Sometimes, there is a flash and you see things a little differently. That’s what sort of happened a few weeks ago. I had airline tickets to North Carolina & was making plans to see my nephew Jake of Flat Stanley fame here on the blog. I was also going to be leading some sessions on blogging with my good friend Ryan Goodman.
Behind the Scenes
It could have been worse. I thought I had a good idea and I blurted it out to a small group of dear friends. They egged me on and BAM! Flat Ryan was born! He’s a Flat Stanley of sorts, but he’s available for those of us in agriculture who want to find creative ways to tell our story to download, color and take on adventures. Flat Ryan has a thirst for knowledge and ag trivia is something that can really help us share what we are doing, the impact it was, etc. Fun and full of info? That’s Flat Ryan (and the 3D version too!)
We surprised the 3D version with the series during the AgChat Foundation’s Conference, during the advanced blogging session Ryan & I presented to be clear. 🙂 It was a great way to talk about how a series of blog posts can help you come up with ideas to write about. What was fun was I had a chnce to briefly throw out the idea of a Flat Stanley type of project for Ag Proud on Wednesday night!
Flat Stanley Becomes Flat Ryan
The post on Agriculture Proud introducing Flat Ryan to the community gives several reasons for doing it.
- Ryan has taken some needed steps back and he truly needs to stay focused on finishing the research for his master’s degree and the next step in his career path.
- His friends, some of whom call themselvesBanditas for their stealthy work to continue the efforts of showing why we are ag proud, don’t want to see the blog neglected.
- Ryan loves ag facts & trivia. Flat Ryan will get his agnerd on as people help him learn about some of the cool things that happen in their part of the world!
- I loved doing the Flat Stanley goes to the farm series of posts for my nephew Jake (who even helped Flat Ryan get a bite of breakfast… we talked about where the bacon we were eating came from!). And I was blown away by the number of people who were willing and interested to help explain the basics of their farm or other part of agriculture on a simple basis. So take that idea, retool it and bam!
- Ryan loves to travel to see new things, this is a chance for him (and the rest of us) to travel vicariously to farms, ranches, etc throughout the US (and hopefully around the world). Jake’s Flat Stanley went to 15 states and one foreign country…. I’d like to think we can beat that!
- Look how cute Flat Ryan is as his happy go lucky self, a strangely excited or terrorized guy, regular dudeness or a goofy or grossed out expression! You can download the PDF file of all four Flat Ryans here.
via A New Series — The AgProud Adventures of Flat Ryan! | Agriculture Proud.
Check Out Flat Ryan
There are a couple of ways for people to get involved!
- If you are a farmer or are otherwise, you can join some of us in showing Flat Ryan around and sharing facts and information from your part of the agricultural world. Go to the post on Agriculture Proud for all the specifics on how to participate in Flat Ryan’s adventures!
- If you are interested in learning more about farming, read along in the Flat Ryan series of posts on AgricultureProud.com!
Very cute post and good idea! I”ll bet Flat Ryan will be a popular fellow!
Thank you for the great ideas revolving around Flat Ryan! Such a neat way for us to advocate for agriculture and share our individual stories. I could see people doing variations of this on their own as well. It will be neat to see how the project turns out! I am excited to see all of Ryan’s adventures and share them through social media!
Thanks! I had so much fun doing my nephew’s Flat Stanley farm adventures that I thought we should revisit it with a new twist! 🙂