3 November 2000 November – time to meet and confer

A month of major conferences lies ahead for Lincoln University's Professional Development Group as staff bring to fruition two international gatherings and one national congress they have spent months organising. And it's not all over in November, they have another international conference running in the first week of December with which they have been involved.

First up, over 13-14 November is the third national Agribusiness and Food Congress being held in the Christchurch Convention Centre with the aim of stimulating strategic thinking and discussion throughout the food and fibre chains on the theme Agribusiness New Zealand – maximising our competitive advantage.

Then, over 14-16 November, on the Lincoln University campus, there is the Sixth International Oat Conference. This conference, with keynote speakers from Australia, the UK and USA, focuses on the place of oats in the 21st century food industry in which taste, health, convenience and sustainable production drive the market. Have oats become a relic, or do they still have a contribution to make?

Following that, over 19-24 November, Lincoln University hosts ‘YES 2000’, this year's special internationalised EnviroSchool, with delegates from 17 Asia-Pacific countries joining participants from New Zealand secondary schools.

Helping with the international side of ‘YES 2000’ has been a special millennium year project for the Rotary Club of Lincoln, and the ‘YES’ part of the gathering's name stands for Youth Environmental Summit. That's what it will truly be and all the participants will be expected to undertake environment-related projects when they return home and report back to Lincoln on them.

The December event is an international soils conference, over 3-8 December.