05 March 2015
The organisers of The Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend are hosting two special information and training events. The events will take place at CAFRE Greenmount College on Thursday 19th in the main assembly hall and on Monday 23rd March at CAFRE Loughry College in Room FT5 of the Food Technology Building.
Based on their own experience and the experience of the farmers who have taken part in the previous three years of the initiative, the organisers will share ideas, tips and ‘best practice’ examples of how to run and promote a successful event. The information evening is designed for both farmers new to the initiative and farmers who took part in previous years who wish to share their own experience or learn from the experience of other farmers.
Barclay Bell, Deputy President of the UFU said, “The experience of our 2013 farmers was invaluable in making last year’s event such a resounding success and I know the skills and experience learned from previous events will prove invaluable to our new farmers for 2015.
“As well as our recently launched farmer information brochure, which is available on the website, this is a great opportunity to ask questions, meet other farmers and network with event organisers. We’ll also be formally introducing our new ‘Farm Mentors’ – farmers who have taken part in the initiative before and who will be an extra layer of support in addition to the project management team.”
William Thompson, Agri-Manager for Bank of Ireland added, “Guest speakers will be available from the Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend steering committee and project management team, NFU Mutual and the Health and Safety Executive to allay any concerns you might have about welcoming the public onto your farm. We’d urge new and returning farmers to make it to one of these really useful and informative events.”
The event organisers will also talk farmers through how to promote their events to their local community, how to better get across the field to fork message to farm visitors and explain some new ways they have planned for supporting them in the 2015 event.
Contact Project Manager Marty Byrne 028 90393837 for more information.
For more information please contact Marty Byrne at Morrow Communications on 028 90393837 or emailm.byrne@morrowcommunications.com