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Home / The Country

Virtual Fieldays crashes after launching due visitors flocking to site

RNZ
12 Jul, 2020 10:00 PM2 mins to read

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File photo / 123RF

File photo / 123RF

By Riley Kennedy of RNZ.

The National Agricultural Fieldays that officially opened online at lunchtime on Monday hit a glitch in the opening ceremony.

The event was officially opened by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Prince Charles, who beamed in from Clarence House in the UK.

New Zealand National Agricultural Feildays Society (NZNFS) president James Allan said it was exciting to finally launch the event but a rush of people signing in at noon crashed the system.

The agricultural event is normally held at Mystery Creek near Hamilton in June but because of Covid 19 it cancelled the live event and is instead running a two-week online Fieldays.

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"It was a disappointing way to start but systems were back up again within two hours and we quietly confident everything will run smoothly from now on," Allen said.

Allen said people who were online before noon did get to see the opening addresses which included one from the Prince of Wales, who attended the Fieldays 50 years ago.

"There has been little negative response from exhibitors or those trying to visit the site," he said.

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During the opening ceremony Allen said it was 90 days ago the society had to pivot to an online event.

"If the farmers can't come to the feildays, we will bring it to them."

Earlier NZNFS chief executive Peter Nation said going online allowed them to reach a global audience, and claimed it was "a world first for any agricultural event".

The platform will host exhibitors' sites, a series of webinars, live video and sales.

Discover more

Agribusiness report

Virtual Fieldays a first for New Zealand Agri

29 Jun 04:59 PM

Fieldays Online: Meet the man who's never missed a Fieldays

29 Jun 10:10 PM

Fieldays 2020: PM's and Prince Charles' messages for farmers

13 Jul 12:10 AM

The Country - Fieldays online edition

13 Jul 01:23 AM

Fieldays Online will remain open until 26 July.

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- RNZ

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