Fieldays kicks off its second 50 years in fine spirits, with all indicators pointing to another strong event from June 12-15.
The agricultural show and its Mystery Creek venue continue to evolve, which includes moving towards paperless ticketing, along with an enhanced app and a new conference centre on site.
Among a raft of developments, the new ticketing system is set to streamline visitors’ experience, from the moment they buy a ticket right through to the event itself.
The new system, trialled at the October Equidays, means visitors can keep the ticket on their phone if they wish, rather than the traditional piece of paper.
“It means you can become a true customer from the time you buy your ticket,” chief executive Peter Nation says.
Peter Nation, right, and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor open the Fieldays Health and Wellbeing Hub last year. Photo supplied by NZ National Fieldays Society
“The ticket becomes you. So if you lose your ticket or don’t bring it with you, we can look you up on the system and reissue.”
It is also integrated with the Fieldays app, and a further technology development sees the launch of a wristband that visitors can load their details on. That means if they are interested in a new product at Fieldays, they can scan the band to leave their details with the exhibitor.
The app, which was downloaded a massive 30,000-plus times last year, has been enhanced including improved searchability. A visitor looking for a coffee, the toilets or an exhibitor, for instance, will be directed there by the app and even told how long it will take. “It will also give you an overview of who they [an exhibitor]are and what they’re selling,” Nation says.
“It’s becoming very much a one-stop shop.”
Nation says it’s all about enhancing customer and exhibitor experience.
“If we can keep making it easy for people to come to the event and find products and services, then we’ve succeeded because we are effectively a dating service of business.”
A highly successful one, with the economic impact report from last year’s event showing $492m of sales revenue was generated for New Zealand firms, including $168m for businesses in Waikato alone. There were 1051 exhibitors across 1460 sites, and the four event days drew 130,866 visitors.
This year, new tar-sealed roads have been put in to improve the customer experience, and a painting programme of buildings has been completed.
Not only that, but the site boasts a new conference centre that can seat 500.
In classic Fieldays deal-making fashion they have shared the cost of upgrading an existing building which was due for upgrade and repair. Gallagher has come on board, and has the use of the building during Fieldays, while it will be available for conferences the rest of the year instead of standing empty as it has in the past.
Gallagher’s existing building has been demolished, and they move into the newly refurbished building on June 12.
It has been relined, acoustically engineered, carpeted, and has three AV points.
The site now has three dedicated conference venues, ranging from a capacity of 1000 people to 350.
A measure of the event’s continuing strength lies in the fact that all sites were allocated before Christmas, while this year will once again see representatives from about 40 nations visiting, including a contingent from the EU.
“They come because they know that they get exposure to innovation, they get exposure to future distribution and marketing opportunities with companies, they get to come and see the cream of New Zealand’s primary sector and to do a whole lot of networking with senior politicians and senior executives.”
Fieldays executives in turn make at least one overseas trip a year, sometimes two, and the organisation has many international partnerships, in recognition of the importance of understanding trends and changes. “That’s how we learn,” says Nation.
The international business centre itself has moved this year to the Village Green building where the ANZ used to be, as the bank’s partnership with Fieldays ends after 24 years.
That sees Fieldays Kitchen moving into the space where the international business centre used to be, while this year’s Fieldays also sees the return of crowd-pleasing events such as Rural Catch and the tractor pull, along with the Health and Wellbeing Hub and Innovations Centre.
Nation says a lot of people don’t realise Fieldays is a charity, giving back to the community through the likes of scholarships. “We’re starting to think even more about how we can do more national educational and charitable stuff. Some of the stuff we’re doing around education and health, we’re giving a lot of square meterage, if you like, at well below market rates.”
When it comes to the Fieldays Health and Wellbeing Hub, Nation says the stats show it touched more than 24,000 people last year.
The busy area has many health professionals covering a range of health conditions, everything from melanoma to breast cancer and mental health.
“They’re getting examples of people coming in that have really serious melanomas that they just thought was a bit of a scratch.” Those people are told, “you need to see a doctor next week”.
Nation points out with the fragmentation of rural communities, many doctors and chemists are moving out, leaving locals less well supported than they used to be. “And farmers in a lot of cases tend to be quite remote so they don’t get the opportunity of being able to walk down to the medical centre,” he says. “You’re running a farm, you’re running a business, you don’t have time.
“When we stage something like this they can walk in and feel really confident that they’re anonymous and so they can be quite comfortable in that discussion.
“It’s a great system, you can only do it in an environment like this.”
That also cuts to something else Nation reflects on as important to the heart of the Fieldays experience.
“Fieldays isn’t just about buying and selling product. There’s a big component here of where we bring communities together. People can spend time together, they can meet family members from other parts of New Zealand, they can socialise, go and meet their trusted advisors, their key account managers, their tractor salesmen, their banker.
“I give that a lot of thought because I think we have the responsibility of staging all that stuff so our communities have the opportunity.”
