Previous Fieldays CEO Valerie Millington shares her story

When I was the chief executive of the National Fieldays I remember during each event (when I was absolutely run off my feet with problems like cars stuck in the mud, missing persons, power going off,
newsmedia interviews and so on), the previous generation of Fieldays volunteers would be
upstairs having lunch and a glass of wine and surveying the show.

Inevitably there would be comments for me, telling me what was right and wrong with the event from their point of view. There would be the “Oh why did you put that tower there? I wouldn’t have done that in my
day” comments or the “Well we tried that and that didn’t work- useless wasting money trying that
again”, statements. I used to smile benevolently as it always seemed like a critiquing of the show and
indeed my work. I wished I had the luxury of eating and drinking as they were.

Many times though, I have to say, they were right; they had a lot of experience under their collective belts and I was young and passionate and excited to try new things but there was much to learn.

As they say there is nothing new under the sun and that is true even in spite of computers. Must stop for an aside here and mention that I introduced the first computer to the Fieldays Headquarters,not really knowing what the thing was capable of.

Indeed when I first started there, we used to get copying done in town on an old duplicating
machine. It was time consuming, everything was usually typed a lot of times in order to avoid the cost of travelling to Hamilton to produce marketing material.

The computer then, was a godsend. When had my daughter, though, I remember lying on the floor of the Mothercraft unit at Waikato Hospital with a crying baby, putting together the Fieldays Focus
newspaper by hand, the computer still in its infancy and all stories I wrote done in ballpoint and laid out manually.

Dr Llewellyn used to lead the Fieldays’ hosting upstairs from the Fieldays headquarters during an
event and he as Vice Chancellor of the University of Waikato, had credibility and a lot of contacts which
were very valuable in the development of the Fieldays. There were a lot of people who played a part in the success of the Fieldays and to list all the volunteers would mean I offended someone or left someone out.

It has always been a team effort and many cogs in the giant wheel have played apart. The same went for the paid leaders–the general managers of the event. Every one of them, was at the helm at a different stage and their role was pivotal in the development and growth of the event we see today. Vaughan Jones, recently honoured in the Queens Birthday honours, backed by his wife Auriel was the first GM, who really helped get the event off the ground, Vaughan was tenacious and knowledgeable and had the courage of his convictions. He stood his ground against seemingly insurmountable barriers. There were no fancy
offices in those days; he worked from home and there were files metres deep, as he battled bureaucracy to have the event at Mystery Creek.

He fought council regulations which were not written for an event as big as this, and so there were fire rules, water rules, signage restrictions and everything in the way of holding such an event. Vaughan battled them all with huge commitment. When Vaughan left, the Fieldays appointed Ray Fowke, again backed by his wife, Mavis. Ray had been the Society’s promotions manager and really got things underway promotionally. He started a Fieldays newspaper, sold advertising and like Vaughan before him was an innovator, getting a post office built at Mystery Creek, and really stamping his mark on the event by having a stamp made to commemorate the Fieldays.

Next was Allan Ayson. These were the years of the Clydesdale Museum and the daily Farmworld shows as well as the running of the three annual Fieldays events as well. We used to have Building Fieldays, Transport
Fieldays and Sport and Recreation Fieldays. I worked with three of the four previous managers
before I became the CEO.

When Vaughan left, I was asked to be Promotions Manager of the event and later promoted to General Manager. My job description amongst a zillion things, included growing the events nationally and internationally. It would be hard to analyse one’s own contribution but over my 14 years at the event I was part of a team that saw huge marketing of the event and the internationalisation of both exhibitors and public. It was a privilege to be part of that process. This was the time my mother Ellen Millington
became the accommodation convener allowing the Fieldays numbers to grow with her development of homestays and organised accommodation which had in the past, been a restrictive factor.

There were many interesting times, one I remember vividly was our foray into having a Lions Park running on the grounds and having meetings in a land rover with lions climbing all over the roof. After my 14 years, Barry Quayle came to the helm and the Events Centre was developed, new advanced ticketing systems were put in place and Mystery Creek events became a hugely successful brand of their own.
I met the new CEO Jon Calder at the opening of the new headquarters last week and he will now be
feeling all the emotion and pride that helping to run an event like this engenders. Particularly as it is
a milestone 45th Year of the Fieldays events. Lloyd Downing the President will similarly being
enjoying all the excitement and contribution he is making to the future of the Mystery Creek
property and events, for there is nothing to rival the Fieldays, no event that touches that very special feeling of the tent city, alongside the river, whether you are exhibiting, volunteering or being an administrator.

To look over that hill and look down on the overnight city is magical and yes there are always withdrawal
symptoms for every previous general manager. These days I work at Prima, an arm of Wintec in sales
and marketing and cross into some of the Fieldays fields with inventions and newsmedia and so on,
and I am grateful for the opportunites that being involved in Fieldays brought. But more importantly the fantastic relationships endure. The Fieldays is very good at honouring former contributors at
every level.

I was excited yesterday to receive an invitation to a function of Life Members on Friday at the new headquarters. Of course it is now my privilege to eat the food and drink the drinks and critique future event plans, telling the current staff what they should and should not be doing. I will tell them of how we all saw a tiny event swell like the proverbial topsy to the event it is today. I will remember how the event had an attendance of 10,000 and the night we celebrated when it got to the big 50, 000, how we thought we had reached a ceiling at 100, 000 and the first four day show . I will tell them of some
of the tricks the volunteers of the past got up to and the new staff (who really don’t know my name when I ring up these days) will wish the lady from the past, would shut up, especially when I question why they have built that tower there and say I would never have done that. Looking
forward to that opening immensely!

Congratulations on your 45th event all volunteers, staff and exhibitors.
Valerie Millington