Firstly a big thank you to my esteemed colleague Chris Biddle for looking after this newsletter for the past couple of weeks. It's always great to hear his inimitable take on the industry and we look forward to him popping up again sometime soon.

I have been straight back into it this week, finishing off the May/June issue of Service Dealer which went to press a couple of days ago, and on Tuesday I attended the AEA Conference in the magnificent surroundings of the Institute Of Civil Engineers at One Great George Street in London.

There were plenty of interesting speakers to listen to on Tuesday with a common thread which kept popping it's prickly head up, being the forthcoming EU referendum.

Firstly though Director General Ruth Bailey, welcomed the delegates and spoke amongst other things about the proliferation of trade shows currently. She said, "With new shows cropping up all the time we need to take a long, hard look at their benefits to the industry."

She also talked about the importance of training and pledged that the association would devote attention to the Le-Tec scheme this year. She promised to "revise and review" the set-up, with some significant changes forthcoming.

First guest speaker up was expert in forecasting and innovation, Professor James Woudhuyson. His engaging presentation set out to remind the delegates present of the "romance of agricultural equipment". He urged the manufacturers present not to be afraid to incorporate a sense of romance and pride back into their equipment design - this he stressed was very important for engagement with the public. 

He then offered several controversial, forward looking views saying there was a "culture of fear surrounding innovation." He dismissed claims that we're running out of oil, gas, metal and water and said, "More innovation is required in recycling on an industrial scale. This is far more important that guilt-tripping homeowners."

Also his views on websites were interesting pointing out that a modern site needs to be mobile-friendly first and foremost, offering the user a one-click ability to call your business.

Next up was Dr Sean Rickard, an independent economic analyst who was presenting on Agricultural Engineering - Looking at the Long Term. He seemed to have several ideas which clashed with the first speaker, specifically about the finite resources which industry needs to utilise in the most economic way possible.

He said, "We are going to need to produce 60-70% more food for the world during the next 30 years, with the new demand coming from the emerging economies. To solve these attendant problems the industry is going to have to use a method of 'sustained intensification'." This involved a close relationship between productivity and investment. He said that larger scales farms would be needed, in order to create larger profits, in order to continue to increase investment.

His take on any Brexit was that the key would be the negotiated trade agreements following a potential UK exit. He pointed out that the EU would most likely be very tough on us in terms of trade negotiations in order to discourage any further countries to leave.

Finally farmer Guy Smith, the current NFU Vice President gave an entertaining speech, which amongst other things highlighted the importance of encouraging an interest in farming amongst the younger population. He sited how the proliferation of technology in the industry is something which we should be proudly letting the wider public aware of. He said, "In 10 years time tractor drivers will become tractor programmers - and this isn't something to be frightened of." 

He was enthusiastic about farming's future though with the next generation. He said how the public have a natural interest in how farming works, pointing out the large crowds which turned out every year to enjoy the machinery on display at his local country show - and also the 4000 school children that attend an open day on careers in agriculture each year at Writtle College "You wouldn't get those sort of numbers turn up if the local firm of accountants was putting an event on," he joked.

After lunch and Ian Small's newly elected Presidential Speech, the crowd heard from ex-cabinet minister and now broadcaster and writer, Michael Portillo. Amongst some amusing anecdotes about his time in office (and a couple of old jokes from out the Ark!), he offered his take on EU Referendum.

He essentially argued that Mr Cameron is taking an undue risk with holding a referendum at all what with the propensity of the British public historically to use non-general elections as an opportunity to give the current ruling elite a bloody nose.

Excellent food for thought all round.

A full report on the AEA Conference will appear in a subsequent issue of Service Dealer.