Earlier this week, I attended the 12th Annual Agriculture Media Summit which took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the Riverfront in St. Paul, MN. Here, numerous journalists, editors, photographers, publishers and communicator specialists in agriculture gathered to network with those in their industry and promote and enhance the viability of agriculture media as an effective and efficient communications medium. This year seemed to have a large focus on the social media world. It was hash tag (#) galore at #AgMS with people tweeting to win prizes like the iPad, updating their followers of their location or highlighting the new skills and applications that had been discussed during the breakout sessions.
As first time attendees and exhibitors of the Ag Media Summit, the RFA found this to be an extraordinarily successful venture. As the only renewable energy group there, we were happy to see the amount of interest in the ethanol industry that flowed throughout the summit. We had many visitors stop by the booth to pick up the Pocket Guide to Ethanol, the 2010 Annual Industry Outlook, Ethanol Fueled With Pride koozies and ask questions about current issues in the ethanol industry. One of the most popular attractions at our booth was the game commonly referred to as “corn hole” or “bag toss”, 
which we had set up for people to play to enter a drawing for a chance to win a Garmin GPS or an ethanol fuel card. The Garmin GPS featured the RFA’s Point of Interest (POI) E85 Fuel Locator application, which locates E85 fuel stations closest to the driver’s location or destination. This application is also available for TomTom GPS devices. To find more information and instructions on how to download to your own GPS device, visit www.ChooseEthanol.com. Congratulations to LeAnne Strother of the Iowa Soybean Association and Linda Smith of the Farm Journal for being the winners of a Garmin GPS. Also, congratulations to Deb Hodge of Shorthorn Country and Paula Moore of Farm Progress for winning the ethanol-fuel cards.
I would also like to recognize Cindy and Chuck Zimmerman for being the recipients of the Golden ARC Award for the Ethanol Report, a bi-monthly podcast covering timely issues and events in the ethanol industry. The RFA would like to thank the Zimmerman’s for their producing efforts and continued support of our industry. Congratulations!
Check out RFA’s Facebook page for more pictures from the Ag Media Summit!