This week you can see both Zimmermans in action road blogging for two of our clients, National Biodiesel Board and Cattlemen’s Beef Board. You’ll be able to see the posts we’re doing on the National Biodiesel Conference Blog and Beef Board Meeting.com. They both represent an excellent and effective use of this new medium. Both are focused on annual events and essentially provide a frequently updated multimedia newsletter on the web.
Imagine having this done for your event or company.
Besides posting on these clients blog sites we’ll also be posting on our own, Domestic Fuel, AgWired and World Dairy Diary. These ZimmComm-owned sites provide you with a “sponsorship” opportunity to have online exposure even if you don’t have your own site to provide this kind of event coverage.
Let’s face it, there’s no more interactive, up to the minute, interesting, search engine optimized way to showcase your activities than with online coverage on the websites we create. Let me know if you’d like to discuss doing this for your company or group.
The agricultural winter meeting season is kicking off and I’m at my first one, the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Nashville, TN. The Opryland Hotel will be the site of a several such meetings this year. After being here several times last year I think I’m finally getting to figure out the facility. This has to be one of the most complicated layouts of any convention facility I’ve ever been in.
Online event coverage is already shaping up to be one of the biggest components of ZimmCom’s business. We provide that service for not only our own online publications like AgWired but also for proprietary client websites like Precision Pays.
If you’ve got an event that you need outside help with photography and audio or video production then keep us in mind. We’re your online media production company.
One of the things I like best about doing event blogging is the photography. As a photographer wannabe for many years the web has allowed me to indulge a personal interest with work.
This week I’ve been blogging at the World Championship Appaloosa Show in Ft. Worth, TX. Pictures like this are to be found everywhere and I’ve got lots in the online photo album for the event.
I’ve never seen the American flag displayed in action on horseback while our National Anthem is being sung. It was very moving (no pun intended).
2007 World Championship Appaloosa Show Photo Album
Right place to buy mp3 music, low prices, huge collection. Highly recommended.
I know I don’t post too often here but that’ll change over the next several days since I’ll be attending the third annual Podcast & New Media Expo. I’m finding it hard to believe we’ve been doing this new media thing in agribusiness for over 3 years now. Starting Friday, I’ll be getting my new media fix with educational sessions and a trade show.
I’ll be attending the conference with longtime friend and former business partner (now client), Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet. The activities take place at the Ontario, CA Convention Center.
Friday - Sept. 28, 2007
Keynotes & Conference - 9:00am-4:15pm
Exhibit Hall - 10:00am-4:00pm
Attendee Reception - 4:00pm-5:30pm
CultureCatch Salon - 8:00pm-11:00pm
Saturday - Sept. 29, 2007
Keynotes & Conference - 9:00am-4:15pm
Exhibit Hall - 10:00am-4:00pm
Expo Concert - 6:30pm-9:00pm
Sunday - Sept. 30, 2007
Keynotes & Conference - 9:00am-12:45pm
Exhibit Hall - 10:00am-1:30pm
After a week of blogging in Japan it’s nice to be back in the USA. Between Cindy and myself we’ve blogged from 4 different countries in the last 2 weeks. One of the things that I would encourage conference organizers everywhere to keep in mind when planning events is good internet access and some time built into the schedule to use it.
This certainly goes for today’s media representatives who need that access and time to post their stories but I think it also applies to anyone who’s on the road at an event. We’re beginning to see more attention paid to this element of planning for events but there’s a ways to go.
I’ll be attending the Podcast and New Media Expo later this week. I would certainly hope we’ve got good open access there! Look for some posts from that event here and on AgWired.
As we continue to develop and refine our event blogging services I just thought I’d look at how many days I’ve spent on the road doing this so far this year.
As of right now I’ve spent 67 days on the road doing event blogging and Cindy has spent about another dozen. That’s quite a few and I think shows how interested companies and organizations are to have the story of their event unfold as it happens on their website or on one of ours.
I can go into so many reasons why this makes sense but I think I’ve done that before (search engine optimization, multi-media content, direct customer/member communication).
You can see examples of my most recent trip on Appaloosa Blog Spot from their National Show that just concluded in Oklahoma City. In 3 days I post 22 times on their site. Those posts contained 18 audio interviews, 1 YouTube video and an online photo album containing 155 high quality digital photos.
One of the biggest growth areas for ZimmComm New Media has been in the area of event coverage. This is me at the CMA Music Festival last week doing just this very thing. I just had a potential client ask me to summarize what we offer in this area so I thought I’d post it here for you in case you’re wondering the same thing. If you’re interested in a quote for having us provide these services to you just give me a call.
Online Event Coverage
ZimmComm New Media offers a company or an organization a unique way to provide customers and members with near instantaneous online coverage of events that includes pictures, audio and video interviews, video of product displays and demonstrations and text summaries of activities. All this multi-media content is posted onto the organization’s blog site or ZimmComm will create a site for the event. Pictures can be uploaded to online photo albums using services like Flickr which allow visitors to search for individual photos or watch them as a slide show. Video clips can be uploaded and made available via services like YouTube which provides the hosting and a simple player to display the content. The audio may be posted in a click to listen format or in a podcast format where it can be easily found and listened to with popular podcast software like iTunes. All the content is hosted within very highly search engine optimized software/services making it easy to find with key word searches. The site would have a built in RSS feed allowing customers to subscribe to the posts made onto the site. If ZimmComm builds the site we would install web tracking software like Mint which is a very easy to use web accessible statistics option.
A ZimmComm “reporter” will attend the organizational event armed with cameras, recorders and computer. Working under the direction of staff the reporter will take pictures, record video clips and interviews and then edit, upload and post the content onto the website at every available opportunity. The number of daily posts would be determined by the event and the time available for posting. Although the reporter will be equipped with a wireless computer data card it is recommended that the organization provide high speed internet access and a place centrally located to the event activities to set up a secure work station. This could be a media room already set up for the event.
After the event concludes all ZimmComm content (images/audio/video) is provided to the organization on dvd for archiving or use in other organizational communication mechanisms like commemorative event CD’s, newsletters, brochures, main website, slide shows, etc. A very cool idea is to pre-load the content onto iPods which may be given as gifts to significant customers or sponsors or used in drawings or other contests.