New venue for SWCA 25th annual conference
With a new venue and a top line-up of speakers, the South West Chicken Association (SWCA) is hoping its 25th annual trade fair and conference will be the best yet.
The event, which is free of charge to anyone connected with the poultry industry, will be held at the St Pierre Hotel and Country Club, near Chepstow, on 23 April (postcode NP16 6YA).
“It is now 25 years since the inception of SWCA and the success of recent years has encouraged us to move the location to the more extensive facilities at St Pierre,” said conference chairman Paul Vaughan-France. “The conference gives us the chance to promote our industry, review new ideas and technical innovations, discuss the challenges facing our businesses and allow us to maintain social and business contacts to help us all move forward.”
The new venue will also present a fresh challenge for the sector’s many golfers, who may compete the day before (22 April) for the Patrick Russell trophy. This will be followed by the pre-conference dinner, where this year’s speaker will be David Beavis.
The conference proper will open at 9am the following day, with speakers due to start at 10am. They include:
- John Reed, chairman of the British Poultry Council
- Alan Thomson, regional commercial and technical manager for Aviagen
- Neil Parish MP, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for pigs and poultry
- Mark Gorton, Traditional Norfolk Poultry and Farmers Weekly Poultry Farmer of the Year
- Andre Dight, poultry implementation manager, bhsl
- Stefan Benfield, raw materials manager, BOCM Pauls
The conference closes at 2pm and, following a buffet lunch, the SWCA annual conference will take place at 4pm, open to members only.
For more information, please contact Alison Bone at the SWCA by emailing swca@hotmail.com
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