IAGRM NATIONAL FARM MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE
7th NOVEMBER 2024

INTELLIGENT MANAGEMENT FOR THE FUTURE

The Institute of Agricultural Management (IAgrM) is pleased to announce that its annual National Farm Management Conference will be held at the QEII Centre on 7th November, with the overarching title of “Intelligent Management for the Future” as its central theme.

With  the huge amount of change we are seeing in the UK and international agriculture and food sector, ranging from the impact of climate change, the after effects of both COVID and Brexit, the need to develop more resilient and sustainable agri food supply chains, changes to the way payments are made to farmers, disruption to supply chains, it is clear we are going to need to be able to manage our farms and supply chains even more intelligently than we have done in the past.

People have been the bedrock of agricultural management for centuries.  As agriculture has progressed through a series of changes –The role of leaders, managers, skilled operators and temporary staff has shaped the way farms and agricultural businesses are managed.

Now machines can learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks, is this going to change the way farms are staffed and led in the future?  Will autonomous machinery, self-driving tractors and machine-learning agronomic diagnostic tools change the skills that farm human resources need in the future. Will these technologies make people management roles even more critical for the most successful farm businesses?

This is the reason we have chosen the title for this year’s conference.

We are developing a superb programme again this year we can already announce that amongst our keynote speakers will be Máximo Torero, Chief Economist at the FAO of the UN, Jack Bobo, the Centre Lead and Director of Food Systems Institute at Nottingham University, John Shropshire, the Chairman of the G's Fresh Group of Companies, Andrew McLay from Innovate UK, Ed Ford from Dyson Farming, Professor Ken Sloan, the Vice Chancellor at Harper Adams, Julia Mulligan from The Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority, Jodie Bolland who is the Head of Livestock for Morrisons, Jeremy Gibbs of Forces Farming and David Jones of Hatton Bank Farm. We will be announcing the other speakers who will join us on the day soon.  We aim to have a diverse range of speakers across the event, covering a range of topic areas around our core theme.

Last year, we had 450 of our members and guests attend and we are expecting another strong turn out again this year. This includes a number of tickets available to students from key academic centres around the UK, as part of our outreach programme which we think is so important is our Next Generation work.

The National Farm Management Conference is open to both members and non-members alike and bookings can be made at this web site address: https://www.iagrm.com/events More details about the conference, including sponsorship opportunities can be gained by contacting the IAGRM National Director, Victoria Bywater at victoria@iagrm.com

Sponsorship has already been agreed with Roythornes Solicitors, Craigmore Sustainables LLP, Agreena, The Openfield Parnership - More than just grain, Barclays Bank, Ceres Rural & Yara.  If you are interested in sponsoring the conference this year, please get in touch with Victoria by emailing victoria@iagrm.com to discuss.