Gippsland women will share a valuable day exploring and learning more about production and processing, provenance and participation at the second annual Gippsland Women in Horticulture conference.

Expert speakers, experienced industry members and local leaders will come together to discuss their vibrant and growing industry, which contributes more than $1 billion to the Gippsland economy every year.

Time/date: 9:00am-3:00pm, Thursday 23 August 2018
Location: Federation University – Churchill Campus, Room 158, Building 5N, Mary Grant Bruce Drive, Churchill VIC

This event is open to all Gippsland women in horticulture, including growers, service providers, policy makers, processors, agronomists, employees, trainers, suppliers and industry supporters.

The speaker line-up features some of the leading women in local horticulture, including:

• Maree McPherson – Author, mentor, facilitator, coach and speaker
• Kate Wallis – Executive Manager – Regional & Agribusiness Banking, Gippsland, Commonwealth Bank
• Dr Nicola Watts – CEO, East Gippsland Food Cluster
• Emma Germano – Horticulture Group President, Victorian Farmers Federation
• Jo van Niekerk – Territory Manager – Victoria, Boomaroo Nurseries
• Dr Jessie Horton – Senior Program Officer, Economic Development & Investment Agriculture, Latrobe Valley Authority

The day will also include special interest group discussions on topics like health and wellbeing, leadership and advocacy, organic and local food, climate change and protected crops, biosecurity and what lies beyond the VegNET Gippsland project.

This conference builds on the huge success of last year’s event, which discussed the three production dimensions of water, waste and wellness. AUSVEG was lucky enough to come along to last year’s conference, and you can read our recap of that event here. (This recap first appeared in Vegetables Australia.)

This year’s conference is being delivered by a range of partners and sponsors, including the East Gippsland Food Cluster, VegNET Gippsland, Hort Innovation, Commonwealth Bank, Boomaroo and Federation University.

Registration is only $30 per person to cover catering costs, so to find out more about how to register and attend, visit the event website.

Header image courtesy of Emma Lewis.

This post appeared in the AUSVEG Weekly Update published 14 August 2018 and 7 August 2018. Subscribe to the Update using our online form to receive the latest industry news in your inbox every week!