By Marlee Moore, Alabama Farmers Federation

Ask a writer to pen a story, however brief, and our mind races with lead ideas ranging from the cliché to the passé to the downright terrible. But then the juices get flowing and voila. You’ve done it. A just-outside-the-box lead to draw in readers.

(Too much?)

This was my first year at Ag Media Summit, and as a young ag communicator (I’ve been with the Alabama Farmers Federation since June 2016), I needed the Summit.

I needed professional development. I needed to network outside sweet home Alabama. I needed to learn from experienced professionals who think way outside the box — and do it well.

So I registered, applied for the First-Time Attendee Stipend, packed my bags and headed to the land of low humidity and high elevation.

It was 100 percent worth it.

That session with Russell Viers on InDesign — y’all, it was life changing. The tips and tricks and solid information he shared are streamlining my workflow. I’m an InDesign relative newbie, and Viers’ session was basic enough for me to understand. But it was also advanced enough to teach me real skills without being left too much in the dust.

Vicki Krueger’s Using the Write Words in the Rong Weigh session might have been my favorite. I’m a word nerd, and her reminders on slimming down sentences and carefully using punctuation (commas and hyphens and parentheses, by gosh) have helped improve my writing.

Every session yielded some nugget of information to make me a better writer, photographer, communicator and employee.

And that doesn’t even cover the people. These are people I can bounce ideas off and pick their brains for ways to improve my work in Alabama. Our accents and approach to battling cold weather might differ, but we all love agriculture. We’re passionate about portraying farmers and our industry in the best light possible.

So as for me, I plan to pack my bags and copious amounts of sunscreen again next year. I’ll see you in the desert.