Low Carbon Agriculture Show
I’ve had a busy week this week thanks to a visit to the Low Carbon Agriculture Show in Warwickshire. That probably means Anna had a busy week too as I as away. Although, maybe it results in some peace and quiet for her really! As far as Morgan is concerned then it probably made no difference whatsoever to him!
Low Carbon Agriculture Show
I’m sure I’ve mentioned my recent employment change on this blog before, but I may not have – or worse still you may not have read about it! Since December I no longer work as a Laboratory Technician in Sport & Exercise Science but have had quite a big change to work as a Digitial Content Manager for a project called Biomass Connect. I’ve just checked and I have mentioned it before but not in much detail as I didn’t really know what it was all about at first!
Thankfully I do know in a little more detail what I’m doing in my new role now and also know quite a lot more about the project too. A good thing really as I spent Tuesday and Wednesday on a stall at the Low Carbon Agriculture show telling other people about the project.
Monday was spent loading up the kit we’d need for the show and then driving there in a sporty looking Kia Proceed GT. I say sporty ‘looking‘ as I didn’t feel that sporty in comparison to our Hyundai Kona EV! It was about a four hour drive so we stopped off for lunch en route. We arrived around 3pm, set up the stand and helped with the IBERS stand too. We then headed off to the nearby hotel.
Meeting the Team
The hotel was huge but nice enough. Although, it was far too hot overnight for me.
We had a quick swim in the hotel pool and then headed down for dinner. Dinner was good and a chance to meet some people from other parts of the Biomass Connect project.
The Biomass Connect project itself is actually quite large. It’s a £5 million government funded project that comprises 8 ‘Hub Sites’ around the UK. These are based at Universities or Research Institutes where they conduct research into a number of biomass crops. On top of these there are 11 ‘Innovation Projects’ that were each awared up to £4 million each to develop new technologies and techniques aimed at upscaling the production and processing of biomass crops in the UK. Our part of the project is the creation of an information and knowledge sharing hub where the results of this research and the innovations associated with it are presented to the biomass industry. The idea is to contribute to agricultural, environmental and bioenergy policy development by contributing robust evidence and facilitating interactions between policy, academia and industry.
As you can imagine, with so many Hub Sites, Univeristies, Research Centres and Commercial Innovation porjects involved, there are a lot of people involved too. Many of whom were at the Low Carbon Agriculture Show. Thankfully not all of them were staying in our hotel so it was a staged introduction to them for me.
A Run in the Dark
After a poor nights sleep in the hotel I headed out for a quick run first thing in the morning. I’d failed to bring a head torch with me though so it wasn’t that much of a run thanks to the fact that it was very dark and difficult to see where I was going. I also failed to start my watch so the Strava record was somewhat limited. It was a lovely morning though with temperatures around minus 3ºC and frost covering all surfaces.
Breakfast was good too – aren’t most buffet breakfasts good?
At the Show
It was then off to the LCA show proper. Most of the day was spent manning the Biomass Connect Stall and explaining to people what we did, how we could help them, why they should stay in touch with us and encouraging them to sign up to our newsletter and social media feeds. That essentially was the aim for us. There’s no point doing all this research unless we can tell people about it and encourage them to get onboard. We also want them to share their experiences and ideas with us too. So, the more people we can get to sign up and engage with us the better.
I did of course have chance to wander around the show myself and take a look at the EV farm vehicles and impressive drones as well as chat to other stall-holders about their products. There were lots of solar power companies, battery storage companies and other alternative energy sources on show. Most had at least a passing interest in how biomass crops and bioenergy could fit into the bigger picture.
Meeting
We also took the fact that so many partners from across the entire Biomass Connect Project would be in the same place at the same time to have a project-wide meeting. There probably won’t be such an opportunitity very often. Now, meetings aren’t that exciting but it was indeed a good chance to meet yet more people and get a better idea of how everything fits together. There were also a few small things that I had a few concerns about that were addressed in a reasurring manner. So, although it was a ‘meeting’ it was actually quite a productive one.
Launch Event
Next we had the official Biomass Connect Launch Event which comprised of talks by our project lead and finally a drinks reception. Again, this was actually more interesting than it sounds.
With that done and things closing down for the day it was time to pack up, head back to the hotel and then head out to a Thai restaurant for a Biomass Conect dinner. My Massaman Curry and Special Vegetable Fried Rice was lovely. I was of course a desginated driver so was quite pleased to see that we finished fairly early and didn’t hang around for drinks and such like afterwards.
Round Two
Wednesday was something of an action replay at the Show. We were all getting into the swing of it by now though and I was surprised to find that it was equally as busy, if not busier than the first day. Our drive to get more Newsletter Sign-Ups continued and more good quality contacts were made.
We had a other round of talks from projects partners too with an interesting session on how biomass can contribute towards our drive to Net Zero. The talks were held in Seminar ‘Rooms’ which were really just areas of the show hall. Attendees of the talks each had a bluetooth headset so could listen to the talks while other things were going on around them in the hall. This also meant that you could if you want listen in whilst wandering around the hall or manning your stall.
After an interesting and fruitful, but tiring few days it was time to pack up and then make the long drive home. Traffic was pretty bad to start with but as we approached Wales things eased up and the drive back, along with a Burger King Stop at Telford Services was soon behind us. Time at last for a good nights sleep in my own bed. Although, I had developed some sort of lurgy so it wasn’t that good a sleep!
Next on the agenda for Biomass Connect is one of our regular Webinars and then a Demo Event at the IBERS Hub Site. Plenty more to keep me busy!!
