Farm Credit Canada’s Young Farmer Summit aims to connect with the next generation of farmers face to face, says Jason Fiske, FCC’s manager of content, marketing and events.
The Winnipeg leg of the Young Farmer Summit is being held at the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre in downtown Winnipeg, and Fiske said he’s looking forward to in-person events.
The Summit is a speaker tour that will move from city to city between November 2022 and March 2023. It began in Edmonton Nov. 15 and is the first in-person event hosted by the FCC since 2020.
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Speakers cover a broad range of topics such as financial risk, transition planning and business management, but they also explore more inspirational subject matter like personal success stories and challenges with family.
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“It provides a sort of day away from the farm, so young producers can spend time focusing on their knowledge, their insight and their inspiration,” says Fiske.
One of the highlights will be speaker Evan Shout, president of Maverick Ag Ltd., he added.
“He’s a dynamic speaker, and he really understands financial risk management and the business of farming. I think Evan is someone that people will get a lot of value from because he talks about financial risk in a way that is very specific and direct to the family farm.”
Fiske also praises Danielle Wildfong, who works as an advisor for Family Enterprise Canada and has 13 years of experience in agribusiness, marketing and sales.
“She’s going to talk a little bit about transition planning. Farm succession is such an important topic, so she’ll talk a little bit about the dynamics of that and how family can come together and still nurture those relationships, but also move towards the transition.”
Author and leadership coach Dale Curd will also tackle family issues.
“He’s going to talk about working with farm families and how different personalities can play different roles on a farm,” says Fiske. Curd examines strategies to improve communication. “He’ll talk about how you can move and manoeuvre through the different types on a family farm and do so successfully.”
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On the storytelling side, Fiske says Emily O’Brien is another highlight. In her previous life, O’Brien was a drug addict and served a federal sentence for drug smuggling. She turned that around, and with grit and resilience, launched a successful agri-food startup.
“Her story is about the barriers and challenges that she’s overcome from her past to establish a food business,” says Fiske. “She has a really interesting story.”
While the event is back in person, there is also an online version that launched on the same day as the Edmonton live event.
“It’s really a condensed version of the face-to-face version,” says Fiske. “The virtual offering we have is really just two of the speakers that we will have at our events. It really just gives a kind of taste of what the in-person events will have to offer.”
The FCC Young Farmer Summit is free for anyone under 40 involved in agriculture and food and runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
