Free course to help farmers build e-commerce skills

Digital tools have transformed business for this Mount Martha beekeeper, and now farmers across Victoria have the chance to learn how online tech could do the same for their operations.

Beekeeper Simon Mildren, founder of HiveKeepers, will be a speaker at an upcoming e-commerce course run by LaTrobe that is free to farmers. Picture: Zoe Phillips

BEEKEEPER Simon Mildren uses digital technology to solve some sticky issues for apiarists, and will share his tech expertise with farmers and producers as part of a free online training course about e-commerce, run by La Trobe University.

“Up until a year ago we were focusing on software services to help beekeepers be more organised. Now we are actually providing hardware for beekeepers where we can help them understand the health and welfare of the bees,” said the Mount Martha entrepreneur, who founded start-up business HiveKeepers four years ago.

HiveKeepers designs software to maintain beekeeping records and make data-driven decisions. The company is also developing sensors to monitor hive health, harvest potential, biosecurity threats and hive locations.

“Beekeepers are very in tune with the landscape, what is going on and what will happen next. But what if you had the opportunity to learn more from the data you’ve got,” Simon said.

“If you are collecting data about your bees in a digital manner you can see value in software that can look through your information, learn from that and tell you what you are not seeing.”

Simon took part in an accelerator program at La Trobe University in 2019 to develop his business plan, and said he was excited to help other producers gain from his experiences.

He will present one roundtable session about innovation in agribusiness as part of the Digital Harvest course, which is delivered by La Trobe Business School and covers data analytics, new digital tools, e-commerce platforms and online marketing.

“There is no group of people that are more familiar with innovation than farmers,” Simon said. “But this is a category within innovation which is relatively new and may not be familiar.”

Running over 12 weeks, the free course starts on February 1.

The deadline to register has been extended to February 4.

To find out more or register, visit latrobe.edu.au.

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