David Hill
The Greatest Online Agricultural Show
It is safe to say no-one expected the 2020 show season to be non-existent on our agricultural calendars, but with the coronavirus pandemic shattering plans, David Hill knew many would be missing their local agricultural show. What began as a fundraising idea in March to bring local farmers together during a lonely time, became a hugely successful event, raising thousands of pounds and uniting the agricultural industry and the general public.
In just over five weeks, David gained funding from Andrew Lazenby, chief executive of Innovation for Agriculture, who financed the website, assisted by colleagues, and gained the support of Steve Eyres and his team at Altido to build the website. Through a marketing strategy, much hype was built for the event on social media, gaining more than 4,500 followers on Twitter and 5,000-plus members on a Facebook group.
The online event boasted more than 800 competition entries, 250 sponsored trade stands and more than 6,000 visitors to the online platform over the weekend. And to top it all off, £18,000 was raised for five rural mental health charities. David put his all into the event and his hard work was streamed on the Farming Today show twice and featured on many local news and radio outlets, with snippets from competition entries going viral on social media gaining millions of views.