France’s premier four-day agriculture event, Space, has gone hybrid based on the success of its show in mid-September 2021.
The 35th year for SPACE in France, was held from Tuesday 14th to Thursday 16th September at the Rennes Exhibition Centre in France and offered a fully-online final day on Friday 17th, and looking ahead the success of the Friday ‘event’ this hydrid appraoch will become the new normal for show visitors say the organisers.
The French Minister of Agriculture conducted the opening of the event and was able to meet some of the exhibitors and visitors in person, unlike last year’s show which was entirely virtual.
Alongside the event, there was also a digital App, which allowed visitors to better organise their visit as well as letting exhibitors and visitors stay in touch more readily. The Spp contained a list of exhibitors, the Innov’Space winners, the virtual conferences program and much more.
Nearly 400 farms signed up for the different competitions being held within SPACE, with the event being the perfect place for breeders to meet and learn more. This strong demand demonstrates the attachment of breeders to the competitions as well as the commitment of Space to showing high quality animals.
“We are not a stock raising show disconnected from reality. We believe it’s vital to have animals at the heart of Space. It’s certainly an animal show but also a meeting place for breeders. It’s a strong mark of our affiliation to stock raising,” says Marcel Denieul, the show’s president. The animals at Space are long time holders of health passports and are making a big comeback, confirming their high genetic quality.
The show committees, made up of breeders and technicians, pre-selected 764 animals from 370 French farms based on performance and anatomy. The final selection was made the week before the show started. For 15 percent of the exhibitors it’s their first show proving that the selectors are open to all breeders with the ‘right animal’ as Mr Denieul added.
This year, there are over 1100 exhibitors at Space, including 223 first-time exhibitors and 323 international companies. Names such as Adisseo, Alltech, Biomin, DSM, Evonik, ICC Brazil, Ke Gouessant Aquaculture, Olmix, Phileo Lesaggre, PLP Liquid Systems, were all there, as well as many others related to the feed and food sectors.
There were over 100 conferences throughout the Space event, with a focus on agri markets in Ireland; optimising reproduction in dairy cows; poultry environmental assessments; looking at antibiotics in pig, poultry, and herbivore farming, just to name a few.
A highlight of the show is the Exhibitor’s Dinner, where the Innov’Space prizes are presented to winners. This year, 108 entries were submitted and after being reviewed, 35 were designated winners. All winners are categorised through a star system, each winner is awarded one or two stars based on the value of the product, service or equipment. Of the 35 winners, 28 received one star, seven received two stars and in at the dinner itself, the panel’s Top Choice awards were announced – earning those selected three stars.
