Alberta crop producers who were used to attending the annual FarmTech conference in Edmonton can meet live and in-person again in January following a two-year hiatus.
Last week, the province’s four largest crop commissions – Alberta Barley, Alberta Canola, Alberta Pulse Growers and the Alberta Wheat Commission – announced the launch of a new “farmer-focused” event called CrossRoads.
The new crop conference will take over where FarmTech left off, say organizers. But it will have a different feel than FarmTech, which was last held in early 2020.
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Todd Hames, a farmer from Marwayne, Alta., who also serves as FarmTech Foundation of Alberta chair, said the new CrossRoads conference is FarmTech reimagined.
To be held Jan. 24-25 at the Edmonton Convention Centre, it will focus on issues affecting the agriculture industry and serve as a venue for growers to discuss a variety of critical topics.
CrossRoads expects to attract more than 700 farmers and industry members to talk about sustainability, policy, market development and farm management.
More than 15 concurrent sessions are planned and will feature keynote speakers such as Chris Koch, a farm boy from Nanton, Alberta who has turned his experiences growing up without arms and legs into a career as a motivational speaker.
Although the inaugural CrossRoads conference will take place in Edmonton, future conferences could be held in other Alberta locations, Hames said.
“With the shifting agriculture event space in recent years, the FarmTech Foundation of Alberta decided to evolve the traditional FarmTech format and reinvent its premier winter farm show to CrossRoads,” Hames said.
“Our hope is that CrossRoads will better equip the Alberta cropping community with information about issues that affect the farmgate.”
In an Aug. 31 interview, Hames said one of the first things farmers will notice is the absence of a trade show.
“That’s going to be one of the major differences that farmers will see right away. It will also have a … different focus. We’re trying to create a networking environment for producers where they can share ideas … and we’re trying to create a better environment for sharing information.
“We won’t have speakers that are going to create discussions. The idea is to create that conversation with farmers themselves.”
Registration for CrossRoads will open in early fall with single-day and two-day tickets available.
For more information about the conference, the agenda, speakers and tickets, farmers can visit www.crossroadscropconference.ca.
