Next year’s Oxford conference joins list of Covid casualties

The organisers of the Oxford Farming Conference – which has traditionally rebooted the industry’s brain cells in the early days of the New Year – has revealed that the 2021 event has joined the list Covid casualties.

Other than the war years, the OFC has annually kicked the year off with high level debate on the all the big issues facing farming in the cerebral setting of Oxford University.

However the committee’s chair, Sally Williams this week revealed that amidst the Covid uncertainty for people, travel and gatherings the OFC Council had looked long and hard about how to best deliver a successful and focussed event for the organisation’s 75th conference in 2021.

“We run the event at break-even or a slight loss, so the uncertainty of booking the Oxford University only for us to have to cancel due to the pandemic is something we felt we could not support,” said Williams. Therefore, the council have made the difficult decision to cancel OFC 2021 and replace it with a one-day digital OFC.”

Taking place on Thursday 7 January, the 2021 OFC online conference will include the usual mix of politics, inspiring farmers, lectures and the OFC Debate, providing a provocative virtual experience with the opportunity for farmers across the country to engage through online networking and Q &A.

She also announced the launch of OFC Bitesize – a webinar series which will pick a theme from a past conference and debate its sentiments – with the first of these to take place on 4 June.