36 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Fieldays NZ Fieldays incubator of rural innovation Kelly Deeks Fieldays Innovation Awards provides the quintessential launching pad and a global platform for cutting-edge agricultural technology and innovation, where creative problem-solvers showcase their ideas to the primary industry with the unrivalled exposure to about 130,000 people at the Southern Hemisphere’s largest agricultural event. Fieldays Innovation Awards have been running for 55 years, since Fieldays’ inception back in 1968. Structured to follow the journey of innovation and to support Kiwi ingenuity at all levels, the competition is judged in three categories: Prototype, Early-Stage, and Growth & Scale, and special recognition is provided for innovators 19 years of age and under with the Fieldays Young Innovator of the Year award. In the Prototype category, innovators showcase their ideas, designs, and prototypes that have the potential to improve rural practices. In the Early-Stage category, innovators will have started manufacturing their product, and in the Growth & Scale category, innovators’ products are starting to gain some trackable trajectory and growth overseas. The Fieldays team has grown accustomed to that ‘proud parent’ feeling when they see the extraordinary successes of innovators whose journeys began at Fieldays. “They started here,” says Fieldays Society programme manager Steve Chappell. “It’s fantastic to be that launching pad for these companies who go on to grow and succeed in national and global markets. We facilitate these conversations and that’s our point of difference. We bring the people to your innovation, and we love seeing that work.” Last year student start-up Delta Waterways took the 2022 Young Innovator of the Year Award for its satellite data and data analysis techniques which have revolutionised the way waterways are monitored. The University of Waikato won the 2022 Prototype Award for their Kiwifruit Human Assisted Harvesting e-BIN which makes fruit-picking less Fieldays Society programme manager Steve Chappell. labour-intensive. SNPshot took out the Early-Stage Award for its seamless and simple DNA sampling of livestock, getting results back from the lab within 48 hours. Previous Fieldays Innovation Award winner RiverWatch took the 2022 Growth and Scale Award for its complementary hardware and software solutions which provide a network of real-time water quality information. “It’s not about being a polished product when you are entering the Prototype category,” Steve says. “It can be that spark of an idea that people have out of necessity and trying to solve problems, some really big things and some really tiny things as well. “It’s about the labour shortage and the other problems we all face, and ways to make life easier. If anyone has an idea they should put it out there and you never know where this might lead to.” Even the big companies who are innovating every year are welcome candidates for the Innovation Awards. “Yes they can display their innovations on their own site, but how about entering the awards as well?” The awards also attract a large international audience through the 100s of accredited media that attend Fieldays, and our own promotions Steve says. Fieldays Innovation Awards are continuing to grow and evolve. Steve says award entries typically have a great representation from the dairy sector, and also horticulture, viticulture, and aquaculture which is now starting to come through. “We’ve got a great broad cross-section of people entering the awards. Our future plan is to widen the scope of the awards so that we are moving with the innovators.” Applications for the Fieldays Innovation Awards 2023 close at 1pm on Thursday May 4. Full details can be found at www.fieldays.co.nz/innovation.
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