Farming Smarter's Communications Champion Sets Her Sails for Retirement

Claudette Lacombe ends her tenure with the organization the same way she started the journey – with the Farming Smarter magazine.

In 2004, Claudette became the editor of the Farming Smarter magazine, managed the organization’s communications, and enjoyed watching the organization and its people grow. Now, she prepares for the adventure of retirement.

As a nomad at heart, Claudette never expected to stay in the same place this long, but the people and opportunities made it hard to leave. “Farming Smarter was such a fun experience and atmosphere. There was never any stress about going to work; the camaraderie was one of a kind.”

“Having had the privilege of working with Farming Smarter, including all of the students, I have met so many fascinating people that it would be impossible to recount them all.”

Claudette entered the industry “knowing zip about farming” but quickly found that afforded her a different perspective from everyone else around her.

“I can’t count how many times I was speaking with someone and made a comment that revealed a new perspective to them,” she jokes.

The opportunity to learn something new every day and with every conversation she had kept her curious mind sated. But the people she worked with every day, and their dedication to the organization, inspired her drive.

“I’ve had enough jobs to know that Farming Smarter is a jewel. The people actually care about each other and care about the reason for the organization. When there’s a clear purpose to what you’re doing, it creates an incredible work ethic – I never felt like something I was doing wasn’t worth the effort,” Claudette comments.

“That makes it tough not to love!”

Claudette Lacombe (front, centre-left) stands alongside the rest of the Farming Smarter staff & summer students to pose for the 2016 staff photo. Credit: Farming Smarter

An Unexpected Arrival

Life always has some level of risk to it; even retirement is risky, as Claudette notes. “But life is unpredictable! I went places I never would have gone otherwise because I kept my mind open and followed what I enjoyed doing rather than ‘what I ought to do’.”

She embarked on her first career as a professional cook on a whim.

“I needed a job, saw a pizzeria looking for work and I knew how to make pizzas, so I took the job as a pizza cook,” she recalls.

This decision bore a decade-long career as a professional cook that took her to new cities, even training under European chefs. “When that no longer suited my life, I took a diploma following my passion for writing.”

She found the opportunities for this next career quickly begin to fall in her lap.

“I took a job at the Strathmore Standard the summer between my first and second year of the journalism course I took at SAIT, back around 1995. It was the Western Irrigation District’s 100th anniversary and the editor of the Standard wanted a bunch of stories focused on them. So that was my first task,” Claudette recalls.

Over the summer, she developed a relationship with Western Irrigation District and grew a wider appreciation of agriculture. Following the thread, Claudette discovered she accidentally landed in a niche.

“There weren’t many communications contractors working in agriculture, especially not with non-profit organizations,” she states.

In the next decade, Claudette created a business that did communications for agricultural organizations. Her work with the Bow River Basin Council, Rural Electrification Association and Alberta Irrigation Districts Association eventually brought her name to the board of directors for Southern Alberta Research Association.

In 2004, this board approached Claudette to be the editor of the annual magazine, Farming Smarter.

Changing the Way People Farm

Throughout her 22-year career at Farming Smarter, Claudette watched as the landscape of the industry and world changed. Be it adapting to the modern digital age or overcoming the challenge of hosting events through a global pandemic, Claudette takes great pride in having the opportunity to experience it all with Farming Smarter.

"Before we were Farming Smarter, Brent Nicol and Ken Coles drove up from Lethbridge, picked me up at Delacour Community Hall, then we went to Calgary. We were flying to Kelowna to meet with an organization that helped us create our logo to build our brand and start our website!"

Claudette recalls how quickly the organization grew, "Things really kicked off once we got our office and moved out of the Alberta Agriculture side of the Lethbridge Research Centre. It felt like every year after that I’d blink and suddenly there are more people around."

The arrival of social media created a new need for Claudette to ensure Farming Smarter could still find its audience. The only question was how to keep up with it.

There was some trial and error in developing the social media voice for Farming Smarter, Claudette recalls.

Today's pace of change began ramping up in 2010 and the outlook seemed strenuous, "as communicators, it was all we heard - if we aren't putting out daily blogs; if we aren't putting out 5-10 social media posts a day, we're failing." There wasn't enough time or bodies to maintain that pace.

A strategy Claudette was happy to undertake, as social media practices continue to rapidly change, "instead of burning ourselves out trying to keep up, we took a slow approach to feel out where our audience was and how they want to speak to us."

Following its own approach to challenges has been paramount at Farming Smarter, Claudette states. "That's in the core of Farming Smarter; there is no 'are we going to stop this just because it's hard?' We give it a try and get it done."

The audio-visual setup to livestream the Farming Smarter Field School 2020 event from the field.

The 2020 Field School was a real test of this mentality. Farming Smarter had just held its annual conference when the COVID-19 pandemic saw lockdowns hit Alberta. "We got lucky that our conference was the day before, but we still had our Field School to put on in the summer."

Farming Smarter committed to hosting the event as restrictions eased, though the Field School still couldn't open its doors to the audience. Instead, the team took the chance to livestream the event from the field. Through the air of uncertainty, and sometimes spotty internet connection, Farming Smarter livestreamed the event directly from the field.

"Thankfully that year, we had a bunch of practicum students from the Lethbridge Polytechnic's Digital Communications & Media program. We were able to put them out in the field to help everything run smoothly while Jamie and Morton ran the show."

While she’s unable to stay along for the ride, she’s excited to watch how Farming Smarter will continue to grow.

“The people who work at Farming Smarter are an eclectic group of people; Ken has a knack for finding curious, ambitious people that are open to trying things. They’re all innovative people and that’s why Farming Smarter is so innovative. Ken gives people the ability to try something new; can’t count how many times he said, ‘How will that fit with the core goals of Farming Smarter?’ – as long as you could answer that question, he’d let you try it.”

I Won't Go Quietly into that Good Night Just Yet

The opportunity to return to her nomadic roots is enough excitement to dissuade the trepidation about moving into this next stage of life. “I have so many plans at this point that it’s a watch-and-see situation. Although I’m certain this won’t be the last you hear of me!”

Beyond the upcoming garden season, and her ever-present baking, Claudette looks forward to traveling with her sister and the opportunity to write for herself.

As she departs from Farming Smarter, she carries the memories and connections fostered over the years close to her heart.

“I will forever be an advocate for Farming Smarter regardless of what type of relationship a person looks at with the association. Any involvement with Farming Smarter is a winning situation.”

Should the opportunity to support the organization cross her path in the future, she would be happy to take the leap.