With the ever increasing cases of Covid-19 I was beginning to wonder if I would be able to travel to Oxford to attend the Service Dealer Conference and Awards. Thankfully, I got there without any problem. I was so glad to be there, and delighted to meet so many people with interesting and varied topics. There was a great buzz among the delegates, many hadn’t seen each other for two years (not since the last Service Dealer Conference).
Service Dealer owner, Duncan Murray-Clarke opened the conference with a heart felt welcome to everyone. “Today is unashamedly about you, the dealers. 2020 and 2021 have been extraordinary years” he said. Duncan thanked the sponsors and paid tribute to the dealers for being resilient throughout the pandemic. “We all had to adapt and find new ways of working” he continued.
Duncan Murray-Clarke opens the conference and welcomes the delegates
The first speaker was Ed Gillespie. Ed is a popular futurist speaker and last spoke at the conference in 2018. The theme of his presentation was Smart Working in a Changing World. He cut straight to the chase by saying that climate change is a real problem. “We can’t self isolate from climate change. We need to get into a regenerative state of mind quickly”, he said. When he asked the over 120 delegates for a show of hands by those who owned their own electric vehicles, only a handful raised their arms. He was quite surprised with that. Ed certainly got everyone talking about what he had to say.
Two breakout sessions then followed where the delegates were split into two working groups. Those that attended the first group in the morning would get the opportunity of sitting in on the other in the afternoon. Plenty of discussions and brainstorming took place. Social media marketing expert Teresa Heath-Wareing took the first group, while Ben Scott-Robinson of the Small Robot Company took the second group. Ben stepped in at short notice, as his colleague, Sam Watson-Jones, ironically tested positive for Covid-19 the day before. These breakout sessions were very interactive, and it was great to see the delegates engaged in conversation.
The breakout sessions allowed delegates to get involved in discussions and brainstorming
After lunch Teresa Heath-Wareing was first on the podium. Her talk was about using social media, like Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok, as an aid to selling products. She said that one must be more creative and, perhaps, even funny, when posting information online. “Your customers don’t just want to hear about your products. Humans buy from humans so show them that you understand them. If you can, show them that you know what's going on in their world”, she said. She gave perfect examples of businesses making humerous videos and posting them on YouTube. As a result they got plenty of viewers and followers which gave a great profile to their business, leading to increased sales.
The afternoon breakout sessions followed after Teresa’s presentation, after which Ben Scott-Robinson took to the stage. His presentation, New Technology Will Empower You, Not Replace You, gave a very interesting insight on how the development of new technology will change the way of farming in the future. Aimed more at the end user than the dealer, Ben showed how lightweight robots could be part of farming, reducing the need for pesticides and even large heavy tractors. He showed an example of how fields could be scanned for weeds, prior to sowing, using a robot. The data collected is then passed to another robot where it would electrocute the weeds, allowing the field to be sown. Ben said that this eliminates the need to plough and harrow the field, saving fuel, reducing soil compaction and so benefiting the environment. The same procedure can be repeated during the life of the crop. “Our vision," he said, "is that per-plant farming will be the dominant farming system in the next 20 years."
It’s all in the future. Ben Scott-Robinson gave a presentation on robotic farming
The final session of the conference involved a round table discussion, which was hosted by Ed Gillespie. He was joined on stage by Duncan Murray-Clarke, Geoff Thompson of Farol’s Machinery, Teresa Heath-Wareing, and Graham Parker of Ernest Doe Machinery. The theme of the discussion was Riding the ‘hybrid’ work-horse – wrangling with the pros and cons of new ways of working. This turned out to be a lively and entertaining discussion
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The round table panellists from left: Duncan Murray-Clarke, Geoff Thompson, Teresa Heath-Wareing, Graham Parker and Ed Gillespie
After the conference, attention was focused on the Awards, which took place that night. Eight awards were announced with the Overall Dealer of the Year awarded to Hayes Machinery of South Moulton, Devon. I was delighted to see Barrow Valley Spares, from Athy in County Kildare, being nominated for the Best New Initiative Award with their QR code system on machines.
It was a very successful conference, an event which would not be possible without the support of all the sponsors and the behind the scenes work from the staff within Service Dealer. They did an amazing job. I’m already looking forward to next year’s event.
