The purpose of The Next Crop is to create an opportunity for ideas to be put forward on how regional communities can overcome their challenges.

Our panel for Armidale brings a mix of local know-how and outside expertise.

The panel brings experience in community-owned energy generation, digital communications and entrepreneurship, experience in implementation and the perspective of a new entrant to the workforce.

The forums include free entry and will kick off at 5.30pm at the Armidale Bowling Club on Thursday May 3.

The panel includes:

Ms Oakes is behind Local Land Services’ Ladies in Livestock, a skills based program for women. She is passionate about engaging and enabling women in agriculture and facilitating the groups which now total 200 participants. She has a degree in Agriculture at UNE, has worked as a agronomist with both Norco and Landmark before studying education to become a secondary school agriculture and science teacher, and has been with LLS as a pastures agronomist since 2013.

Mr Mailler is a director of solar construction enterprise, Meralli Projects. He was part of the successful installation of Australia’s first privately funded, award winning solar farm. In 2017 he graduated a Bachelor of Sustainability. He is an Australian Rural Leadership Fellow. Mr Mailler has an interest in regional socio-economic sustainability and believes renewables provide significant business opportunities.

Mr Laurie is a fourth year agricultural economics student at UNE, and completing his honours on value-adding and analysing beef yield. In the short term he wants to get into a beef marketing career, but longer term sees a future in returning to the Armidale area. He sees his career choice as an opportunity to grow his network and bring new ideas back to his family’s farming business.

Mr Carter is an agricultural economist and digital innovation advocate at CSIRO’s Data61 business unit. He has a farming systems background and is leading supply chain integrity and food provenance activity involving industry partners and multidisciplinary teams across CSIRO. This includes: cyber-physical teams focusing on on-farm and remote sensing, IoT and automation; and, decision science teams focused on human systems, behavioural and cultural dimensions​.

Mr Blakester has a diverse career spanning environmental, community, business and government sectors, from local through to international roles. He is a founder of Starfish Initiatives, an innovative charity and one of the only rural and regional sustainability specialist organisations in the world. His specialisation is creating change for sustainability in areas including energy, reconciliation, youth, farming, housing, habitat restoration, governance and leadership.

Mrs Sharrock is a midwife and founder of Birth Beat, an online platform to deliver childbirth classes across Australia. In the past 15 years 41 per cent of maternity units in Australia have closed, mainly in rural, regional and remote areas. This is something she is passionate about addressing while also embracing technology to remain competitive and employing local staff. “It is about being job creators, rather than job seekers – this is what will see our communities thrive,” she says.

Allan Parker is a behavioural scientist and managing director of Peak Performance Development Pty Ltd, a Sydney consultancy, operating in the areas of negotiation, organisational change, training and dispute management. His work has included the facilitation of public policy, organisational change, strategic planning, corporate restructures and mergers. His clients have included Microsoft, AMP, BNP Paribas, Macquarie Bank, Deutsche Bank, the OECD and United Nations. 

The event’s gold sponsors include Statewide Sheds, Local Land Services, NSW Farmers and Dow AgroSciences. 

Silver sponsors include Elders and the NSW Department of Planning and Environment. 

Bronze sponsors include Akubra, Kings School, Harbour ISP, Inlon, Ipstar, and the Country Womens’ Association of NSW.