The funding for project CA1804 was the underwriting of the 2018 Australian Cotton Conference. The purpose of the biannual conference is to provide a platform for sharing the increasing industry knowledge relating to research and development.

The Australian Cotton Conference is a platform that fulfils many functions for industry and our aims in 2018 were to:

a) Increase industry knowledge relating to R&D and extension activities and how to implement those activities at a local level.

b) Provide a platform to share information, discuss and debate issues confronting the Australian cotton industry (and agriculture in general). Those included cotton and agriculture’s place on a global and local level; competition (synthetics); branding and promotion of Australian cotton; on-farm issues (and research areas relating to the same) with an overall theme of pushing boundaries with a key segment of digital technology. The program also included specific non-cotton presenters that aimed at providing personal development opportunities to all delegates.

(c) Provide an opportunity for all sectors of industry to come together to foster and grow a culture for learning and innovation. Conference provided an opportunity for connectivity and a vision for the long-term sustainability of our industry.

(d) Provide an overall “health” and wellbeing check to industry by way of the health check stand where delegates were invited to undertake some basic health checks (blood pressure, cholesterol, healthy lifestyle analysis and skin checks; presentations about health (particularly focussing on mental health). Heart of Australia also provided comprehensive heart health checks.

Delegates were provided with boundless opportunities to share information, discuss and debate issues confronting the Australian cotton industry (and agriculture in general); cotton and agriculture’s place on a global and local level; competition (synthetics); branding and promotion of Australian cotton; on-farm issues (and research areas relating to the same). The program also included specific non-cotton presenters that aimed at providing personal development opportunities to all delegates. Preventative health staff from New England HealthWISE, Heart of Australia, Australian Hearing and UNE medical students provided health checks over 2 1⁄2 days of Conference, with 173 health checks completed.

2460 delegates 1825 male

635 female

General Delegates 898 Grower Delegates 667 Exhibitor Delegates 550 Student/U22 Delegates 25

The 2018 Australian Cotton Conference provided a platform to showcase the Australian cotton industry and enhance the outputs from CRDC funded R&D and extension activities to the industry at large.

The conference provides for the largest gathering of industry participants in any calendar year and delegates were presented with information in various formats during the conference program that demonstrated and extends improvements in outcomes for the industry.

Industry was challenged to share information, discuss, debate and respond to and adopt findings of research and projects around maximising individual and industry profitability and sustainability through the adoption of home-grown R&D.