Communicating with webinars

Webinars to communicate and empower horticulture in 2020 and beyond

We can bring the world to our members in a time when we cannot travel.

BY JOEL DINSDALE QUALITY ASSURANCE COORDINATOR, VEGETABLESWA

ICYMI, (that’s millennial vocab for ‘In case you missed it’), COVID-19 has forced the world to have a rethink. Within a matter of weeks, the whole world adjusted and now are familiar with the terms and actions of social distancing, iso, masks, sanitisers etc. It is really unclear as to how long these things will be in place, so we’ve had to adjust accordingly.

Despite COVID-19 restrictions, vegetablesWA is determined to keep communicating and interacting with our amazing network of members and friends to ensure that fruit and vegetable production is minimally impacted by the crisis. As a result, we have been getting our technology on and conducting webinars to communicate critical messages to our network in place of running face-to-face workshops (that’s so 2019!). We have chosen to use the platform Zoom, but other organisations in the horticulture space are using Webex, Teams, Skype, and the list goes on. To run programs like Zoom, you only need a smart phone or smart device which is a common tool for most involved in horticulture. “So why use Zoom”, you ask? The answer is simple! We can bring the world to our members in a time when we cannot travel. A great example of this was our recent webinar on Melon Food Safety lead by vegetablesWA’s industry extension officer, Sam Grubiša. The webinar was presented by Dr SP Singh (from the NSW DPI). Dr Singh is an Australian expert on Melon Food Safety who has been heavily involved in a number of projects that were born following the Listeria outbreak in early 2018. The presentation, which he shared from his office in Sydney (via Zoom’s screen share function), primarily drilled into melon food safety, but there are so many learnings that could be applied to other fruit and vegetable commodities. Zoom has a chat function, which allowed for the live participants to ask their burning questions of Dr Singh. This added great value to the event for our participants. “I missed it…can you tell me more about it?” No…because Zoom has solved that problem!

Our Communications guru Amber Atkinson recorded the live webinar and we have uploaded it to our vegetablesWA YouTube channel (so why not check it out if you missed it). But wait…there’s more! At vegetablesWA, we have another amazing resource at our disposal in Truyen Vo. Truyen has translated the webinar into Vietnamese, so that our Vietnamese network can also enjoy the teachings of Dr Singh. If that’s not enough to convince you to take a look…then perhaps the inside knowledge that growers from interstate and one person from overseas participated in the live event and provided feedback that they loved the webinar’s content. “I don’t wash produce, so that’s no help to me.” Don’t worry, we’ve still got you covered.

vegetablesWA’s Labour Facilitator to remove the barriers of travel and Melissa Denning (in conjunction with COVID-19. Pome West and WA Berries), hosted a live webinar to discuss labour issues stemming from COVID-19. We know that labour is a MASSIVE issue for most horticulture businesses in WA so we addressed it. In case I haven’t convinced you of the power of technology like Zoom, then consider this as a final thought — there are farmers currently conducting business via platforms like Zoom to sell their produce — so there’s Spoiler alert…there was a robust, never been a better time to get frank discussion on the state up-to-speed with the latest of play in the labour market with questions coming There are farmers technology. in live from the meeting participants (growers and other stakeholders). Other webinars hosted by vegetablesWA include, Benchmarking and Financial planning with Bryn Edwards, MORE INFORMATION Are you enjoying our webinars and videos? Do you have a burning topic that you would like the vegetablesWA team to address? Would you like a Zoom tutorial or some assistance so that you too can enjoy the conducting business via platforms like Zoom to sell their produce. Export Updates with Manus Stockdale webinars on offer? and a COVID-19 Business Update hosted By CEO John Shannon. Check out our YouTube channel to see these. Then contact vegetablesWA on (08) 9486 7515. Our team are only too happy to assist. I have also been using Zoom to interact with growers to address their food safety systems. While New Zealand is trialling remote auditing as a way