ZimmComm – New Media, LLC

Things got busy for our World Dairy Diary website this week with the Dairy Solutions Symposium, sponsored by Alltech. Alltech sponsors our coverage of several events during the year including this one which was held in the Netherlands.

I took several hundred photos and conducted many interviews with presenters and participants from a variety of countries. These are posted to the website and Alltech receives a copy of the photography and interviews. It’s a great deal and the most recent example of our unique brand of on location event coverage.

Dairy Solutions Symposium 2010 Photo Album

I was on location this week for the Iowa Corn Indy 250. I’ve made it to the event for 3 out of the 4 years it has been on the IRL schedule. The event is sponsored by Iowa Corn Growers and Pioneer Hi-Bred. This year my coverage on AgWired and Domestic Fuel was sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers.

So I took over 1,500 photos, conducted 14 interviews and posted them along with a couple of video clips to our websites and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board Facebook page. They got copies for their own use too. That’s a hallmark of our event coverage! It’s kind of like an old fashioned live radio remote on the internet and you get high quality production at the same time!

You can listen to audio from the start of the race here: Iowa Indy Corn 250 Start

Here’s where you can find my photos: Iowa Corn Indy 250 Photo Album

It’s another week on the road for the ZimmComm Team. Chuck gets to hit the road to conduct presentations on social media, including how to measure your social media activity and employ “gadgets” to make it easier. Monday he’ll be speaking at the Cooperative Communicators Association convention, on Tuesday at the Assocation for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences and then on Wednesday at the American Farm Bureau Federation PR Conference. From there he’ll head out to the Iowa Corn Indy 250.

Meanwhile, Cindy and Joanna will covering the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in St. Louis. They will be there Monday through Wednesday. So we’ll have a lot more photos and interviews to share this week via the ZimmComm News Network.

Chuck gets to close out the week working with the Iowa Corn Promotion Board for activities leading up to and including the 2010 Iowa Corn Indy 250 race in Newton, IA. This will be his third year of covering the event.

ZimmComm will be out and about next week. Here’s a heads up of where you’ll find us.

To start with, Cindy will be attending a BASF Sustainability Summit in Chicago. From there she’ll join Joanna Schroeder and John Davis at World Pork Expo working with sponsors Boehringer Ingelheim and Novus International. It’s going to be a busy week for the @FarmPodcaster.

Next week Chuck will also be on the agriblogging highway starting with the Corn Utilization & Technology Conference in Atlanta working with the National Corn Growers Association. From there he’ll head to the Carolinas to ride and drive new Gator Utility Vehicles with John Deere. Make sure you follow @AgriBlogger and AgWired to keep up with all the action.

Have you got us on your event’s schedule? We’d be happy to live blog your event while providing professional photography services!

Here’s Cindy doing live blogging in the Illinois Corn Marketing Board suite at the Corn Crib during the first game in the new stadium. The baseball park is the home of the Normal CornBelters. Cindy and I were brought in by the ICMB to live blog the event on AgWired. We took almost 400 photos and conducted 6 interviews. Our posts are not only being used on AgWired but also on the Illinois Corn Growers blog, Corn Corps as well as the National Corn Growers Association blog, Corn Commentary.

You can find our event photos in our Flickr set: Normal CornBelters Home Opener

We’ve pioneered online event coverage. Some call it live blogging an event. We like to think of it as “telling a story, your story.” Since we started our unique brand of on-location multimedia content creation we’ve taken the approach that we’re there to convey the sights and sounds as we see them to an online audience that’s interested to know what’s going on. We’re award winning journalists. We’re award winning public relations specialists. We know new media and social networking. It’s a great combination. Learn more about our online event coverage services and schedule us in.

Top Ten Reasons to have ZimmComm cover your next event:

10. We “Tweet” u right – in so many ways. We have multiple established Twitter accounts with thousands of followers on several different topics and can help tweet your event to tweeps all over.

9. Flickr Photos up in a Flash – get your photos uploaded and out for media to use and everyone to see faster.

8. Google Loves Us – Search engines pick up posts from ZimmComm blogs fast and furious, both news and web searches.

7. We Flip for YouTube – short, web quality video clips give your event a YouTube presence.

6. Audio on Demand –interviews with key presenters and speeches can be available on-line to listen or download.

5. First Class Photography – we take high-res photos of everything so you don’t have to.

4. Targeted Exposure – We can post on your blog and one or more of our own – with audiences that include agribusiness, renewable energy, dairy, and precision farming. We can even design and build a blog for your specific event.

3. Event Blogging Trail Blazers – ZimmComm was one of the first pioneers of event blogging, starting with the National Biodiesel Conference in February 2006.

2. Multi-tasking is our Middle Name – We often do audio, video, photos, tweets, blogging and more at the same time – while chewing gum and balancing a book on our heads. Ok, we made the last part up.

1. Historical Preservation – Your event is archived for history on the web and we provide a digital copy of all photos, video and audio sent to you for the sake of posterity after the event.

President Obama made his first visit to an ethanol plant since taking office I was on hand to cover it for our Domestic Fuel and AgWired websites. His message focused on achieving the American dream and rebuilding the economy with renewable fuels playing a key role.

A signature feature of our on location online event coverage is a photo album and I took quite a few during this event: President Obama POET Biorefining Photo Album

My main man, Steve Mays, the Obamanator, is on the ground in Washington, DC to attend today’s inauguration. He’s blogging it and tweeting it, using Flickr and even some video. I’d rather watch his coverage than any of the network blather. We may be miles apart politically but he does a good job and gets the new media thing better than most.

I’m not sure where I’ll be at actual inauguration time. Heck, I’ve got to look up what time it is. I haven’t really been that interested. However, I did download the new Ustream.tv app to my iPhone and it works great here at KCI Airport wifi. It requires a wifi connection but allows you to watch live streaming video like Agwired Live TV! They’re supposed to have a live feed from the event. You can already watch some live webcam video from the area.

Just think of the possibilities for events of your own!

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.