BRIDGING the gap between agriculture and business in the city AgConnectWA teamed up with the Perth Young Professionals (PerthYP) to host the Rural Roots to City Suits event.
In partnership for the first time, the PerthYP, a Perth-based networking group, comprising of business professionals under the age of 35 years, held the event which attracted more than 200 guests from both city and country backgrounds.
Headlining the event, Wesfarmers managing director Richard Goyder spoke on his experience with business in WA.
AgConnectWA secretary Wes Lefroy said the presentation highlighted the gap between rural and urban understandings of agriculture and how it translated into business.
"It was fantastic to have a speaker of Mr Goyder's calibre, as a keynote speaker for our event," he said.
"Mr Goyder's extensive experience provided invaluable insight into the opportunities of rural and city-based business working closer together.
"He outlined the live export ban and the understanding of GM technology as two examples where a clear divide was evident.
"And said the two communities must bridge the divide and support each other to ensure long-term success and continue purposeful engagement as a key."
Throughout his presentation Mr Goyder conveyed his passion for the industry and believes it has a strong future.
"He said we are on the doorstep of a golden era, but we need to achieve it ourselves - which was a take-home message for the night," Mr Lefroy said.
Mr Lefroy said to remain profitable, businesses must strive to continue to innovate and increase efficiency.
"We must be entrepreneurial to continue to compete in open and global markets," he said.
"We have had a lot of positive feedback from the event, from both city and country guests.
"As a group we look forward to continuing purposeful engagement with our city cousins.
"To have over two hundred young professionals attend conveys in itself the importance and interest in the topic."
Photos courtesy of Melanie Dunn, WAFarmers.
