Close to 1,200 delegates including farmers, entrepreneurs and innovators from 20 different countries filled the city’s Royal Exhibition Building for day one of evokeAG, the inaugural international agrifood technology event powered by AgriFutures Australia.
AgriFutures Australia Managing Director, John Harvey said evokeAG is the only event of its kind in Australia, conceived by industry professionals who saw a need and filled it.
“Eighteen months earlier, with the help of like-minded experts in the agrifood tech sector, AgriFutures Australia made the decision to embark on a journey to bring to life a concept that places innovation at the heart of the agricultural sector.
“Our desire was to highlight the great things happening in this part of the world, to inspire by hearing from provocative world-leading thought leaders and connect people across the globe,” said Mr Harvey.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of AeroFarms, David Rosenberg launched the first of the speaker sessions with his keynote address ‘Thinking Up Solutions’. The entrepreneur and vertical farmer affirmed his commitment to the preservation and health of the world’s water resources and urged delegates to fundamentally change the way they think about the future of food and agriculture, as a matter of urgency.
New England farmer Peter Strelitz flew in from Armidale with a view to gaining insights into exporting his award-winning lamb into Asia. He said the farming community were grateful there was finally an event that connected both the producers and the agtech community. Besides the key networking opportunities, Mr Strelitz cited David Blackmore’s session on ‘developing a premium brand for an Asian audience’ as a stand-out.
Future agtech trends were highlighted by Silicon Valley venture capitalist, Spencer Maughan, who gave a nuanced perspective on the shifting landscape in the agrifood tech sector. Estimated as a $100 billion industry by 2030 — rivalling Australia’s mining and construction sectors – Mr Maughan said greater investment flow is critical for the industry’s success, but credited agtech’s first batch of unicorns with enormous potential.
The first of the Pitch Tent finalists took to the stage with three producers going head-to-head in front of a live audience, sharing their pain points and agricultural challenges. From issues including barriers to bee production to the lack of abattoirs with export accreditation, the three minute pitches were met with world-class propositions from a panel of judges including; Dr Christine Pitt, Founder and CEO of the Food Futures Company; Will Dalton from Agriculture Victoria and Ben van Delden from KPMG Australia.
