Organizers were quite pleased with the attendance at the new CropConnect Conference held in Winnipeg this week.
The two-day show, which wrapped up yesterday, was organized jointly by the provincial canola, corn, pulse and flax grower associations, as well as the national sunflower association.
"We were wonderfully surprised by the support from the ag community and in particular, our farmers. Having over 600 folks in attendance on the first day was a real feather in our cap," said Theresa Bergsma, chair of the CropConnect organizing committee. "I think the speakers were simply awesome and we've had good comments from all the producers that we've talked to."
Around 620 people were registered on Tuesday, with roughly 500 registered attendees on Wednesday.
The CropConnect Conference evolved out of the Manitoba Special Crops Symposium, which was organized by the corn, pulse and sunflower organizations annually for the last seven years. The larger event was modeled after similar joint conferences in Saskatchewan and Alberta, explains Bergsma.
"We looked to our neighbours to the west where they have really big events. We've already had some requests from some of the other commodity groups thinking of coming on and trying to align their systems with our timing. Hopefully we'll get bigger and better as we go forward," she noted.
The newly-formed Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association is one of the groups that has expressed interest in becoming part of CropConnect.
Source: PembinavalleyOnline