Submitted by: Janice Janiac, Golden Horseshoe Regional Communication Coordinator
With a tagline of ‘Coming Together’, the collaboration of Southwest Ag Conference, Golden Horseshoe and Heartland Soil and Crop Improvement Associations and Eastern Ontario Crops Conference combined efforts to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic and keep the commitment to provide the agriculture community with updated and timely information.
The combined team delivered a stellar program of incredible speakers in live, interactive and pre-recorded, facilitated sessions full of the tremendous learning opportunities that attendees have come to expect from the respective regional conferences. Topics across the 40 sessions cover everything from soil health, cover crops and organic amendments, agronomy, fertilizer management and disease issues, tillage, no-till, strip-till and bio-strips, road safety and tire/track considerations, as well as marketing, tech topics and the ever-popular production pundits session. Live sessions were recorded and can be watched on demand as part of your registration.
To further engagement, and to delve deeper into some popular topics, the group added TEC Talk Tuesdays to the line-up. According to the website, ‘“TEC Talk Tuesdays” gives OAgC21 conference participants the opportunity to visit, discuss, and ask questions on conference sessions and topics.’ Through a series of seven consecutive Tuesday evenings, participants are provided the opportunity to engage with speakers and other participants in a live format, with a different topic each week that connects back to the original program.
Another unique aspect of this event was the Ag Desk—the anchor desk presided by Albert Tenuta, Joanna Follings and Peter Johnson—which added flair, engagement and entertainment to the first-of-its-kind conference in Ontario Agriculture. Discussion, debate, deliberation and mostly gentle chiding among the hosts almost made participants feel like they were attending in person.
With 1,650+ registrants, and more still coming in to take in on-demand sessions and TEC Talk Tuesdays, combined with positive feedback, strong sponsor support and solid twitter presence, #ontag’s first foray into virtual agriculture conferences can be deemed a success.