New chief for Fieldays
Well-known agribusiness leader Peter Nation has been appointed the new National Fieldays Society chief executive.
He is hoping for 130,000 visitors at the four-day event next month. Though visitor numbers fluctuate every year, partly driven by the economic climate, the weather has a greater impact on turnout.
Calder points out that visitor numbers is just one matrix, “certainly not the most important one”.
“We have 980 companies exhibiting with us and we make sure we design and build the best event for them to be successful,” he told Dairy News. “That’s our main focus, plus a great experience for the 120,000 people who visit us during the Fieldays.”
All exhibitor sites were sold out by January; the challenge now is to bring people to the exhibitors.
“Hopefully we can bring the customers; with the current economic climate and low dairy payout, perhaps there could be a reduction in spending. But the three regional field days leading up to the National Fieldays [have shown] some positive signs.
“Our farmers are running large businesses and there’s a lot of forward planning. Look at the advancement in technology and systems over the last five years: our farmers are keeping up with that, so if they are not here to buy they are certainly here to learn and look at products they are looking to procure over the next 12 months.”
A lot of sales leads are generated at Fieldays, Calder points out. Sales are made in the weeks and months following.
Last year poor weather on the first two days affected the event, but turnout during the last two days was strong. The total was just short of 120,000 and the organisers are hoping for better weather this year. “Getting 130,000 people would be nice; it means we would have a whole lot in the kitty.”
Last year the National Fieldays Society put at least $200,000 back into the agricultural sector via scholarships, grants and donations.
The board wants to grow that amount, Calder says. “The financial success of Fieldays isn’t just for turning a surplus, it’s to give us more for good work.”
This year the society has spent $1.6 million on improvements to Mystery Creek including, notably, filling in the lake beside the main pavilion, taking nearly 90,000 cubic metres of earth. This has added 34 sites to that area. Another 70 sites have been created on a dedicated tractor and machinery site.
Calder believes the event will look and feel different. “Our physical footprint has expanded; traditionally about 94% of the event’s footprint has been agricultural and 6% rural living; the new layout has shifted agriculture up to 95% and 5% is for rural living. This is an important step; we are conscious that while lifestyle products appeal to everybody, we are an agricultural event; we never lose focus on that.”
The Fieldays will also have a new precinct housing seminar rooms. National Fieldays Society and Federated Farmers are teaming up to hold seminars on topics “exciting and very relevant to what’s going on in the agriculture sector now,” Calder says.
Another major change is relocating the tractor pull to the back of the property, bringing it closer to tractor and machinery dealers, “to try to create a zone of activity around those companies.”
Fieldays is more than a trade show, Calder says. “It’s more than coming in and buying things; there’s a huge educational component made up of demonstrations and seminars.”
