Hello and welcome to the ZimmCast. I’m Chuck Zimmerman.

After missing it for a few years I was able to attend the Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) Annual Meeting which took place in Richmond, VA. We had a good turnout with some great sessions. I interviewed several of the attendees. More on that in a moment.

The Golden ARC Awards, which were started in 1990 as the pre-eminent ag public relations awards, had many entries and awards were announced during the meeting. The awards themselves did not get to the hotel on time so they will be sent to the winners. You can find a list of all the winners on the ARC website.

So, let’s get started a conversation I had with Lynn Henderson, AgriMarketing, who was inducted into the ARC Public Relations Hall of Fame.

Next up, I spoke with Sara Wyant, Agri-Pulse, who participated in an editor panel which had the job of talking about reaching editors with news and information.

Also participating on the editor panel was Jessica Johnson, NewsWise.

There was an ag panel discussion on the “Beneficial Swamp Dwellers.” I spoke with Bethany Shively, ASTA, who talked about the value of those fighting the good public relations fight for ag and food in Washington, DC. She also gets in a plug for the upcoming ASTA CSS & Seed Expo in Chicago in December.

I also spoke with Erin Nash, NAFB. NAFB was a sponsor at the ARC Annual Meeting. Erin talks about services NAFB offers to ag public relations professionals.

Lastly in the program for this week, I spoke with conference attendee, Hannah Thompson-Weeman, Animal Ag Alliance. This was her first ARC Annual Meeting. Hannah also provides a plug for the organizations annual Stakeholders meeting.

I’m really glad I was able to go to the ARC meeting this year and spend some face to face time with so many friends in the industry. Next on my schedule is the NAFB annual meeting in Kansas City. I’ll be there all day for Trade Talk, so maybe I’ll see you then.

That’s the ZimmCast for this week. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for listening.