Lora Bender has joined Glacier FarmMedia (GFM) as a bilingual sales consultant for dairy and eastern cattle. She will help further strengthen focus on the dairy industry for GFM publications Farmtario and Le Bulletin des agriculteurs.
“We want to beef up the dairy in everything we do,” Bender says. “What can we offer? What’s different, and what can we do in the future that doesn’t exist yet?”
Bender’s primary goal is to expand GFM’s integrated media solutions, identify gaps in coverage of dairy and eastern cattle, and build strong industry relationships while meeting producer needs and increasing interprovincial business opportunities.
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“I love ideas and trying to open people’s eyes to how vast agriculture is, and how it can relate to them and help them grow,” says Bender. “I like to connect the dots, (and) help people succeed and do well.”
A bilingual University of Guelph business graduate, Bender offers decades of dairy industry expertise, advertising sales, marketing and communication, including leadership roles at Progressive Dairy – en français magazine, Ayrshire Canada and Holstein Canada, as well as event planning skills.
Growing up on a 10,000-tree apple farm near Erin, Bender began marketing their apples and apple products before branching out into agri-tourism with Halloween haunted hayrides as a fundraiser for the food bank in the early 1990s.
“Coming from an entrepreneurial family, my brain is always thinking, how can I help other people?’ How can I use my superpowers for the greater good? What more can I do?” she says.
She is already identifying growth opportunities for Quebec and Ontario companies to expand their presence at farm shows, such as Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show (COFS), and through GFM’s online platforms, including DairyPlus, Lait Plus, and AgCanada.
“We want to connect with dairy producers. We want to invest in helping them succeed in their businesses,” she said. “I’m excited to get out there and talk to people about what I’m up to now. The opportunities are endless. We’ve just got to make it happen.”
You can catch Bender at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show in Woodstock Sept. 9-11, and the Animal Health Canada Forum in Ottawa, Sept. 23-24.
