It may not quite be business as usual, but after nearly two years of mostly virtual meetings, it’s a welcome change.
“One of the things people are most looking forward to is getting to gather and see people face to face as opposed to over a Zoom call,” said Megan Evans, marketing and events manager for Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley.
“The rural landscape can be very isolating, and when we can’t have these gatherings, it can feel even more isolating.”
“With COVID the way it was, everything got shut down again (last winter), so we were forced to stay strictly online,” added Farming Smarter assistant manager Jamie Puchinger.
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“But the one thing we saw last year when we were able to hold events is that people are desperate for that networking opportunity.”
Bookended by the return of Agri-Trade this month and FarmTech in late January, producers can expect a full slate of regional meetings and other conferences.
Alberta Wheat and Barley is hosting six in-person regional meetings, four with Alberta Pulse Growers, across the province (with virtual options available) with each featuring speakers presenting up-to-date agronomic information.
“Every year is different, and the more tools and knowledge farmers have, the better able they are to adjust on the fly,” said Brian Kennedy, grower relations and extension manager at Alberta Wheat and Alberta Barley.
“We like to put a focus on the agronomic topics for the specific region that the meeting is in, so the updates and agronomic information will be tailored to farmers in that region.”
Alberta Canola will also be hosting meetings, but instead of a dozen smaller meetings in each region, there will be four more centralized in-person meetings (and a virtual one on Jan. 6) with the focus on grower engagement.
“One of the things that most of us as directors noticed was that when we first started… we had absolutely no idea of how many things Alberta Canola was involved in behind the scenes,” said vice-chair Roger Chevraux.
“So now we’re going to try to focus more on what Alberta Canola is doing for producers and where their checkoff dollars are going.”
The goal is to have a two-way conversation so producers feel more engaged in the commission, he said.
“It’s a golden opportunity for them to express concerns or to point out issues that perhaps the board of directors have missed,” said Chevraux.
Farming Smarter is also using the virtual option to do things differently.
“The beginning of December is super popular for lots of events, so instead of trying to compete, we’re just going to move our conference to February,” said Puchinger.
But it will also have a pre-Christmas virtual event on Dec. 15 — on global crop production featuring presenters from England, Scotland, Malawi, New Zealand, and Australia on innovations that could be brought into southern Alberta.
“That was my goal — to try and find new and different ideas and people that we haven’t heard from before,” said Puchinger.
The conference and trade show on Feb. 16 will focus on the research being conducted at Farming Smarter with “lots of good results” to be presented, she said.
Another December event, the Prairie Cereals Summit, will be held entirely in person (aside from the Alberta Barley AGM, which will have a virtual option) on Dec. 8-9 in Banff.
In addition to sessions on agronomy, marketing, and technology, the event will also focus on diversity and inclusion, including something called ‘allyship’ — a term that refers to a mainstream organization emphasizing social justice, inclusion, and human rights as a way to help marginalized or oppressed groups.
“We have a diversity and inclusion activist who’s going to be talking about harvesting allyship and what proper allyship looks like,” said Evans.
The evening entertainment will feature Harnarayan Singh, host of the Punjabi-language broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada, who will share his experiences growing up as a person of colour in rural Alberta.
All the host facilities are following the Restriction Exemption Program, attendees will need either proof of vaccination, a valid medical exemption, or a current negative COVID test.
