This past June, the Center for Rural Enterprise Engagement (CREE) was recognized for outstanding communication research and practice at a national conference.
The Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) provides opportunities for networking and professional development to communicators in the fields of agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences. ACE members convened for the annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri from June 12 to 15, 2022.
At the ACE conference, representatives from CREE presented and conducted research, facilitated workshops, and fulfilled leadership positions within the association. Lauri Baker, CREE co-founder and associate professor of agricultural education and communication, will continue to serve as chair of the Journal of Applied Communications board.
Outstanding Research
ACE recognizes outstanding research efforts of those who attend the conference and present research. Recent graduate student, Meredith Oglesby, was presented with the People’s Choice Research Poster award for her research completed with CREE.Â
Meredith’s research was focused on understanding Challenges and Perceptions of food insecure households during COVID-19.
Outstanding Practice
Each year, ACE facilitates the Critique and Awards (C&A) program, which allows members to receive professional feedback on their work. CREE received a Bronze Award in the ACE Critique & Awards program for the recent redesign of our website.Â
The CREE team also presented a workshop to conference attendees educating them on how to create communication toolkits to better serve their audiences. The workshop was well attended and received good feedback from attendees.
Conducting Research
While at the conference, the CREE team used Dialsmith perception analyzer technology to understand the types of videos that conference attendees preferred when receiving research findings and information.
The perception analyzer dials allow researchers to measure the real-time reactions of focus group participants when exposed to media content. Continuous moment-to-moment data provides information on which specific messages resonate with the audience.
The CREE team was able to collect multiple responses from conference attendees to analyze and improve center communication efforts.