Last month, Agritech New Zealand jointly hosted the largest ever delegation of international venture capitalists and agritech thought leaders to visit New Zealand. They joined 120 other guests for the formal launch of Agritech New Zealand at Mills Reef Winery. This followed Techweek18’s headline ’10 Billion Mouths’ conference which was held in Tauranga. Photos from both events can be found on our new Facebook page. A huge thanks to everyone who attended and supported the conference and dinner, it was an awesome 24 hours!
Launching any new industry led organisation can be daunting. To enable Agritech New Zealand to accelerate its purpose of ‘working collaboratively to connect everything and everyone in New Zealand agritech into a coherent community supporting the growth of agritech earnings’, our Executive Council agreed we should become part of the New Zealand Tech Alliance. This provides immediate access to several other well established tech communities, including the AI Forum, IoT Alliance, BlockchainNZ, FintechNZ, as well as NZTech. These are all important enabling technologies for the agritech sector. Our membership of the alliance provides Agritech New Zealand members with direct access to both capability and talent within each of these distinct tech domains.
Looking ahead, I am spending next week at Fieldays, meeting many of our stakeholders and attending several industry events. These include Thursday’s Innovation Awards and Investment Showcase at the Fieldays Innovation Centre. During the past two years, I have attended this showcase, which provides real support to the many very early stage entrepreneurs taking their first steps into the world of agritech research and development.
Later in the month, I will be engaging with more established global agritech businesses already commercialising their tech. I am attending both the Mixing Bowl Food IT: The Full Stack conference in San Francisco and the Forbes Live agtech conference in Salinas. Whilst in the Bay area, I will also be meeting several venture capital firms and Silicon Valley Forum, the co-organisers of the 2018 Silicon Valley AgTech Immersion Program & Conference.
Gaining better access to global capital and creating improved access to new international markets are key drivers for Agritech New Zealand. In-market visits and meetings such as these are designed to accelerate this process. In next month’s newsletter, I will provide insight into the outcomes of these meetings.
Ngā mihi
Peter Wren-Hilton
Executive Director
Agritech New Zealand
Connect
Visit National Fieldays from 13-16 June. Join 130,000 visitors to attend the southern hemisphere’s largest agriculture event, showcasing innovation. This year marks Fieldays 50th anniversary.
Register for the Agritech Business Seminar Series at Fieldays. Also, Innovation in Agribusiness: Delivering the Future Farm, 20 June in Auckland.
What does alternative protein mean for the primary sector? Attend the ProteinTECH conference on 24 July in Auckland to learn more about disruptive innovations and emerging food technologies.
Promote
Interested in learning more about Silicon Valley’s agritech ecosystem? Contact Wharf42 for more details about the 2018 Silicon Valley AgTech Immersion Program & Conference.
Check out agritech accelerator, Sprout’s recent partnerships supporting a sustainable, healthier primary industry.
Finistere Venture’s co-founder, Arama Kukutai, discusses Major AgTech Trends including growth in data driven agriculture leveraging AI and sensors.
Advance
Introducing UpStarters, the New Zealand Tech and Innovation story. Access resources including the app, showcase booklet, video, slides and user guide.
Visit our new website and join us on Facebook for the latest event and workshop news. Follow us on Twitter and join the agritech conversation.
If you would like to know more about joining Agritech New Zealand, check out our joining page.
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