ZimmComm – New Media, LLC

Once again, 2012 was busier than the year before when it comes to traveling. ZimmComm – mostly me and Chuck, but also Joanna and Jamie this year – attended 67 different events in 2012. Here is where we were:

January
Starting off the year looking for a house in Pensacola, Florida and did all of our travel for the month from the beach, going to -

Honolulu for the AFBF Annual Mtg.
Jacksonville for a NAMA Exec Comm mtg.
Orlando with FMC for the Beltwide Cotton Conferences
Des Moines – Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit
Atlanta with Novus for International Poultry Expo
Nashville with Cattlemen’s Beef Board and NCBA for Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show

February
Returned to central Missouri after making an offer on a house just north of Pensacola and had a busy month of travel to -

Orlando for National Biodiesel Conference
Bettandorf, Iowa in Pursuit of Maximum Yields with FS GreenPlan Solutions
Collinsville, Illinois in Pursuit of Maximum Yields with FS GreenPlan Solutions
Louisville with AgLeader, Fastline, FMC and New Holland for National Farm Machinery Show
Orlando with Renewable Fuels Association for National Ethanol Conference
Nashville for Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum
Nashville for BASF Science Behind Future of Weed Control

March and April
Getting ready to re-locate world headquarters to the Florida panhandle in between trips to -

Nashville with New Holland, BASF and John Deere for Commodity Classic
Washington DC with ASTA and Agri-Pulse for National Ag Day
Denver for BIVI Swine Health Seminar
Charleston, SC for Ag Relations Council annual meeting
Various locations in Illinois on GROWMARK media tour
Kansas City for NAMA
New Holland, PA for New Holland Media Event

May and June
Getting unpacked, settled in and used to traveling through Atlanta to get anywhere -

Arlington, VA with NCBA and USB for Animal Agriculture Alliance Stakeholders Meeting
Lexington for Alltech International Symposium
Mississippi Delta with Agrotain for CTIC Conservation in Action Tour
Indianapolis with NCGA for National Corn Utilization Technology Conference
Chicago for BASF Ag Solutions Media Summit
Minneapolis for Fuel Ethanol Workshop
Des Moines with BIVI for World Pork Expo
Washington DC for ASTA annual meeting
Minneapolis for NAMA Exec. Comm. mtg.
Des Moines for John Deere FarmSight Tech Summit

July and August
May have been our busiest months ever -

Indian Creek Watershed Illinois with AGROTAIN for CTIC field tour
Vincent, Iowa for Wyffles Hybrids Corn Strategies
Ames, Iowa for FMC Anthem Field Plot Tours
Indianapolis with John Deere for International Precision Ag Conference
Panama City Beach for Southern Peanut Growers Conference
RTP, NC for Bayer CropScience Greenhouse 5 opening
Chicagoland Speedway with Illinois corn Growers for NASCAR race
Sioux Falls, SD for Raven Innovation Summit
Denver for Cattle Industry Summer conference
Ames, IA for visit to Ag Leader Technology Headquarters
Albuquerque with FMC for Ag Media Summit
Detroit for USB Biobased Stakeholders Summit
Little Rock, Ark for AgCareers HR Roundtable
Omaha for American Coalition for Ethanol 25th annual meeting
Wrightsville Beach, NC for BIVI Swine Health Seminar
Sweden for International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress
Collinsville, IL for Bayer CropScience Respect the Rotation field day
Kansas City for NAMA Boot Camp and AgChat Agvocacy 2.0
Boone, IA with AgLeader, New Holland, Monsanto and John Deere for Farm Progress Show
Chicago for GROWMARK annual meeting

September through December
Quieter than the previous two months but still on the road quite a bit -

Chicagoland Speedway with Illinois Corn Growers for NASCAR
Minneapolis for NAMA Fall conference
Madison, WI with Charleston Orwig and New Holland for World Dairy Expo
New Orleans with RFA for Congress for Automotive Repair and Service
Des Moines with Elanco for World Food Prize
Tulare, CA for O.H. Kruse dealer appreciations
Minneapolis with RFA for Export Exchange
Indianapolis for Agronomics Conference and NSFMRA
Kansas City with BASF and FMC for NAFB
New York City with USFRA for Food Dialogues
Kansas City with BIVI for PRRS Seminar
Savannah, GA with BASF for NAAA annual convention
Chicago for ASTA CSS 2012 and Seed Expo

For several years now ZimmComm has enjoyed the web hosting services of the industry pioneer, Joyent. Why did we choose Joyent (originally TextDrive)? Because they not only provided state of the art hosting services and technology but seemed to embody that same willingness to try something new that we have. We have never been sorry.

This weekend we took another step forward with Joyent as we moved to the new Joyent Cloud.

Why constrain your ideas using yesterday’s cloud architecture and infrastructure? Build reliable and resilient applications on a high-performance cloud infrastructure service that powers many of the best mobile, social, gaming and e-commerce enterprises in the industry.

Joyent Cloud provides the essential features to develop, launch and scale web and mobile applications. Our high-performance cloud is designed to improve the productivity and success of application development teams and administrators. Rely upon the stability and reliability of Joyent to create your next innovation.

These folks have taken another big step forward with their move to the next innovation in cloud hosting. So we’re proud to be on their client list along with LinkedIn and Adobe!

But as good as the Joyent Cloud is we couldn’t do it without the Robert, the ZimmComm webmaster! Robert moved us without any disruptions or problems. He’s the best when it comes to not only what you see on our websites but also what you don’t see. So thanks to Robert and Joyent. Looking forward to many more years together.

Our theme at the 2012 National Agri-Marketing Association conference is “Don’t Worry, Be Appy!”

Our AgWired app, sponsored by Raven Industries, is almost two years old now – available for both iPhone and Android users – yet we continue to get new downloads every day and people tell us they use it all the time. It’s a handy way to check the latest posts on all of our websites with just a few clicks. Even those folks who have Blackberries or some other type of phone often download the app to use on their iPad or iPod Touch.

So, in honor of our app, our giveaway this year is the cool “Digi-Clean” handy wipe for all types of screens – from cell phones to cameras to iPads and laptops. What is really cool about this tiny little screen cleaner is that it sticks to your device, then unsticks when you want to use it and re-sticks again! They come in several sizes from REALLY tiny to almost 3.5″ wide, but we went for the tablet size that is still small enough for the phone, but big enough to be used on a good sized laptop screen.

So come on by booth #412 this week at the NAMA conference in Kansas City and get yours. Chuck is already there for NAMA business stuff, but I will be heading that way tomorrow with our youngest lovely daughter Caitlin to help us out this year.

We’ll be “appy” to see you there!

We’re looking for the right person (or people) to become a ZimmComm producer. We’ve been blessed to have a number of incredibly talented folks work with us over the years and are very proud of them and their accomplishments both professionally and personally. We stay in touch with each and every one of them. Now we’re looking for some new talent.

The right person would be very self-motivated and passionate about agriculture, as well as having most or all of the following skills (listed in order of importance):

• 1. Computer savvy – Mac or PC
• 2. Flexible work schedule for on-site assignments
• 3. Digital photography – composing, shooting, editing
• 4. Audio production – conducting interviews, editing
• 5. Short format writing skills
• 6. Social Networking experience – Blog, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
• 7. Video production (web style) – shooting, editing
• 8. WordPress experience

We would like to see examples of work that ideally will include social networking accounts.

A ZimmComm producer needs to be able to shoot photos on the go, conduct spur of the moment interviews, edit photos/audio/video quickly and upload and post to WordPress websites. This includes writing story posts to go with the posted media. The work will include periodic travel to ag related events of different kinds – probably not more than 10 days per calendar year. You will need to be equipped with notebook computer and camera to take hi-res photos. Personal digital audio/video recorder and/or iPhone a plus.

Payment will be negotiated depending on experience and ZimmComm will supply on-the-job training for the right candidate. So are you up to the challenge?

If so, please send me your interest including things like resume/work examples via email.

This peaceful piece of paradise is where ZimmComm World Headquarters has been based for the last six weeks.

It is located on Perdido Key, Florida – which is situated between Pensacola and Orange Beach, Alabama – not too far from the infamous Florabama Bar (which is currently being remodeled). We have totally enjoyed our time here and would highly recommend it for a great getaway. While the winter at home in Missouri has been pretty mild so far and the weather here has been fairly cool, nothing beats waking up in the morning looking at the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico.

We are heading home tomorrow to prepare for a heavy month of travel in February, which includes the Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville, National Biodiesel Conference in Orlando, three GROWMARK events in Illinois and Iowa, the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville and the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando. We hate to say goodbye to the beach, but duty calls!

See you on down the agriblogging highway!

2011 was another very good year for ZimmComm New Media – thanks to our sponsors, clients, fans, freelancers and friends.

It was our eighth year in business and we spent too many days on the road to count. We started the year in icy Atlanta with record winter weather and ended the year relaxing on the beach in Florida, enjoying some rare down time before getting back into it again. We start back on the road on the third day of 2012 with Chuck going to Orlando for Beltwide Cotton Conferences. Cindy will be right behind him, heading to Honolulu on January 7 for the American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting.

We did over 5000 posts on the four main websites in 2011 with about 1,000 audio files, over 17,000 photos in 70 Flickr photo albums and 120 YouTube videos posted on AgWired, Domestic Fuel, World Dairy Diary and Precision Pays. We also posted on various other client websites including New Holland’s Boomer 555.com; the Biodiesel Conference Blog; the Southern Peanut Growers Conference blog; and National Corn Growers’ Corn Commentary.

Traffic on all of our websites increased again in 2011. Agwired was up 7.5% to almost 198,000 unique visitors; Domestic Fuel was up 3.5% with over 324,000 unique visitors; Precision Pays traffic increased by 3.5% to nearly 50,000; and World Dairy Diary was up 5 percent to over 102,000. Twitter followers total 11,584 between all the websites, and our personal Twitter accounts. Chuck, aka @agriblogger, has almost half of those himself – 5400 followers.

We are looking forward to setting new records in 2012 and hope to see you all on the agriblogging highway in the year ahead.

One day I was thinking to myself, “I wish there was a calendar that had all the ag events for the year on it.” I had never seen such a thing, so I decided to make one.

This was not an easy task. It took me about a month to get it the way I wanted it, including photos from events throughout this past year and getting as many dates for the major ag events included. Not sure how it would actually look in person, we ordered a limited quantity to give as Christmas gifts to some of our clients.

We think they actually came out pretty sweet and now we are wondering if there is any interest among AgWired readers to get their very own copy.

You can order your calendar here: Order 2012 ZimmComm Ag Events Calendar.

The cost is $20 each plus $2 shipping/handling.

Chuck Zimmerman, better known to many as @agriblogger on Twitter, was honored to receive one of the National Agri-Marketing Association’s 2012 Professional Development Awards of Excellence during the Trends in Agriculture conference last week in Kansas City. Chuck received the award for Excellence in Public Relations.

In good company, Chuck was honored with Stephanie Gable (left) of Novus International for Product/Species Management and Margaret Fogarty, Farm Credit for Marketing Communications. The fourth winner in the Sales category was Sue Lee of Farm Journal Media who is not pictured because she was attending another meeting. All are well deserving of the honors.

Here’s what NAMA had to say about Chuck:

From on-line photo album development for key industry events, to news reporting and media liaison activities for various commercial clients, to ‘blogging’ his way across the land, Chuck has become a common sight at just about any type of meeting or event in the agriculture industry. He has also done a great deal to get many others involved in new media endeavors.

Chuck has been active in NAMA throughout his career and he continues his membership in a very active way now in his role representing his own company, ZimmComm, Inc. He has given countless hours and days to NAMA service in many, many ways over the years. He has always been active in his local chapters, and has been involved in program planning and leadership at local levels. He is currently a nominee to the Executive Committee.

Stephanie turned the tables on Chuck and interviewed him about his award. Listen to that here: Stephanie Interviews Chuck

2011 NAMA Trends in Agriculture Photo Album