guenther told the group about the challenges of balancing the water needs for consumer and industrial use with those of Arizona’s agricultural producers. He noted that through cooperation between state and local governments and farm water districts, accomodations are being made such that the needs of all are being met.

ARC, NAMA

Ag Relations Council Spring Fling

Chuck Zimmerman

Prior to the start of the NAMA Convention, the Agricultural Relations Council held a day long meeting here at the Hyatt.

Carroll Merry, Countryside Marketing, sent me a couple of pictures to share with you.

ARC Meeting Image

Jeri Omernik, president, Rocky Mountain Communications and president of the Agricultural Relations Council, welcomes members to the organization’s Spring Fling meeting which was held April 19 at Phoenix’ Hyatt Regency City Center. The focus of the meeting was on issues facing agriculture in the arid Southwest.

ARC, NAMA

Name Badge Required To Get In Here

Chuck Zimmerman

The Trade Show will be well guarded but I still didn’t leave my notebook computer at my booth.

NAMA Trade Show Entrance

I’ll be back over there in a couple hours. Gotta eat lunch!

Since the only internet access I’ve got is relatively slow from my Sprint PCS card I’m planning on using NAMA’s Cyber Cafe they set up which has a few extra connections for a notebook computer. The only challenge is that it’s wayyyy down the hall across the convention center and not at the trade show entrance area.

I guess I need my exercise anyway.

NAMA

Ready For NAMA Trade Show Action

Chuck Zimmerman

It didn’t take long but ZimmComm is set up and ready for trade show action here at the 2005 Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show.

We’re set up right across from the NAFB booth and at the center of the action. The floor in front of us will contain a display this afternoon of the Best of NAMA award entries. The winners will be announced this evening and we’ll post results when we can.

Immediately following the Best of NAMA ceremony the trade show reception begins so it may be later in the evening before I can get much posted. One of the reasons is not having high speed access at my booth. I just couldn’t justify paying $600 to have it for 2 days. Can you believe that fee?

We’ve got these cute little Weepul guys to give away at our booth, along with some soy crayons that we actually had left over from last year. In addition, anyone I write about or who provides me with information to write about will receive a custom ZimmComm “I’ve been blogged by AgriMarketing Pros” t-shirt.

ZimmComm NAMA Booth

Let us know what you think of our coverage of the NAMA convention!

NAMA

Search For Agrimarketing

Chuck Zimmerman

Have you ever done a Google search for agrimarketing? You ought to. I just did. I got 36,000 results! Guess who’s number 3?

AgriMarketing Pros!

There’s a lot of others of course.

If you’re a Googler then you know about sponsored results. There’s only one for “agrimarketing” and that’s Broadhead+Co. How about that! Agrimarketing is going to make it into the internet age sooner or later.

It’s the early adopters and innovators who will be there.

Agencies

2005 Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show Underway

Chuck Zimmerman

Let the games begin! Actually, the games began earlier today for the golfers. I wanted to but that extra day and $’s just didn’t work out this year. Maybe next year.

The first stop is always registration.

NAMA Convention Registration

On the way down to registration from my room and back up to feed the blog monster I saw students everywhere. They looked sharp in their matching team shirts. Wish I had that youthful enthusiasm.

The students are here for the annual student chapter marketing competition. I’ll bring you more information about how they’re doing when I find it out, including who wins and who loses.

Tomorrow is set-up day for the trade show. I should have more to share by then.

NAMA

More On USDA’s MyPyramid Plan

Chuck Zimmerman

I’m sure a lot of people are trying to obtain information from USDA’S website right now. It’s going very s-l-o-w!

Here’s some information from their news release:

WASHINGTON, April 19, 2005 — Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns today unveiled MyPyramid, a new symbol and interactive food guidance system. “Steps to a Healthier You,” MyPyramid’s central message, supports President Bush’s HealthierUS initiative which is designed to help Americans live longer, better and healthier lives. MyPyramid, which replaces the Food Guide Pyramid introduced in 1992, is part of an overall food guidance system that emphasizes the need for a more individualized approach to improving diet and lifestyle.

For more information contact Ed Loyd (202) 720-4623.

USDA MyPyramid Image

The release goes into extreme detail about this plan. I think it’s pretty complicated and I wonder how the average consumer out there will figure it out. For example, when you look at the MyPyramid image you’ll see bands of color that are supposed to signify different amounts of food types in your diet. Will you “get it” by looking at the image? Will consumers take the time to study this? Why should they?

What do you think of this idea? It’s a huge difference from the guidelines of the past and I think it’s an example of government trying to do too much. Why do we need the government using our tax dollars to tell us what we should or shouldn’t eat anyway?

Uncategorized

USDA’s Pyramid Scheme

Chuck Zimmerman

USDA just released it’s new food guidelines. I guess it’s called MyPyramid Plan. It seems to be many pyramids, not just one. Maybe they’re taking political correctness to the extreme? The slogan is “Steps To A Healthier You.”

It looks like you enter your personal information and it creates a food guide pyramid just for you. Sec. Mike Johanns just announced it. His live press conference online is part of a major media rollout. We have high speed internet access but the video stream’s kind of sporadic which also affects the audio. Hopefully they’ll stream a copy of it later.

If you want to know what your pyramid is you can go to the website at MyPyramid.

Uncategorized

NAMA Convention Coming Up

Chuck Zimmerman

This is just a quick tease to stay tuned for numerous posts from the 2005 Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show.

I’ll be heading that way tomorrow. The ZimmComm, AgriMarketing Pros booth will be set up by tomorrow afternoon when the trade show kicks off with the Trade Show Welcome Lounge.

Later on the Best of NAMA Awards Ceremony will take place. We’ll bring you information about the winners and if all goes well an interview or two.

After the ceremony the official DTN-sponsored Trade Show Reception takes place.

I’ll be there with my computer and some give-aways. If you’re going, make sure you stop by and see a demonstration!

NAMA

New ZimmCast features interview with Meyocks Group

Chuck Zimmerman

In our ZimmCast this week I interview Doug Jeske, SVP-Account Services, Meyocks Group. I had just completed a presentation with a group of staff members about our Talking News Release service and blogging with a lot of Q & A.

Doug tells us about the Meyocks Group and why they’re looking at blogging as a tool for their clients.

You can listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast

The current edition of ZimmCast is always available in our “Audio Programming” sidebar.

Agencies, Audio, ZimmCast