This year’s AgTech Innovation Summit, themed ‘connecting technology and business to create healthy, resilient food systems’ and held live online, runs for six hours and includes speaker sessions, roundtable discussions and networking breaks.
The summit is ‘an opportunity for members of the industry to meet, network and exchange ideas at this critical time for our industry’, state the organisers.
A packed agenda includes keynote speeches and virtual ‘roundtable’ discussions with global experts in farm operations, food retailers and investors on emerging trends and technologies that will shape protected-cropping businesses ‘as we emerge from the current crisis into a redesigned food system’:
- Finding growth in crisis: responding to a rapidly changing food landscape;
- Scaling up: co-locating food production and distribution centres;
- Enhancing nutritional value: developing the perfect plant ‘recipe’;
- Optimising seeds for indoor agriculture: breeding for competitive advantage;
- Analytics and the cloud: digital integration to optimise indoor agriculture;
- Robotics: developing a contactless food system;
- Energy consumption: driving efficiency and economic viability;
- Financing growth: looking at how capital can keep pace with industry demand; and
- Consumer awareness: how to build a ‘holistic’ indoor brand.
Throughout the summit and for an extended period before and after Summit sessions, participants will be able to schedule one-on-one video meetings with potential clients and business partners.
By sharing best practice from around the globe, and facilitating new connections and collaborations, the summit offers an invaluable platform from which to ‘develop new business and accelerate projects across the indoor ag-tech ecosystem’, say the organisers.
The summit program includes world-leading experts in the field discussing key issues in the sector, with the focus on how connecting technology and business can keep protected-cropping systems resilient. Credit: Markus Spiske on UnSplash
Agenda highlights
Summit highlights include:
- Opening Keynote session: Creating Better Food Systems for the Cities of Tomorrow
How can food be brought to the heart of planning the cities of the future? What will it take for indoor agriculture to establish itself as part of the solution for delivering robust, affordable and local food to the world’s mega cities? - Opening Plenary session: Finding Growth in Crisis: Responding to a Rapidly Changing Food Landscape
Demand for reliable local food sources is surging: How are growers capitalising on this opportunity to scale up? To what extent have retail and food-service supply chains come together? How are indoor growers adapting their business models in response to changing market dynamics? Is the shift to retail a permanent change in the sector? Will resumption of food service post-shutdown represent a ‘return to normal’ for indoor agriculture or further opportunity to grow? - Fireside Chat: A Scal[e]able Model – Co-locating Food Production and Distribution Centres
How can indoor growers work with food service companies to access their distribution networks and accelerate market penetration? How can partnerships like this benefit local communities? - Panel: Financing Growth – Can Capital Keep Pace with Industry Demand?
How has access to capital for indoor growers been impacted by wider market uncertainty in the light of COVID-19 disruptions? What is the right type of finance to grow the industry? How can different categories of capital align more effectively to help take systems to scale? Scaleability and profitability: can you ‘have your cake and eat it too’? - Presentation: Investing in Food Security: The Abu Dhabi Model
How has COVID-19 fast-tracked plans to reduce dependency on food imports? How do recent investments in indoor agriculture fit into Abu Dhabi’s wider food security strategy? - Concluding Panel: Optimi[s]ing Consumer Awareness: How to Build a ‘Holistic’ Indoor Brand
As supermarket shelves return to normal, how does indoor grown produce stand out from the competition? How much can be achieved with packaging and marketing? How can we best communicate the benefits of indoor agriculture to consumers – and which messages resonate most? Where are the opportunities for collaboration across the sector to boost consumer awareness of the benefits of indoor farming?
More information and registration
For further information about the Virtual Summit, contact Oscar Brennecke, Conference Producer, via email on oscar.brennecke@rethinkevents.com or by phone on +44 (0)1273 789989
Full-price tickets are US$195; start-up special rate is US$95. For details about eligibility for start-up rates, contact Jamie Alexander.
To register, click here.