A Gathering of #Agnerds

Normally I wouldn’t want to be called a nerd but add two letters – ag – to the front of it and I wear the badge proudly. I was just one of many agnerds that gathered in Kansas City, Missouri (not Kansas) last week to attend Agvocacy 2.0, an AgChat Foundation conference (Twitter hashtag: #acfc12).

During my eight-hour journey to Kansas City, I had a lot of time to think, and I found myself wondering if I’d fit in. After all, I’m just a farm girl from Manitoba, Canada. I was one of only four Canadians attending the conference. But on the first day of the conference, as I looked around the room filled with agnerds, I realized that I was just like everybody else. In that room it didn’t matter if you were Canadian (and talked funny, eh!), American, a farmer, rancher, ag marketer or whatever, we were all agnerds. We were all there for one reason – to learn how to be better advocates for agriculture or as we like to call it agvocating. We all share two common passions – agriculture and social media.

I strongly believe that we have many positive stories to share in the ag industry and a great way to share these stories is through various social media tools. If you work in the ag industry I encourage you to tell your story through words, pictures, videos etc. Consumers want to know where their food comes from and who better to tell them than the very people who are producing their food. And if you’re a consumer I encourage you to seek out your local farmers and ask questions.

This conference also gave me the opportunity to put a face to the Twitter handle. I had not met any of the other attendees in person, only virtually, prior to the conference. But in a matter of days, these agvocates have gone from being my social media friends to real life friends.

There’s nothing quite like being in a room filled with people who share your passions and are fired up for the future of agriculture. I left feeling inspired and am proud to be a part of the AgChat community and call myself an agnerd!