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

Part of December into January was a little rough for the ZimmComm Team. Between some bugs going around to two short trips to see family. But now all’s well and it’s time for a new episode.

In December we posted some “Oh the places we’ve been!” details. We started in the new year by curtailing our business travel after over 20 years and nearly 900 events around the world. Interestingly, of all the states and countries we traveled to the state with the most events has been Missouri at 112.

Now here in January we actually are able to continue doing photos and interviews and virtual newsrooms for several of our long time clients. How you say? We’re retaining the services of others to do the on-site work while we do the posting and distribution at ZimmComm World Headquarters.

We’re really happy to announced that two of the first events in 2026 will be handled for us on-site by Laura McNamara, one of our very first freelancers back in 2007-2008. She graduated from Mizzou and covered many events for us at that time. She’s been around the world and has evolved as a top-notch photographer.

The first event of 2026 that Laura worked with for us was the Beltwide Cotton Conferences which were held in San Antonio. This young lady did interviews at a technical conference on cotton like she's been a farm broadcaster her whole life! Coming up next will be the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau Annual Meeting in Indian Wells, CA in early February.

So, in this ZimmCast I’m going to share a couple of the interviews Laura did. 

First is an interview with Marjory Walker, National Cotton Council on Seizing Opportunities for U.S. Cotton.

Following up is an interview with Hank Jones, a Louisiana conference coordinator, with a Consultants Conference recap of the presentations.

So, what do you think? That’s the ZimmCast for now. I hope you enjoyed it and thank you listening.

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

ZimmComm is now entering its 21st year. Who would have thought?

We officially announced our company at the 2004 National Agri-Marketing Conference. We had our first booth at the conference in 2005 which means we’ve exhibited for twenty of them! I thought you might like to hear the first audio podcast I recorded in January of 2005. We were just starting to figure out what we could do with our AgWired blog. It’s a short episode. I’m going to share some other audio after this.

So, that was the start and it has sure changed over the years. So, let’s look at this year. I was working at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans and thought I’d focus on the outlook for cotton. I would not be surprised if there are some changes after the presidential inauguration. But I’m going to start with Gary Adams, CEO of the National Cotton Council. He talks about the cotton industry outlook and then moves onto the farm bill. 

Following Gary is Daren Abney, Executive Director, U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol. He talks about the last year of the program and an outlook of what’s next.

You can find a lot of photos as well as interviews and session audio on the AgNewsWire virtual ag newsroom here.

I’m heading out next to San Diego for the Clean Fuels Conference and hoping the weather doesn’t cause too many travel problems. It’s looking like I’ll miss the mess though.

So, that’s the ZimmCast for this episode. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

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

I’m a little behind on this latest episode. The holidays and early conferences have kept Cindy and I very busy. This includes traveling to see family and that includes a beautiful wedding for one of our nieces. We are very blessed to be able to see so many of our family members. We’re scattered all over the place so it’s not easy. But worth it.

So, I’m going to include a few of the interviews I conducted in the last two weeks. 

Let’s start with the Beltwide Cotton Conferences in New Orleans. These interviews are from the Cotton Sustainability Conference. First up will be Dr. Gary Adams, President and CEO, National Cotton Council, talking about the U. S. Cotton Trust Protocol. Following Gary will be Dr. Jesse Daystar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Cotton Incorporated, talking about Climate Smart Cotton.

There are a quite a few more interviews and other audio in the Beltwide Cotton Conferences virtual ag newsroom on AgNewsWire.com. That includes regulatory updates, cotton policy updates and a world cotton outlook.

Now let’s move to this week’s VISION Conference conducted by Meister Media and held in Glendale, AZ. It is the 6th year for this conference.

First up is Joe Monahan, President and COO of Meister Media. He talks about the conference theme of Harnessing the Power of Agriculture 4.0. Then you’ll hear Rob Dongoski, Global Food & Agribusiness Leader, Ernst & Young. He has some great information about how technology will enable the future food system from producers to consumers.

Coming up next on the ZimmComm schedule is the Clean Fuels Conference followed by the annual meeting of the Crop Insurance and Reinsurance Bureau. I’m looking forward to them!

I’d also like to remind you that you can subscribe, not only to the ZimmCast, but the ZimmComm Golden Mic Audio Podcast. That podcast contains all interviews or other audio files that we publish. You can find it in all the major podcast directories. Just search for ZimmComm Golden Mic Audio Podcast.

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