Lucy Mitchell
I am from a family beef farm and I am the eldest of six children. While we have started succession conversations, due to the number of siblings we can not all be part of the business. I attended the Scottish Agritourism conference to learn about agritourism opportunities and challenges, to find ways in which they can be utilised on our family farm as I realise we will need to diversify. Having been an Events Manager within the agriculture industry for ten years, I have knowledge and experience of events and would like any future agritourism opportunities to be events related.
I was delighted to be selected as one of the Agritourism Conference scholars. The two day conference was educational, inspirational and was a brilliant way to network with other people in the industry.
I particularly liked attending the conference as a scholar as it was a great way to meet other younger people associated with the industry and the facilitated networking provided through this programme made it easier to network throughout the whole conference. The contacts gained from this event are very valuable and have been fruitful since.
It was interesting and inspiring to hear about all the work Caroline Millar has put into the agritourism sector and that the Scottish Government are supporting the work going forward by awarding the industry with £442K towards monitor farm projects.
Another highlight from the conference was hearing from those who have already tried and tested agritourism projects as they were so passionate about the sector and their line of work and were very open with sharing their positive and challenging experiences. Their honesty made the “Sustainability of the Family Farm & Croft” and “Creating a Rural Destination” sessions very worthwhile and there were many key take home learnings from them. It also assured me that inviting the public onto a farm is not as daunting as it seems and that there are ways to protect them and yourself. Consequently, it has inspired me to include farm tours and open days into my works programme of events.
Visit Scotland gave a very impressive speech highlighting the key trends within the sector and it was fascinating to hear about the emotional drivers to travel, the values driven approach and the steps than businesses can take to improve customer engagement throughout the whole experience.
Overall the conference was a fantastic well run and professional event with excellent networking opportunities and inspiring stories with many key take home messages. Thank you very much for selecting me as a scholar!