During the 2017 Ag Media Summit we had the regular changing of the gavel for both the American Agricultural Editors Association as well as the Livestock Publications Council. I spoke with both of the new presidents for these organizations after their respective board meetings.

In this week's program I start out with Julie Deering, new president of the AAEA. Julie talks about the recent unveiling of a new logo and website for AAEA which is an outcome of organizational strategic planning.

The new AAEA- The Ag Communicators Network website is now live!

Here you will find a new and improved, easy to use, platform responsive website that includes all you need to know about AAEA. We invite you to visit the site and familiarize yourself with our new menu items, social media links, partners, and more.

We will continue to update and review this new website. Historic information on ageditors.com can still be accessed for a limited time and will be downloaded and archived thereafter.

We hope you enjoy the new website and welcome all feedback and concerns.

Listen to the program to hear more from Julie about the coming year for AAEA.

After talking with Julie I share my conversation with Cindy Cunningham, new president of the Livestock Publications Council. Cindy says the "basis of the LPC is working to build professionalism and build networking and build relationships among ag communicators."

Cindy says that a challenge moving forward is the changing way people are getting information and making sure members are able to communicate in ways their audience wants.

List in for more about the outlook for the new year for LPC.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

In this week's program I visit with Rob McClelland, FLM Harvest, about the merger/acquisition between FLM+ and Harvest and what it will mean to their customers and capabilities.

From the announcement:

The coming together of the firms is the culmination of two unique teams and success stories over the past decade. FLM+ and Harvest have been among the fastest-growing and most successful agencies in the food and agriculture space in recent years. Combined, the new organization will have more than 80 team members in operating locations from coast to coast.

“We have watched and admired the growth and business strategy of Harvest for some time,” said Rob McClelland, president/CEO of FLM Harvest. “This acquisition will help us realize a long-standing goal to fully build out a farmer-driven food practice, and have more depth and expertise in reaching consumers to tell the story of food, agriculture and environmental sciences.”

FLM+, a hybrid strategic consulting, marketing and communications company, specializes in agriculture and life/environmental sciences to improve the lives and health of plants, animals, people and communities. The FLM+ team focuses on setting strategies, aligning teams, framing opinions and creating demand.

In this week's episode of the ZimmCast I talk with Mary Hagan, Vice President of Communications, National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).

Although Mary didn't imagine a career working in agricultural communications she has become a farm lover after the opportunity to work for NCGA came about. Mary's background has suited her well to work on some of the challenges facing corn growers as you will hear her discuss in the program.

A topic that came up which is very near and dear to my heart right involves the word, measurement. This important concept should be pretty easy when you consider how many statistics are created by the digital data involved in today's communications channels. However, making sense of it, especially to measure return on investment, success, or even to figure out what your audience is thinking and what is really important to them is a big challenge. Mary talks about some ways NCGA is dealing with this issue.

I also like a few anecdotes Mary brings up about the work of some of the state affiliate organizations to NCGA. They are doing very valuable work on their own and Mary sees trying to foster good internal communications with them as a very important element of the work she does.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!

A new week, a new ZimmCast episode, with Bethany Shively, Director of Communications, American Seed Trade Association (ASTA).

Cindy spoke with Bethany at the recent ASTA annual meeting. First up in the discussion is the Better Seed, Better Life program, an educational communications effort.

Another project they talk about is one involving the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival with an exhibit that focuses on the seed.

I hope you enjoy the program and thank you for listening!