I am really looking forward to heading for the blue skies of Seattle this weekend for the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 91st annual meeting.

I do have a special place in my heart for Farm Bureau, since that is where I started my life in agricultural communications. I interned at Florida Farm Bureau while I was still in college at the University of Florida back in 1980 and was hired on full time when I graduated by Gary Cooper of Southeast Agnet who was broadcast manager there at the time. After a brief detour to Maryland, Chuck and I both worked there from 1983-1985.

One of my most memorable AFBF conventions was 1985 in Hawaii, when this group photo was taken. You might recognize a few of the folks in the picture. It was lots of fun, but also lots of work. I remember it as the first “multi-media” event coverage I ever did. Chuck was doing video for AFBF and I was the only one covering the event for Florida. I filed radio reports, did press releases, shot and edited a TV story, took slides and wrote stories for the magazine.

Another memorable one was 1992 in Kansas City, right after we moved to Missouri to work for Brownfield Network. President Bush spoke at that meeting and I anchored a live broadcast of that speech with Lynn Ketelsen, who was president of NAFB at the time.

I will be heading to Seattle on Saturday as the event officially gets underway on Sunday. If you will not be attending, keep an eye on Agwired for all the happenings.