Above: Tim Heard opening the Conference
The first Australian Native Bee Conference was held on the Gold Coast – Queensland 1st July 2018. This event was sold out with the “who’s who” of the native bee world attending. Tim Heard who has possibly done more for the native bee community than anyone was the main organiser of the event. He’s well respected in the academic field and has some pulling power as many researchers, scientists and university students travelled to the Gold Coast from all parts of the globe. I’m not sure if anyone else could have pulled that off.
The conference was a full day event with many great presenters, some we all know like Tobias Smith, Nick Powell and Dean Haley. There is also quite a number of Scientists, Researchers and University Students doing great work with Stingless Bees and Native Bees in general in Australia and around the world.
The main areas of expertise seemed to be in crop pollination and what role Stingless Bees play and how systems could be improved to create a better rate of pollination in many different crops. It was great to see what work other people are doing in relation to farming as we mainly just concern ourselves with our own local back yard bee hives.
The program was packed solid with 33 presenters! I think we all had information overload by the end of the long day, but it was an awesome event. I wont go in to details of each speakers topics as it would take forever and half of it went over my head anyway. Below is quite a few photos from the day.
Trade Tables
A number of trade tables were set up outside the conference rooms. I didn’t get photos of all, only a few
Below: Sugarbag
Below: HiveHaven
Below: Dean and Nick
Below: Australian Native Bee Company
The Dancers
Below: The traditional custodians of the land performed dances before the conference
The Conference
Below: The conference rooms packed before starting.
There were thirty three (33) speakers!!! I didn’t get photos of every speaker and can’t list all details of presentations, that’d take forever, you’ll just have to go to the next one!
Below: Tobias Smith – Illustrated key to bees of Australia
Below: Nick Powell – Hive design for Australian Native Bees
Below: Elisabeth Fung – Association between RNA viruses and Australian native bees and managed honey bees
Below: James Cook – Native bees, crop pollination and eco system management
Below: Kit Prendergast – Importance of bushland remmnants and honey bee competition for native bees in urban Western Australia
Below: Glenn Otto – The Bee Safe, a secure stand for Stingless bee hives
Below: Sara Leonhardt – Sythesis trends, themes, directions
Below: Samantha Redshaw – A new method of marking and tracking Stingless bees
Samantha and James Dorey were amongst a number of participants in a Three Minute Thesis.
Below: James and Samantha both sharing the winners status
Networking
One great aspect of an event like this is connecting people. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the break sessions as it was an opportunity to network, socialise or just catch up with friends. Everyone that attended was a happy positive soul and all seemed eager to chat to anyone they came across.
Everyone I’ve spoken to has been excitedly raving about the conference and i’d have to agree, it was quite and event and well worth attending for many different reasons.
Bring on the next one Tim!
Cheers
Steve
Click here to read the ANBC2018 Field Trip Article
Conference Program PDF >>> https://australiannativebeeconference.com.au/program/
