Taking place at the Spring City resort in Taipei, Taiwan, more than 25 Indian River customers, joined by Aviagen personnel, gathered to share knowledge about getting the maximum performance from their flocks and to discuss how the Indian River brand can be promoted in the future.

The meeting attracted Indian River customers from South Korea, Philippines, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and India. Representatives from each country gave an update on local sales and industry conditions which helped prompt healthy discussions about best practice.

Workshops were also held over the three-day event. In a new twist, delegates were split into two groups, each studying a different topic in the morning before swapping over in the afternoon. This allowed everyone to ask questions and provided much more personal, hands-on, tutorial experience. Topics covered by the speakers were, amongst others, breeder management (including male management and biosecurity) and hatchery techniques, where specialist, Dr Steve Tullett, gave a practical demonstration of how to properly analyse break-out debris along with other key topics. Feed-back from participants was excellent and requests have been made for another event in the future.

Fred Kao, Business Manager for Indian River, said: "The second Indian River Technical Association meeting was a great success with more than 40 participants. With the help of the recently expanded Indian River team of five dedicated personnel, we covered topics ranging from genetic research over farm management to hatchery in the three-day meeting.

"With new IRTA members from the Philippines, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal and Bangladesh attending this meeting, it showed how much Indian River has grown in the last 48 months. Not only did product performance improve in customer operations since the last meeting in Malaysia in 2008, the focus and the interest in the Indian River brand has also grown tremendously. The Indian River team is based locally and is here to support all customers worldwide with four technical service managers covering more than 15 countries in three different continents."

Esmi San Pedro, one of the Technical Service Managers for Indian River, added: "It was a great pleasure for me to organise this meeting and to meet so many of our Indian River distributors and customers to share knowledge and information and learn from each other's experiences. Together we will make sure that the Indian River brand continues to grow."

Dr Chaudhari from India commented: "It was a great pleasure to attend the second IRTA meeting here in Taiwan and to see so many more participants than in 2008 – a clear indication of how much the Indian River customer base was able to expand in the last two years. It was invaluable for us to share information with fellow Indian River customers from different parts of the world and to learn from each other."

Gede Laba from Viet Nam summed up his experiences: "This meeting was the first of a kind for me having worked in the poultry industry in Indonesia and Vietnam for more than 30 years. I can see the growth of the Indian River brand reflected in the number of new customers who attended the meeting. Most importantly, the total number of general managers, chairmen and owners who wanted to come and attend this meeting blew my mind away. That showed us how dedicated the customers are to Indian River and how much interest this meeting is generating around the world."

Syed Asaduzzaman, Chairman of Rafid Poultry in Bangladesh said:: "This was the first IRTA meeting for my colleagues and me. The experiences I gained and the information I learned from other participants were very special. The three days I spent in Taiwan is something I will always remember for the rest of my life."