for Nuffield’

A YEAR OF MILESTONES FOR NUFFIELD

KENDRA HALL NSch & FRANKIE HARDING: REVERBERATE PR

2022 has been a bumper year full of highlights: three Scholar year groups traveling (finally!), the UK hosting a CSC in Norfolk, regional and sector groups back up and running, and agricultural events around the country bringing the industry together. All of this has happened just as Nuffield celebrates 75 years of leading positive change in British agriculture – what a year!

Amidst all of this activity Nuffield’s brand continues to grow as we manage an active and vibrant social media presence, enjoy press coverage, and share the inspiring work and learnings of both veteran and new Scholars. Online, our social media channels continue to grow both in follower numbers and the reach of our messages. In the last 12 months, Nuffield earned more than 2,700 new followers across our pages, with our LinkedIn following growing by nearly 50% and Instagram by 33%. However, Twitter remains the heavy hitter at more than 11,000 followers. In an average month, Nuffield tweets will be seen around 35,000 times but in March during the CSC, this rose to more than 186,000 times!

Nuffield Farming continues to be of interest in the press both regionally and nationally, seeing ample coverage of announcements, events, and wider Scholar activity in a wide range of outlets, from local papers to BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today. The Nuffield section of Direct Driller has continued, and we now also have a dedicated Nuffield Resource page on TheFarmingForum.co.uk, under the “Research” section, where users can find Scholar report summaries and download them from our website.

TAKING THE CSC DIGITAL… The 2022 Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC) was unique in a lot of ways, particularly because it was attended by two years’ worth of international Scholars, with more than 120 delegates traveling to Norfolk for the occasion. Adding to the challenge of holding such a huge event was the possibility of COVID-19 affecting plans or procedures unexpectedly.

To ensure we could update all attendees easily and quickly, we used a digital event app called “Whova” in lieu of a traditional paper programme. With every CSC detail on their phone, attendees could access up-to-date policies, view venue maps, see the schedule of events and speaker info, communicate with fellow Scholars, and receive live announcements before, during, and after the event. UK Scholar volunteers also shared their day-to-day experiences and learnings at the CSC on Nuffield social media channels, which proved hugely popular and brought the Scholar experience to life.

To commemorate the Scholars’ visit to the Norwich Research Park, a booklet was created with photos and a summary of the challenges they were given, which can be found on the Nuffield International page of the NuffieldScholar.org website!

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

@NUFFIELDFARMING