In collaboration with Oost NL and Agri-Tech E, the Netherlands British Chamber of Commerce recently hosted a delegation of seven highly innovative Dutch agri-tech suppliers to the digital REAP Conference in the United Kingdom. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and fast approaching Brexit, the delegates and British companies were enthusiastic to build strong connections and use the opportunity to create promising future business relationships.
Entitled ‘From microscape to landscape- Innovating at the frontier’, this year’s REAP Conference took a farmer-centric view on the emerging technologies designed to improve decision-making at every level in agriculture. The conference was successful in bringing together new technologies and experienced suppliers, farm managers and researchers amongst others.
With REAP being held online, delegates were allocated a ‘digital stand’ in the run up to the conference- a new alternative to the traditional trade fair stand, which they could ‘decorate’ as they saw fit. This included the use of promotional videos, examples of each company’s products and services, and brochures showing examples of their work. The platform presented the delegates with the opportunity to create one-to-one meetings and to be able to view updates to their online itinerary in real-time.
While the delegates could not be welcomed onto the mission on a physical journey to the United Kingdom on this occasion, the 9th November offered the space to discuss their company activities with Agri-TechE Director Belinda Clarke and also among each via an introductory webinar. The webinar was hosted by Remco Lucassen, Martijn Drost of Oost NL and Michiel van Deursen of NBCC, and was greatly successful in preparing the delegates for the following day.
The 10th November was the official REAP Conference day and involved general webinars and live sessions within the online platform. Despite the conference day being held completely digitally, delegates were still able to experience the event from a range of angles, be it through one-to-one meetings, sofa sessions or live showcases. The opportunity to ask questions to speakers was available as ever through comment boxes at the side of each talk, and the platform layout made conversation between attendees highly accessible.
In addition to the more than 40 one-to-one meetings that were pre-arranged by NBCC and general live sessions, the NBCC and Oost NL organised a break out session with other key-market players inludidng AgriEpiCentre.
The NBCC received great feedback from the Dutch delegates regarding the event. Daria Batukhtina and Stefania Stoccuto of Kubota notes that “the live session was very well organized,” despite being held online due to the pandemic.
Ali Abkar of AgriWatch BV writes that he is “looking forward to the continued support of OostNL and NBCC, and further updates regarding doing business in the UK.”
It was a pleasure to work alongside Oost NL and Agri-TechE on this mission and the Netherlands British Chamber of Commerce looks forward to further collaboration on projects with the aforementioned organisations in the near future.