When restrictions around the covid-19 pandemic cancelled our face-to-face conference in May we immediately knew we would have to find another way to deliver it.
Fast forward six weeks and our Allflex DWN 2020 Make.It.Matter Conference Online was launched with the original content reshaped to reflect our very new situation.
Right from the beginning we knew there was no way we would cancel the conference altogether.
Farmers are lifetime learners – they need to be lifetime learners given the changing landscape of the industry – and we know they take the opportunity to attend events whether they are delivered online or in person.
It would have been a lost opportunity for them and for us if we didn’t go ahead in some way, shape or form. With that in mind we began to explore other options. When our members requested more webinars during lockdown to support their learning we decided to move the programme online.
Our face-to-face conference takes 12 months to plan and prepare. We had a matter of weeks.
We turned to Russell Brown and his team at digitalstream, our digital partner, for advice and in return were provided with the platform for the conference, constant training in the technology when it was needed and coding.
While we’ve come a long way in those six weeks we still have our limits.
Luckily for us, and in Russell’s own words, “The team at digitalstream and virtualevents.nz were very excited to work with Dairy Women’s Network to help deliver New Zealand’s first cancelled conference as a virtual conference within a very short timeframe to meet existing dates”.
“The Dairy Women’s Network were already well versed in delivering recorded and live webinars to their membership so we quickly planned out what was required to deliver an online experience that would deliver all the engagement and tools needed for attendees, speakers and sponsors.
“It was really important that they could support their farming community and deliver their conference virtually during covid-19 and bring their members together to learn and celebrate all that they do.”
The rest of the conference was made possible by the willingness of the rest of our industry partners to jump on board. We saw a new side to our speakers during those six weeks as we navigated technology and social distancing together. While we were unable to move everything online, the 26 sessions and digital trade stands we could adapt for this new virtual platform embodied resourcefulness and an eagerness to join us in trying something new.
I heard this from Jared Briggs, general manager of Allflex NZ.
“As a company we were impressed with the agility of Dairy Women’s Network during this time.
“Allflex Livestock Intelligence is a longstanding partner of the DWN conference and it involved creativity on all fronts to deliver this event. At physical events we aim to open the conference with a certain level of energy that sets the tone for the whole event. This became even more important for the virtual event and we worked hard to support DWN with an energetic introduction, filmed in isolation by our APAC chief executive Shane McManaway.
“DWN took the opportunity that was presented to them and delivered a fantastic virtual event for the industry.”
The main challenge lay in redesigning 10 months’ worth of preparation and finding a platform that would allow the same level of connectivity and energy that our conferences are known for. The original programme was packed full of interactive, collaborative sessions, shared Kickstart Breakfasts and a Fashion Through the Decades themed gala dinner to announce the winners of our Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year and Regional Leader of the Year awards.
This was possibly our biggest loss as the dinner highlights the work our nominees put into the industry.
How were we to recreate the sparking atmosphere of the night? How would we provide the opportunity for our dairy women to dress up and celebrate each other? Well, we thought, when all else fails – use Zoom. Watch parties were set up, our members dressed up with bubbles in their bubbles and together we were brought into the homes of Ash-Leigh Campbell and Tania Burrows as they heard themselves announced as our 2020 Women of the Year along with the rest of the country.
The awards evening was a highlight for our incredible MC Julia Jones, head of analytics at NZX.
She says “The opportunity to interact with incredible speakers, work with the DWN team and experience the emotion of the awards evening all first-hand was an absolute privilege. I learned so much through the process and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”
This year’s Allflex DWN 2020 Make.It.Matter Conference is a testament to the Dairy Women’s Network team being brave, bold, and willing to do something that we had never done before. We didn’t fear failure but saw the bigger picture, tried something new and embraced new opportunities and technology to provide our members with what they asked of us.
It is not an easy task to plan and prepare a conference. It is even harder to plan and prepare a conference online while working in separate bubbles. But with record registrations it seems as though our collective exploration into the unknown paid off. Russell sums it up best when he says “It was great to see a higher amount of ticket sales as dairy women across the country could easily attend from the comfort of their own homes”.
This year our options were limited but do we do this again next year? Do we alternate between online and face-to-face conferences? We would love to know your thoughts and what you need.
