CSB - Peter Nation - Fieldays

Catching up with The CEO of The Fieldays as the Gates open for this year's event. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the country Sport Breakfast. Right, we will go to
the very top of field Days. The man that's been
involved with it for many, many, many years is the
boss man of field Days. Peter Nation is excited to
like a birth of a new child. Really, is this
the fifty sixth year of field Days?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, fifty six Brian, good morning. There's too many, many
many's there. This is my eighth year as CEO. But
I get it. I do get excited every year when
we open the gates, see the mini city come to
Frush and all the people come through the gate. You know,
people come because they're excited. They look forward to it
every year and you know they'll always see something new.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
I've noticed that just driving around earlier this morning and
even yesterday people setting up. You're going to get the
feeling New Zealand is open for business.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, it's definitely open for business. And we fully appreciate
and acknowledge things a little bit tough out there, but
you know, the economy does chug on and we've been
in seven weeks in the build of this and there's
a huge investment.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
When you look around, Brian and.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Get time to go for a walk, the exhibitors have
come out, they've put up beautiful sites and they've done a.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Really good job at exhibiting their products.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
And services, and people are here to give advice and support,
like the Health and well Being Center, so there's something
for everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
There's hubs all over the place.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
How many hubs are there because I've been to the
Health hubit out of checkerp Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
So the hub strategy is all about falling in the
realms of our education strategy, so bringing topics or issues
to the four at the four day event and beyond.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
So we're up to eight hubs.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
This morning at ten o'clock will open the Field Day's
Rural Advocacy Hub, which is all about bringing agencies and
organizations together in one place that support rural and New
zeal And farmers and growers. And that's in its infancy.
We think it'll grow really well. That's brought in conjunction
with New Zone Fare out of Farmers one. Of course

(02:00):
we opened last year with a sustainability Hub, but the
one I think that's growing beyond all expectations, Brian is
the Health and well Being Hub. We average about thirty
thousand people going through that, so it's you know, nearly
twenty five percent of our gate.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
There's always a lot of interest from overseas. I mean,
this is Australasia's largest agricultural event. So how many countries
are here?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, so this year we're opening the gates to about
forty six countries either exhibiting or trade delegations to the event.
And you know, this government have very much signaled that
New Zealander is open for business post COVID. Trade is
really really important to our country and by the looks
of the international interest, they know that as well. And

(02:40):
you know a lot of them have traveled over twenty
four hours to come here. It's the middle of our winter,
although it's quite warm. But yeah, that really excites me
as well because those people haven't come here for nothing.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
They're looking for trade and distribution opportunities.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
There's always a lot of people gather here over the
course of the four days. It's four days, isn't it,
YEA how many people to get through the gags roughly.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Oh, roughly average between one hundred and ten hundred and
twenty thousand, depending on all sorts of things. That's a
lot of people to manage, and it's a lot of
people to feed and look after.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
But the facilities we've got here are world class.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I know that having traveled around the world, and people
can have a really good day out without really bringing
their gun boots now.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
And I think the secret too is planning to get here.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
You know. Often you know there's going to be a
lot of cars. It'll be driving on the highways and
byways to get to Mystery Creek.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
But if you plan it right, you'll be all right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Absolutely, you're not hopping in your car to go to
the supermarket, with due respect, you're really planning to come
to a very large event that's got seven gates and
big volumes of traffic if you're coming in your car,
But we would encourage people to take the park and
ride buses or alternative's lot, the jetboat down the river,
or if you've got a bit of money and want
to spoil yourself, a nice helicopter ride, because I can

(03:57):
tell you're coming in by helicopter. Over the size of
this event is absolutely spectacular, and for the next few
days the weather looks good to be able to.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Do that absolutely. So what's the plan today? Official opening
is what time this morning?

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yeah, the Fisher opening will be at seven.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Gates open at eight, and there's always thousands of people
waiting at the gate, those people that are really organized
and got here early, and then we'll move through all
the other official pieces as well as opening that Advocacy
have at ten o'clock. And I know very well Brian
that there's a number of exhibitors here that are going
to release some new products and some really hot deals,

(04:37):
so there'll be something for everybody.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Absolutely, it's well worth a visit Field Days, Peter. I'll
let you get back to it. You've got the official
opening shortly.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Yeah, thanks very much. Brian will catch up during the event.