North American Raspberry and Blackberry Conference Going All Virtual in 2022

Posted by Growing Produce Staff|February 7, 2022

The North American Raspberry & Blackberry Association (NARBA) has announced that its annual conference this month will move to a virtual conference format due to the ongoing disruption of COVID-19.

The conference was previously formatted as a hybrid meeting, both in-person in Gaithersburg, MD, 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, according to the association.

“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,” says 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 through February 21.

Conference sessions feature top experts and experienced growers. Topics include caneberry breeding, pest and disease control, high tunnel and long-cane production, food safety and farm management, ag and labor policy, and marketing. More than 50 speakers from around the world are included in the two-track format. The virtual format includes opportunities for live Q&A and online networking.