East Coast expo pleases organisers
"Quality not quantity" proved the key for exhibitors at the inaugural East Coast Farming with Technology Expo.
The two-day April 2016 event will bring East Coast and Hawkes Bay farming communities face-to-face with industry innovators, including suppliers.
The organiser, Wairoa A & P Society, with a recently refurbished showground, is promoting the region-specific expo as a way for farmers and landowners to explore new ideas for farming in the region.
A & P Society president Dave Martin says the expo is "the ideal opportunity to launch new products or release new research and technology, specific to the East Coast sheep and beef industry, directly to a target audience".
"The point of the expo is to acknowledge the importance of face-to-face interaction in learning about new technology and making it affordable and achievable for these two groups to come together.
"There are huge opportunities for technology uptake – especially in sheep and beef farming – and our society is excited about the potential of this expo and seeing the types of exhibitors keen to come on board."
Event manager Sue Wilson says trade application forms are available on the website and include all essential detail.
"Everything regarding the expo is right there at exhibitors' fingertips; we wanted to make the process stress-free and straightforward."
Martin and Wilson acknowledge the support of the expo's key sponsors – Rural News Group, Farmlands and Hawkes Bay Regional Council.
"All these groups have an obvious interest in the rural sector and they are passionate about innovation and forward thinking; their support is a real coup for our event," Martin says. "We... hope this is the start of an ongoing relationship between the expo and these nationally recognised groups."
Rural News Group general manager Adam Fricker says supporting the ECFwT Expo was a natural fit for the company.
"Rural News always carries stories about how the great promise of technology is finally coming good, with practical applications of technology and genuine productivity gains for farmers.
"We're excited to get involved in an event that brings this technology to farmers. It feels like the industry is only at the beginning of this and there is huge potential to use technology to make farming more efficient and profitable. The ECFwT Expo is a rare opportunity for farmers in this region to come and see for themselves what's available and what might be relevant to their own operation."
The acting land manager for Hawke's Bay Regional Council, Nathan Heath, said they were pleased to be part of the expo.
"Wairoa is a big part of the Northern Hawke's Bay region and with the East Coast has a raft of challenges unique to those areas," he says.
"We believe technology is a big part of the puzzle of understanding and managing these. We love the concept of the expo in that every year there will be different exhibits relevant to Hawkes Bay and the East Coast at that time; we wanted to be a part of that and have HBRC represented in what it can do for farmers and landowners in land management."
Farmlands Hawkes Bay/East Coast regional manager Rhys Hellyer says the ECFwT Expo aligns well with the company's core values.
"The premise of the expo is to showcase the latest technology in farming and it looks to attract a purely farmer audience without the hustle and bustle of non-ag exhibitors, which is attractive to us," he says.
"One of Farmlands' core values is 'Fostering Innovation' and delivering the future by leading and embracing change, looking for smarter ways to do things and challenging the norm to exceed expectations.
The expo aligns well with this by delivering and showcasing top technology and innovation in farming on the East Coast."
The ECFwT Expo will run on April 13 and 14, 2016.
