Rural diversification takes centre stage as The Glamping Show partners with the Collective

The Rural Diversification Collective is bringing its expertise to the UK's leading glamping event, with a dedicated seminar day designed to help landowners move from idea to income.

For farms, vineyards, landed estates and equestrian venues weighing up a diversification project, the questions rarely change: is this feasible, what will it cost, and how do you turn land into a guest experience people actually want to book. On Thursday 10 September, those questions will be the focus of Rural Diversification Day, a new addition to the seminar programme at The Glamping Show, the result of a partnership between the Rural Diversification Collective and International Glamping Business magazine.

Opening the conversation

The day opens with a session from Sonia Aucott, co-founder of the Rural Diversification Collective and an interior designer who has spent years working on bespoke interiors for rural diversification projects, heritage properties and hospitality venues. Her session, From Concept to Guest Experience: The Details That Matter, sets the tone for the day: that design isn’t an afterthought in a diversification project, it’s what separates a functional building from a business guests return to.

Feasibility before fantasy

Dawn Woollam follows with a session that tackles the question many landowners skip past too quickly: whether a project is actually feasible before anyone starts drawing up plans. Before the Build: Feasibility Before Fantasy in Rural Diversification and Glamping Development covers guest psychology, planning realities and how a new venture fits into a wider estate strategy, the practical groundwork that determines whether everything that follows has a chance of working.

Building on strong financial footing

Money is next. Mike Clarke, Richard Sigsworth, Neil Baxendale and Gemma Chance take on the financial side of diversification, looking at how traditional holiday parks and lodge businesses are increasingly overlapping with the glamping sector, and what that means for how new projects should be funded and structured from the outset.

Two models, one goal

The afternoon turns to delivery. Cheryl Sparey and Alette Bastiaansen present contrasting approaches to running a diversification business: a hands-on model combining glamping with weddings and events, and the FarmCamps partnership model, which offers landowners a more hands-off route into hospitality income. Between them, the two sessions give visitors a sense of the range of operating models available, and which might suit their own land and appetite for involvement.

Closing with a case study

Gemma Chance closes the day with the story of Ohana Mua, tracing its journey so far and setting out what it takes to build a sustainable lodge business from the ground up, a fitting endpoint for a day that moves from concept, through feasibility and finance, to a real-world example of what’s achievable.

Why it matters

Sonia Aucott, co-founder of the Rural Diversification Collective, said the partnership reflects the level of interest currently coming from rural businesses:

“There is enormous interest right now from farms, estates and rural businesses looking to create more resilient and diversified income streams, and we hope this day will provide practical inspiration, expert guidance and real-world examples of what is possible.”

Rural Diversification Day takes place on Thursday 10 September, opening three days of seminars running alongside The Glamping Show at NAEC Stoneleigh Park. Registration is free, with no individual session booking required.

For more information on The Glamping Show, visit theglampingshow.com. For the full seminar programme, visit glampingbusiness.com/seminars.