The NZ Ag Data "Insights & applications" workshop is now on, in a newly-designed four-part webinar series. Bring your sandwiches and Nespresso to your study, to mix and mingle - virtually of course - with colleagues from the NZ ag sector, for informative, quality insights on how to advance your ag tech business through the application of best-practice global interoperability standards.

This series of four different webinars is designed to enable you to acquire factual insights and industry information on which you can make informed management, technology and interoperability decisions, with an emphasis on real-world application.

That's because data has always been at the heart of business decision-making in any industry, especially so in the ag sector. For NZ agriculture-related companies to remain competitive in an increasingly globally-connected world, their data must be more complete, timely, accurate, and comprehensible. Standards help make this possible.

A challenge for implementers is knowing what standards are available and the purpose of each. They need to understand how each standard relates to other standards, and how various technologies and tools inter-relate. This four-part webinar series will address these points, prioritising breadth over depth, and with references to enable participants to dig deeper.

These webinars are to be convened by Kenneth Irons, on the boards of PAANZ and AgriTechNZ, and CEO of Precision Farming Ltd, and are to be lead by Jim Wilson, Global CEO and President of OAGi (https://oagi.org/NewsArticles/JimWilsonCEO/tabid/252/Default.aspx) and CTO of AgGateway.

The webinars build on the work undertaken by the Precision Ag Association of NZ ("PAANZ") over the last two years, the investment in Datalinker and NZ Farm Data Standards, the NZ Government's Industry Transformation Plan, as well as emerging dialolgue within and between New Zealand and Australia to facilitate greater collaboration between ag sector organisations.

Attendance is for agribusiness leaders, both commercial and technical, for administrators, regulators, for local, regional and national government officials, as well as those from industry bodies and co-operatives.

The agenda covers, in four sessions;

Tuesday 14 April 2020; Reasons and Benefits of Standards, Standards Influencers; Competitive Advantage.

Tuesday 21 April; Business Processes, Message Data Standards from a global perspective, with implications for NZ business.

Tuesday 28 April; Reference Data; Data Ownership, Moving data around (APIs etc) (NZ & globally).

Tuesday 5 May; Practical Strategies for New Zealand entities wanting to implement technologies in line with global best-practice standards; Relevance of AgGateway for New Zealand (and Australia); Alignment with New Zealand's Agritech Industry Transformation Plan.

Attendance is free as the event is sponsored by PAANZ.

Ideally RSVP by Thursday 9 April but since this is a webinar (and you're bringing your own lunch to your home office), you're welcome to sign up any time, and also to attend all or some of the sessions. There will be handouts and reference materials forwarded to registered participants so registration is encouraged, as are requests, questions, suggestions and referrals to colleagues.

The session agendas are dynamic, and designed to be refined in response to participants' needs and interests.

Participation from colleagues in Australia is welcome. We Kiwis promise not to mention the rugby.