Fieldays 2015 has already been and gone in a flash. In Fieldays Innovations there was a real buzz of activity in The Lab with judging and awards, and the addition of the brand new 'Accelerator' area. It is great to see the Innovation area within the Fieldays continue to go from strength to strength. We have posted the results here which serve to illustrate some of the fantastic work that is coming out year on year.
New to Fieldays this year was the Innovation Accelerator sponsored by Callaghan Innovation. It was designed to be the next step for those companies that have been through the Innovation Centre and had been recognised with awards.
The Accelerator was dreamed up in the Te Puna Studio at a meeting about Fieldays. It was designed to be media friendly and was halfway between an exhibition and a tradeshow stand. It was carefully interlinked with a new stairwell joining the two spaces. The furniture was all knockdown so that it could be easily assembled and also re-used down the track. Each exhibitors stand was customised with the furniture to meet their specific requirements (as we displayed everything from drones to ginseng).
We don’t often range into spatial design (with the exception of things like the Bombay Sapphire Design Week, Louis Vuitton Pacific Series) and it is usually tied to a program we are involved with but we had a blast designing and making it. check out the FieldaysIab tumblr site to see it from design to completion
Gail Hendricks, Innovation Centre Event Manager, said "Fieldays Innovations was again a showcase of invention, innovation and advancement in the development of technology and solutions for New Zealand's Agri-sector. This year the addition of the Fieldays Accelerator, designed and built by Locus Research, allowed 10 companies to show case their products and in some cases, bring their innovations to market at Fieldays for the first time. The calibre of entrants this year was high, with a range of innovations that solved simple everyday problems through to leading edge technology that will revolutionise the way New Zealand farmers operate."
The Accelerator area had a huge amount of very enthusiastic and excited people coming through to see the development of products over the last 12 months. Ubco, the 2x2 electric farm bike, was one of the exhibitors in the Accelerator area and the team was impressed by the amount of attention the area demanded. "The Accelerator was a great opportunity for us to officially launch The 2x2 into the public arena," says Anthony Clyde, Managing Director of Ubco Ltd. "We had news crews interview us multiple times. People enjoyed seeing the bike on television and came along specifically to check it out."
The Accelerator was cleaned and safely taken down last week and will hopefully resurface next year.
Follow the links below to view media in relation to Fieldays Innovations and Accelerator Area
Fieldays Accelerator Marquee Flythrough
Inventions on show at Fieldays
Electric Farm Bike proving a runaway hit for farmers
Fieldays: NZ’s golden week of all things agriculture
Last year, we created The Lab - a hub for education and innovation, to help our rural innovators move forward and define new areas to work on. We brought it back for Fieldays 2015 and with 11 sessions over two days, it's safe to say it was another success. We had people from all kinds of backgrounds, with many different ideas and or problems to be solved.
Our team ran highly focussed workshops varying form research and design questions to marketing, licensing and IP. Thanks to all who joined us in the LAB and thanks to James and Wells for the extra support. Some were so busy that the sessions were delivered onsite.
We already have some great ideas for a new Lab coming back in 2015 and will keep you posted.
It was a very busy time this year, taking up the head judge for the Grassroots Awards, as well as giving out our very own Locus Research Innovation Award. With Kiwi ingenuity ever on the rise, there was no lack of entries for the awards. The 2015 entries continued to show passion, creativity and a high level of thinking. Well done Kiwi's!
The Locus Research Innovation award was given to Bachler Steel for Fence Step. This clever innovation allows farmers to freely attach a step to fence posts, without having to build stiles around the fence boundaries. It means you don't have to aim for the gates when moving around your farm. "The simplicity of the Fence Step is what caught my attention," said Tim. "You took one look at it and knew it was a great idea". Our award provides Bachler Steel with 4 x 1-day sessions with 4 of our team members to tackle the things which will make a difference to the product. It could be a brochure, brand, technical problem, IP, commercial or any aspect our integrated team can help with.
The closing event for Fieldays was held out of the Accelerator area, and was great to mingle with those who had been involved this year - a celebratory drink definitely went down a treat! Each year we have had a ton of fun collaborating with one of the biggest events in the Kiwi calendar and it's great to see the clever ideas that continue to come out of Fieldays. We wish everyone the best of luck with the launch of their new products and look forward to seeing you all again next year!
You can see our time at Fieldays 2015 unfold on our Tumblr here.
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