They came, they learnt, and certainly, there was plenty of networking going on this week. It was again, one of the largest gatherings seen in New Zealand and long overdue with the industry moving into and out of lockdown for over a year now.

Around 350 forestry managers, wood transport schedulers, logging contractors, forest owners, harvest planners and major equipment and technology suppliers into the logging and wood transport industries met up in Rotorua. The occasion – the two-yearly HarvestTECH event. And to capitalise on the industry being in Rotorua, the annual Forest Safety & Technology 2021 also ran on the first day and at the same venue. The wood harvesting and forest safety events organised by the Forest Industry Engineering Association wrapped up on Wednesday.

Two days of interactive activities showcasing new logging innovations, presentations from contractors and technology leaders as well as comprehensive exhibition areas (both inside and outside the venue) provided a unique opportunity for local harvesting operations to check out an array of new harvesting equipment suited to local conditions. They were able to meet up with industry leaders and innovators in this space, first hand.

It wasn’t only the kiwis though. Although most international borders were still closed, delegates from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Finland, Estonia, China, Canada and the USA were also able to join local companies with the event being live-streamed over the two days.

HarvestTECH 2021 focussed on advances being made in automated log measurement and scaling, wood tracking, wood transport and log loading innovations, the increasing use of robotics, teleoperation of equipment, the use of new sensors collecting operational and production data and powerful analytics packages that can make use of the collected data to improve logging operations.