The National Farm Attractions Network (NFAN) held its annual conference and trade show at The Majestic Hotel in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on February 11-12, the event once again bringing together operator and trade members from around the UK for the organisation's main event of the year.

The successful two-day format of the event was continued in 2014, with members enjoying a tour around the award-winning Cannon Hall Farm in South Yorkshire. The family run farm attracts over 250,000 visitors annually and includes a £400,000 ($670,000) adventure playground, with the largest tube maze in Europe, newly expanded tearooms and an award-winning butchery.

As part of the visit, delegates were able to see the venue's new animal contact barn and viewing platforms and enjoyed a farm tour of the individual business units. The day also included a lively farm park debate, Q&A session and networking lunch.

In a change of format for the 2014 event, the evening of February 11 saw an awards dinner held at the conference venue. Sponsored by The Partners Group, a wide range of awards were presented during the evening, culminating in the presentation of the NFAN Farm Attraction of the Year Award 2014 to Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park, with farm park manager Kate Lord accepting the award on behalf of the venue.

The main conference and trade exhibition was held the following day, the programme covering a variety of subjects and key issues relevant to the rural and countryside attractions sector.

NFAN chairman Matt Heast began proceedings with a welcome to attendees before introducing fellow committee member Andrew Wolfe, who provided delegates with an insight into the activities of the NFAN committee and how it viewed the future of the organisation. Attendees were then given the opportunity to put questions to the full committee.

A presentation entitled The Team: How a Farmer Reluctantly Went to Disney and Had a Revelation, was then provided by Tom Pearcy from York Maze, this being followed by a short presentation from Anita Waddell from Agility Marketing on Happy customers: how to achieve positive online reviews.

Tim and Trina Rollings from Fisher's Adventure Farm Park followed in their capacity as winners of the Best Food and Beverage Award, with a presentation about their park's F&B operations.

Getting more from your gift shop spend was the title of the next presentation, given by Chris Webster from Yorkshire Wildlife Park, while Phil Barker from Lloyds TSB followed this with a talk on Avoiding the five common mistakes in bank lending.

Following the NFAN AGM and lunch, the afternoon session began with a look at how graduate placements can help accelerate growth, with Louise Possegger and Louise Dobson from Spring Barn Farm Park, followed by a presentation by Cath Dutton from People Junction on how to become an award-winning attraction.

Gary Richardson from Countryside Learning then discussed how to succeed with school visits and the final presentation of the day was provided by Kate Lord from NFAN Farm Attraction of the Year Award 2014 winner Cotswold Farm Park in a session entitled Learn from the best.

The trade exhibition held alongside the conference this year hosted approximately 50 companies promoting a wide selection of products and services, from ticketing, marketing and insurance services, through soft play and children's battery operated vehicles, to costume characters and retail goods. And once again it proved to be a successful event for participants.

"Our sixth year of sponsoring the NFAN conference was our most successful yet," commented Rob Marsh, group managing director of gold sponsor Marsh and Company Insurance Brokers, which operates the NFAN Insurance Scheme.

"As well as interest from new customers, once again many existing NFAN clients took the opportunity to visit our stand to discuss their insurance requirements so the event again proved very useful in helping us put our services and the NFAN insurance scheme in front of operators from throughout the UK."