The North American Raspberry & Blackberry Association (NARBA) has said that its annual conference in February 2022 will move to a virtual conference format, due to the ongoing disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The conference was previously formatted as a hybrid meeting, both in-person in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and virtual.
All sessions will now be live-streamed for virtual participation and will be available to registrants for on-demand viewing for an extended period post-conference.
“Last year’s virtual conference gave us the ability to share all the information of our conference with people all over the country and all over the world,” said NARBA president Jim Jedele. “We are pleased to build on that experience for this meeting.”
A pre-conference virtual short course for novice growers, “Getting Started in Raspberries & Blackberries”, runs bi-weekly from 31 January to 21 February, led by 'some of the leading caneberry educators from around the country'.
Conference sessions will feature top experts and experienced growers, with topics including caneberry breeding, pest and disease control, high tunnel and long-cane production, food safety and farm management, ag and labour policy, and marketing.
