 | November 1, 2010 | News for the food, beverage and consumer packaged goods industry |  |  | - Snickers tops Twitter tally
In the seven days leading to Halloween, Snickers was the candy brand receiving the most mentions on Twitter, with a total of 5,303, according to E.Life, which monitors social media. Next was candy corn, with 4,592 tweets, followed by Hershey, with 3,591. MSNBC/The Motley Fool (10/31) , International Business Times (10/30)        - Unilever retirees hear of insurance changes
Starting in 2011, Unilever is joining companies including 3M and Honeywell in switching retiree health insurance from a company-sponsored plan to Medicare. About 300 retirees recently heard details of the plan, with a representative of United HealthCare, which is organizing the switch, explaining Unilever contributions would stay the same, and go toward premium reimbursements. The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) (10/31) - Campbell plans a solar-energy facility
Campbell Soup is teaming with BNB Napoleon Solar of Pennsylvania to build a solar-energy production facility in Ohio. The facility, expected to cost $22 million, would produce about 50 megawatts of energy annually to power Campbell operations in Napoleon, Ohio. WFIN-AM (Findlay, Ohio) (11/1)  | In any industry, operational excellence revolves around key business outcomes including productivity, cost control, and quality of service. For retailers, all of these outcomes are highly, if not entirely, dependent on the quality of the workforce and how it is managed. Find out what challenges retailers are facing, and what a workforce management solution can do for your bottom line. |
 - Consumers plan holiday saving strategies
In a report from SymphonyIRI, 28% of consumers say they plan to buyer fewer gifts this holiday season, and 59% plan to hold their gift budgets to $500 or less. Consumers also say they plan to save money on food and beverages by shopping with lists, using coupons and promotions, and searching out deals before entering stores. Progressive Grocer (10/31)  | In this free white paper from SAP find out how IDC's program director for HR and talent management services, Lisa Rowan, answers five key questions about the current state of HR business process outsourcing (BPO). See how the role of underlying technology continues to be a factor in the success or failure of BPO projects. |
  | 'How Britain Shops Food & Grocery' provides a detailed overview of the shopping habits of consumers. It examines, who shops for food & grocery, where they shop, whether they are satisfied with their current store and what stores should do to increase customer satisfaction. Find out more. |
  | How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea
Are Hollywood screenplay pitches relevant to business? They are, according the author of this Harvard Business Review article. Executives judging product design, marketing, and venture-capital pitch sessions evaluate the pitcher as much as the pitch. Order this insightful article in hard copy or electronic download. |
 | Hot Topics |  | | | Top five news stories selected by GMA SmartBrief readers in the past week. - Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.
| Science & Technology | | | | - Clearer picture emerges on honeybee health
Pesticides, parasites and modern farming practices that deprive bees of nutrition appear to be top reasons for the declining honeybee population, researchers say. A healthy honeybee population is vital to food supplies, so researchers are exploring options including genetic improvements to bees, and making sure colonies receive sufficient nutrition. FoodSafetyNews.com (10/30)  | |  | | The Buzz(CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENTS)
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Agribusiness Seminar at Harvard Business School, January 9-12, 2011
For more than 50 years, this renowned Seminar has explored the business, economic, political, environmental, and societal issues that impact the agribusiness industry, providing executives with new knowledge and an essential full-chain, cross-industry, global perspective. Apply now.
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| GMA News | | | |
| Government & Food Safety | | | | - Wheat growers will get most of payments from new USDA program
Most of the price-support payments amounting to about $430 million under the initial year of the federal Average Crop Revenue Election will go to wheat farmers, not corn growers who pushed for the program, writes Philip Brasher. Farmers from Oklahoma, Washington, Illinois, South Dakota, and North Dakota are expected to account for about 75% of the payments this year, Brasher added, citing data from the USDA's Farm Service Agency. The Des Moines Register (Iowa)/Green Fields blog (10/28) - Test results back safety of Gulf seafood for public consumption
FDA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials examined 1,735 tissue samples of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico and found that less than 1% of these samples tested positive for dispersants used to clean up the BP oil spill. "The overwhelming majority of the seafood tested shows no detectable residue, and not one of the samples shows a residue level that would be harmful for humans. There is no question Gulf seafood coming to market is safe from oil or dispersant residue," said the FDA's commissioner, Margaret A. Hamburg. Los Angeles Times (10/29)
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Contributing blogger Maggie McGary is the online community and social-media manager for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. This post first appeared on her blog, 
In October, SmartBrief partners were invited to our 2010 Partner Roundtable in D.C. The topics of discussion were association news best practices, circulation growth strategies and social-media integration.
You can make your meetings run more smoothly and improve your persuasiveness by respecting the fact that the human mind can remember only three distinct things from any event, writes Art Markman, a cognitive psychologist. In practice, that means limiting your presentations and meetings to three topics and letting participants know upfront what those items will be, Markman writes. 
