Communications Corner | June Recap

Welcome to the Communications Corner ㅡ a once a month recap blog post sharing what NCI’s communications team has been up to!

June was another busy month with various events on top of our everyday communication and marketing tasks. Let’s recap this month’s events:

Webinars

Our team helps market, run, and recap NCI’s various webinars hosted several times each month! Learn more about each webinar from this month by reading our blog posts:

This month, we had an additional special edition webinar with Cliff Hall, Professor at South Dakota State University who presented on Pea Starch: An Underutilized Starch Source with Great Potential. A few highlights from the 90-minute webinar included:

  • Basic starch chemical and physical properties

  • Cultivar impacts on starch composition

  • Altering pea starch functionality using processing methods

  • Application of pea starch in food products

Webinars keep our team busy as we prepare them from start to finish each week. Before each webinar, our team creates the graphics, website content, Zoom registration and links for panelists and attendees, registration and reminder emails, social media posts, as well as taking time to do run-throughs with each speaker. During the webinar, at least one person from our team attends as host to ensure everything runs smoothly and records for people to watch after. Once the webinar is finished, we upload each recording and send out emails to those who were not able to attend live, and finish with a blog post. 

Courses & Events

Summer Ag Academy Banquet

June kicked off with our new Summer Ag Academy program that was held from June 14 - 16 at NCI and on the campus of NDSU. 44 high schoolers from North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, and California traveled to NCI to take part in 1 of the 3 agricultural tracks; food science, animal science, and international trade & policy. The Summer Ag Academy packed the 3-day program to provide hands-on experience, lectures, and presentations with NCI’s staff. This course was a success, and the post-survey results showed that 98% of participants would recommend this program to others, and 83% are likely to pursue a career in agriculture.

The end of June wrapped up with 2 courses; the 2nd Pasta Production & Technology, and a new Fresh, Refrigerated, and Frozen Pasta Technology course. NCI welcomed 17 participants for the Pasta Production course from the U.S. and Mexico, and 7 participants for the Fresh, Refrigerated, and Frozen Pasta course. The Pasta Production course is one of our most popular programs, which is why we’ve offered it 2 times this year.

& More!

Between the busyness of webinars, courses, and traveling…our team has also been hard at work editing videos, writing press releases, blog posts, planning, & more for upcoming events.

Video production has become a huge part of what our communications team works on, so check out our blog post to learn more! Our focus right now is finishing up videos of upcoming on-demand courses; Sourdough Baking, Feed Milling 101, and Durum Foods, as well as wrapping up recaps of June’s programs.

Our team is prepping for upcoming course and conferences such as the Ancient Grains Conference at the end of July and the Next 5 Years Conference in September.

By the Numbers

This last month, our communications team:

  • Created 8 videos

  • Helped promote, run, & recap 7 different webinars

  • Wrote 2 blog posts

  • Assisted with 3 programs

That’s all for this month’s recap! Check back in next month to see what else we’ve been up to!

Northern Crops Institute