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The “Rural Futures” conference at Pollock Halls was an attempt by both SAC and AgResearch in New Zealand to build on the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2008.

It involved two parallel conferences, one in John McIntyre Conference Centre, Edinburgh and one in Hamilton.  By drawing together researchers and rural policy stakeholders they aimed to explore various “futures“ for the rural sector and discuss the research that might be needed. A key element was to learn the lessons from the very different experiences in the two countries.

Just in case things did not work as planned, there was an exchange of “non virtual” staff.  SAC was visited by Jimmy Suttie (AgResearch), Jon Manhire (AgriBusiness Group), Alan McDermot (Anzco Foods) and Irene Parminter (New Zealand Government), all of whom presented papers at the conference.  AgResearch received a visit from several SAC staff including Davy McCracken, Mike Coffey, Sarah Skerratt and Beata Kupiec-Teahan.

The conference, lasting a day and a half, opened with a scene setting, welcome session involving both the Scottish and New Zealand audiences connected live by video. The Kiwis then went to bed, while in Edinburgh the day got underway.  After each session, the chairman was interviewed for an audio summary “podcast” which was then uploaded on to the SAC website for delegates to access in New Zealand when they woke up.  Their conference ended with a dinner after which they re-convened to link up again with Edinburgh where delegates had returned the next morning to learn about and question what the different audiences had discussed.

No one was more relieved at the outcome than Andrew Midgley of SAC’s Rural Policy Centre. He had never organised a conference from scratch before, let alone one on both sides of the world.