Manaaki Whenua’s annual one-day Biosecurity Bonanza is an established part of New Zealand’s biosecurity research conference calendar, normally attracting around 100 stakeholders and research partners.
In 2020, due to the limitations of the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, we were not able to hold an in-person event. Instead of a one-day conference, we held a virtual version over a week, which comprised 11 webinar sessions from the Wildlife Ecology & Management and Biocontrol & Molecular Ecology teams.
Around 850 people across the country registered for the event, including staff from MfE, MPI, DOC, other ministries, councils, other CRIs, universities, and many industry stakeholders – a huge increase overall from previous years. Feedback was very positive despite the disadvantage of not being able to network in person.
The webinars are available to watch again below.
