Marketing, Sales & Customer Engagement for Connecting with Rural NZ

19-20 OCTOBER 2026
CROWNE PLAZA, AUCKLAND

Rural Connect Forum

Rural marketing is changing faster than most organisations are ready for.

The relationships that built your business are under pressure. Digital is reshaping how rural customers discover, evaluate and buy. Costs are rising. Audiences are fragmenting. And the next generation of farm owners and operators thinks and behaves differently from the last.

The strategies that worked five years ago are no longer enough.

Rural Connect Forum is New Zealand’s only dedicated event for marketing, sales and customer engagement professionals working in the rural sector – two days of expert insight, real-world case studies and peer connection designed to help you lead what comes next.

WHAT WE'LL EXPLORE

Two days. The issues that matter most.

From understanding how your rural customer is evolving, to leveraging the tools and strategies that will define the next era of rural marketing and sales

The changing rural customer
Understanding shifting buyer behaviour, complex decision making structures and the next generation of farm owners and operators.
Connection in a digital world
How to digitise relationships, navigate fragmented media channels and build authentic trust and brand credibility in rural communities.
Data, AI and commercial growth
Practical appraoches to customer intelligence, campaign performance, ROI measurement and future-proofing your team.

Agenda

Day 1

8:30	Registration and Coffee
9:00	Welcome and opening remarks from conference MC
9:10	Rural New Zealand 2050 – The future customer, farm and marketplace Providing a strategic outlook on the key themes that are driving change in rural markets Exploring succession, consolidation, technology adoption, demographics and changing decision-making structures Aligning marketing investment with long-term industry trends Preparing for the next generation of farm owners and operators Anticipating and preparing for shifts in customer expectations and buying behaviour
9.50	Mapping the issues that matter to farmers and primary sector businesses Understanding the critical role of the primary industries in the nation’s economic development strategy and supporting the capacity and capability of NZ’s largest productive sector to deliver increased economic performance Assessing the specific growth drivers across the different sectors of the primary industries – what opportunities do these present for suppliers to the rural sector? What are key the challenges that farmers and producers need to address and how can you support them to achieve their goals - productivity, sustainability growth and wellbeing Better understanding rural values, motivations and behaviours
10:30	Morning break
11:00	Who really makes the buying decision? Reducing psychosocial risk through the provision of better mental health support Sharing personal experiences of leader burnout and the development of a solution Viewing psychosocial risks through the lens of prevention Managing psychosocial risks across generations
11.40	Achieving the great balancing act: How to digitise relationships without losing the human connection Exploring the need to transition from previous relationship focused sales and marketing models and maximise the value of digital capabilities Recognising the increasing pressure to reduce service costs while maintaining highly personalised relationships - reducing cost-to-serve while maintaining customer loyalty Delivering scalable customer experiences without sacrificing trust Examining how to combine digital engagement with relationship management
12.30	Lunch and networking
1.30	Case Study: Exploring how leading rural brands are evolving their customer ` engagement models Exploring real-world examples from organisations successfully adapting to changing customer expectations Benchmarking your customer engagement strategies against the best and learn how to apply proven approaches to your own organisation Integrating your sales and marketing with customer engagement strategy Understand what is working across different sectors of rural supplier markets
2:10	NZ Rural Media in 2026: The good, the bad and the effective Mapping and evaluating the changing landscape of New Zealand rural media An exploration of traditional media, digital channels, outdoor advertising, niche publications and emerging platforms How to improve channel selection and budget allocation Understanding the best media mix to reach fragmented audiences more effectively
2.50	Exploring the trends shaping digital, social media and content marketing to rural audiences Breaking down the latest social media platform evolutions and algorithm changes, and how rural brands can adapt to stay ahead Mapping the effectiveness if different channels across rural audience demographics Creating content that connects - Aligning with your audience for maximum impact Creating content that captures and converts at every stage of the journey Adapting content across platforms while maintaining brand consistency How to supercharge your campaigns by integrating AI and automation to reduce your social content production cost
3.30	Afternoon refreshments
3:50	Rural influencer panel: Influencers, communities and trusted voices The panel will bring a selection of leading rural influencers, advocate and who will provide and specialist rural content creators, who will provide insights into the issues and motivations of the farming communities they represent. Identifying trusted voices within rural communities Building advocacy and influence programmes Learning how to leverage community engagement to strengthen your brand credibility
4:30	In it for the long haul: Supporting rural communities in good times and bad Examining the power of long-term commitment Investing in the creation lasting relationships with rural communities Exploring how some brands continue to dominate rural markets through consistency, sponsorship and sustained investment in local communities Building long-term brand equity through alignment and relationships How to best maximise the value of sponsorship and partnership investments Supporting communities in good times and in bad
5.10	MC summary remarks and end of conference followed by networking reception

Day 2

9:00	Welcome back from the conference MC
9:05	AI, search and the future of rural customer acquisition Exploring How AI is changing discovery, trust and purchasing behaviour Understanding AI's impact on search and visibility Learning how to optimise your content for AI-driven discovery Preparing for the next generation of farm owners and operators Positioning your brands for future customer journeys
9.50	Trust in the AI era: Why advocacy, reputation and testimonials matter more than ever Recognising that as algorithms increasingly prioritise trusted sources, reputation becomes a strategic asset Exploring how to turn customers into advocates Examining how you can strengthen reputation signals across different channels Analysing mechanisms to improve your visibility in AI-assisted search environments Privacy, data governance and customer trust - balancing personalisation, compliance and customer expectations
10:30	Morning break
11:00	From data to decisions: Building rural customer intelligence to deliver effective customer engagement Exploring practical approaches to customer data, insights and market intelligence Extracting greater value from your existing customer data Building more accurate audience segmentation Improving campaign performance through better targeting
11.40	Delivering rural sales excellence in the modern era Understanding how rural sales is evolving and how traditional relationship and account management focused sales approaches are changing Exploring the complex interrelationship of sales and marketing in rural focused businesses – can one ever make the other superfluous? How to deliver the integration of sales and marketing in practice and ensure that each function supports the other effectively Exploring the future of digital and sales leadership Teaching rural sales psychology
12:20	Measuring success in small markets Building the capability to evaluate marketing effectiveness when audiences are highly targeted and campaign volumes are low Developing meaningful ROI measures Evaluating campaign performance beyond vanity metrics Making better investment decisions with limited data
1.00	Lunch and networking
2:00	Case study: Learning from an award-winning rural campaign - An inside look at successful campaigns and the thinking behind them Behind the strategy: Understanding the challenge, strategy and execution behind leading campaigns Applying transferable lessons to your own marketing programmes Improving campaign effectiveness and stakeholder buy-in
2:40	Future-proofing rural sales and marketing teams As expectations increase, how can lean teams deliver more with limited resources? Building more collaborative marketing, sales and customer teams Prioritising investments that deliver the greatest impact Balancing brand building, performance marketing and relationship management
3:20	Rural marketing leaders panel: What will separate winners from everyone else? Exploring how to prioritise the opportunities that matter most Identifying emerging competitive threats Developing a practical roadmap for future growth
4.00	MC closing remarks and end of Conference

Speakers

Sarah Able

Chief People and Culture Officer

The Co-operative Bank

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Michelle Burke

Data and AI specialist consultant

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Michelle Burke is an AI, data, and information leader passionate about helping organisations use data in ways that create meaningful, lasting impact. She has led teams to build modern cloud-based analytics platforms, strengthen governance, and turn ambitious information strategies into practical outcomes. At the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Michelle led the organisation’s first data and information strategy – a people-first transformation recognised internationally by the Central Banking Awards. She thrives at the intersection of strategy and delivery, bringing diverse teams together, navigating complexity, and enabling others to succeed. Michelle believes great data work is ultimately about people, culture, and empowering informed decision-making.

Nigel Wilson

GM Corporate Communications

KiwiRail

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Nigel Wilson is a senior communications and engagement leader with more than 20 years’ experience helping large and complex organisations navigate transformation, uncertainty and high-pressure environments.

He is currently GM Corporate Communications at KiwiRail, where he has led communication and engagement through significant organisational change, major operational events, and periods of intense public and stakeholder scrutiny. His experience spans executive communication, internal culture and engagement, leadership alignment, crisis communication, and translating complex strategy into clear, human-centred narratives.

Prior to KiwiRail, Nigel held senior communications roles at organisations including Spark, BNZ and Fonterra, working across large-scale transformation programmes, culture and leadership initiatives, and enterprise-wide change.

Nigel is particularly interested in the role trust, clarity and leadership behaviour play during periods of transformation, and how organisations can communicate in ways that build credibility, reduce confusion and support meaningful change adoption.

Nigel is known for combining strategic insight, operational realism and engaging storytelling to help leaders think differently about trust, communication and change.

Melissa Crawford

Director

Tech with Heart

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Melissa Crawford is a leading Expert in the Future of work. With a rare skillset crossing both people and technology. Her earlier career has included senior roles across NZ’s largest organisations crossing a variety of industries including Tech, Airline, Banking, FMCG, Retail, Education and Energy. Melissa has two technology degrees and is currently completing a Master of Science in Psychology. Using this focus across Technology and People Melissa applies this to her Futurist and Strategic Foresight work. Melissa is a graduate from both The Institute for the Future and Houston University’s Foresight programmes as well as being a member of the Association of Professional Futurists. In 2025 Melissa was awarded the Emerging Directors Award from the Institute of Directors. Melissa is the Director of Tech with Heart where she helps companies with their future strategies, holds a place on a number of governance and advisory boards and is a sought-after global keynote speaker. Her passion is sharing her knowledge with learning curious people and working on strategic projects to help shape a better future.

Scott Wright

Founder

The HI Company

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Scott Wright is a speaker, TEDx presenter and founder of The HI Co, with 30 years of senior commercial and executive leadership experience across iconic businesses including Frucor Suntory, Lion, Goodman Fielder, DB and Cadbury. A former Marketing Director, Commercial Director and General Manager, Scott has spent nearly two decades on executive leadership teams, leading strategy, driving growth, building cultures and navigating disruption from the inside.

His recent TEDx talk, What Are Your Yellow Shoes?, explored how to best invest in your Human Identity and presence as a strategic asset, not just a soft skill. Scott’s message for finance and accounting leaders is that knowing your personal leadership brand is a critical skill to underpin your effectiveness.

Amy Cavanaugh

Head of Transformation

Public Trust

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Allan Sampson

Executive Leadership | Business Transformation and Strategy

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Why your school will value this investment:

The Kura Conference is designed for maximum institutional impact, tailored specifically for Primary & Secondary School Leaders, HODs, Lead Teachers, and Educational Innovators.

Because this is a multi-streamed event covering curriculum, tech, and wellbeing simultaneously, the most effective strategy is to send a leadership cohort to divide and conquer the program. By customising your team’s experience and swapping between streams, your school will walk away with a comprehensive return on investment:

Actionable Curriculum Blueprints:

Your curriculum leads and HODs will gain ready-to-implement frameworks for the refreshed national curriculum, moving seamlessly from policy to classroom practice.

Workload Reduction through Tech:

Your educational innovators will discover verified AI and tech use cases specifically vetted to give teachers time back and streamline administration.

Strategic Alignment & Value Protection:

Your senior leadership team will acquire the change-management tools needed to align incoming national priorities with your school’s unique local values.

Staff Resilience & Wellbeing:

Your leadership cohort will bring back practical, systemic strategies to combat teacher burnout, navigate complex student behaviours, and support neurodivergence.

National Networking:

Your staff will connect and collaborate with primary and secondary peers from across Aotearoa who are successfully navigating the exact same transitions.

Tickets Opening Soon — Register Your Interest

We are currently finalising our ticketing tiers, including exclusive early-bird rates and team package discounts. Register your interest below.

This event is ideal for:

Executives and leaders: Those responsible for driving strategic change and organisational transformation.
Change management professionals: Individuals who specialise in managing and leading change initiatives.
HR professionals: HR leaders and practitioners interested in fostering a culture of change and employee engagement.
Consultants and advisors: Professionals who support organisations in their change and transformation journeys.
Anyone seeking to develop their leadership skills and ability to navigate change.

Venue

The location and how you can get there

Address

Crowne Plaza
128 Albert Street,
Auckland

Tickets

$ 1499 + gst Price Per Person

Must be from the same organisation & book at the same time. For valid tickets, payment by 19 October, 2026.

$2199

$ 1499 + gst

For valid ticket, payment by 24 July, 2026.

$2199

$ 1500 + gst

For valid ticket, payment by 31 August, 2026.

$2199

$ 1899 + gst

For valid ticket, payment by 21 September, 2026.

$ 1900 + gst

For valid ticket, payment by 19 October, 2026.

Registration Conditions

Ticket Terms
All prices are in New Zealand dollars ($NZD)
A surcharge of 2.5% + GST applies to credit card payments on top of the total amount.
Pre-Sale Tickets are valid only for the specific event for which they were purchased and cannot be transferred to other events. To remain valid, Super Saver and Early Bird tickets must be paid by date quoted.
Group ticket options are valid for registrations from the same organisation, booked at the same time.
By selecting any special pricing offer for classes of organisation, sector, or individuals or using any promotion code, you are asserting to the organiser your right to claim any such pricing offer, and acknowledge the organiser’s right to audit such claim and, if in the opinion of the organiser using its sole discretion the conditions for special pricing are not met, reject any registration.

For full terms & conditions, please visit https://www.brightstar.co.nz/terms-and-conditions

Sponsorship & Exhibition Opportunities

Live B2B events are your chance to shine. Showcase your thought leadership, solidify your market position, and forge valuable connections with potential customers – all at once.

This exclusive event puts you in front of a highly skilled audience hungry for insights. Get ready for meaningful engagement that drives results.

Plus, we have some unique opportunities to put your company, products, and services in the spotlight.

Ready to take your brand to the next level? Contact us today to learn more or secure your spot at this leading event.

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