The GWCT’s annual Game Conference is promising to deliver an excellent line-up of speakers and a day packed with insightful and informative talks.
This year’s event will take place on Tuesday 18 March at the Trust’s headquarters at Fordingbridge in the New Forest. Lunch will be provided and there will be plenty of opportunity to catch up with friends and peers from the shooting and game management community post season.
Designed to inform and promote sustainable game management, Game 25 is aimed at everyone involved in the sector and will be of interest to landowners, sporting agents, shoot managers, gamekeepers, game farmers, fieldsports enthusiasts and everyone in between – all are welcome.
There will an update on the latest gamebird research, and members of the GWCT team will explain how to highlight the conservation benefits of shoots on a landscape scale and how to demonstrate their positive impact to help with licence applications.
External experts will cover a variety of topics, such as the current shoot market and finances, how to make a good shoot day into a great shoot day, a vet’s insight into improving gamebird health, new technologies, and how to be better promote sustainable game management.
By attending this informative event you are supporting the unique and essential research and conservation work the GWCT carries out across the country.
Don’t miss out – book your place now. Tickets cost £55 and there is ample free parking, including disabled spaces, at the venue.
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Programme
- 09:30 Coffee and Registration
- 10:00 Welcome and Introduction Sir Jim Paice, GWCT Chairman
- 10:10 Lowland Gamebird Policy update – Dr Roger Draycott, GWCT Director of Advisory
- 10:30 How vets are helping the sector with a focus on Trusted Game – Dr Mark Elliot, South Downs Veterinary Consultancy
- 10:50 How we can all play a part in saving game shooting – Tim Weston, National Gamekeepers Organisation
- 11:10 Morning Coffee Break
- 11:40 What Guns are really looking for on shoot days and beyond – Digby Taylor, Guns on Pegs
- 12:00 How shoots can adapt to the current financial market – Nick Watson, Strutt and Parker
- 12:20 An introduction to The Country Food Trust – SJ Hunt, The Country Food Trust
- 12:30 Lunch
- 13:30 Parasite management in gamebirds – Jeremy Marsh, Elanco
- 13:50 Lowland Gamebird Research update – Dr Rufus Sage, GWCT Head of lowland gamebird research
- 14:10 Afternoon Tea Break
- 14:40 How technology can help game managers and conservationists – Dr Dave Butler, Perdix Wildlife Supplies
- 15:00 How we can provide evidence of best practice and better demonstrate self-regulation – Matt Goodall, GWCT Head of Education and Advisor
- 15:20 Summing Up – Dr Roger Draycott, GWCT Director of Advisory
- 15:30 Finish
Testimonials
The first ever Game Conference was held at Burgate Manor, and we look forward to hosting the eighth rendition back at GWCT HQ, having been on the road across the country for several years.
Feedback from previous years has always been exceptional.
Charlotte Marrison, who works on the Raby Estate in Shropshire and is also the county’s GWCT chair, said: “I'm quite proud to say I've been to every game conference the GWCT have done so far and this means I’ve been around the country to all sorts of locations, and it's a fantastic conference. I can hugely recommend it to everybody.”
Will Southall, director of land agent William Powell Sporting, added: “The Game conference is something that we have in the diary each year, as soon as the date is confirmed we book it.
“It's a really useful update in terms of what's going on within the industry, and also a great chance for us all to get together, have a bit of natter amongst friends and fellow professionals and generally catch up with what's going on in and around the work environment.
“I’d actually recommend it to anyone that has an interest in, in the rural environment and shooting as a whole, whether that the guys and girls on the ground, the keepers and those who are working practically on the estates, all the way through to the owners and agent. It’s really important that everyone gets together and this is a great event for everyone to do so.”
Chair of Aim to Sustain Ian Coghill said: “Any GWCT conference is always a joy to attend because you learn so much. In my 30-year association with GWCT it’s never let me down. The information you get at these conferences is quite wonderful.
“The clear message is that we have to get our act together - the future of shooting is the future of the countryside.”
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The event is kindly sponsored by:
