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!

Starting now I'll be doing a series of podcasts with the communications directors of farm organizations. I thought it would be interesting and hopefully entertaining to talk with the people who are helping communicate their organization's message to various audiences, which includes their own members. I hope they will share some of the methods they are employing to get the job done too.

So, I'm going to start with Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media for the National Grain and Feed Association. Here is who they are.

The National Grain and Feed Association, founded in 1896, is a broad-based, non-profit trade association that represents and provides services for grain, feed and related commercial businesses.Its activities focus on enhancing the growth and economic performance of U.S. agriculture.

Sarah and I talked about how important digital and social media has become and how she sees NGFA using these tools more frequently to accomplish part of the organization's new strategic plan.

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

Go Big. That's the theme of the 2017 Agri-Marketing Conference that will take place in Texas this month (26-28).

Each year I like to get a preview from the conference chair and this year that is John Deere's Jennifer Anderson. We spoke about the program which includes keynote speakers like Herm Edwards, breakout sessions that will be formatted in a creative new way this year and of course, the students and networking opportunities.