International Boma NZ summit to help Aotearoa’s food

International Boma NZ summit to help Aotearoa’s food and fibre sector thrive amidst exponential change

A future-thinking agriculture summit will bring together global and local experts on future farming trends, exponential change, and new business models and product pathways. The summit, called Grow 2019, is designed to help Aotearoa’s food and fibre sector be more innovative, collaborative, sustainable and profitable now and into the future.

Organiser Kaila Colbin says the two-day summit is an opportunity to learn about the future trends that are impacting the agriculture sector, and what to do about them, in a practical way, from people on the ground. Grow 2019 will also connect groups of like-minded individuals and organisations so that together we can understand, adapt and grow in a future that looks nothing like today.

“Our aim is to bring together people from all across New Zealand’s food and fibre sector—including farmers, producers, innovators, researchers, educators, students, those working in government and finance—and empower them to take action. Throughout the two days, attendees will be exposed to case studies from credible people: who’s tried it, what worked, what didn’t, what’s just a flash in the pan and what’s going to be sustainable into the future.”

Boma New Zealand is the local partner of the global Boma network, helping individuals, businesses, and organisations navigate our rapidly changing world so that we can be more intentional and intelligent about the future we’re creating.

“What are the technologies that can transform our farming practices? What are the technologies that are going to radically disrupt us? What are the business models we should be exploring? How should we think about new product development? These are the kinds of questions we need to be asking, and these are the kinds of topics we’ll be covering at Grow 2019,” says Colbin.

Some of the speakers already confirmed include: Abi Ramanan, CEO & Cofounder of Impact Vision, a food tech company using hyperspectral images to optimise food chain processes and prevent food waste across the globe; Zenia Tata, Chief Impact Officer of XPRIZE Foundation, an organisation that catalyses radical breakthroughs that benefit humanity globally through incentivised competitions; Raymond McCauley, scientist, engineer, and biohacker who works at the forefront of biotechnology; Cherrie Atilano, founder and CEO of AGREA Agricultural Systems International, Inc., an agri-social enterprise working to digitalise agriculture and create sustainable and diversified sources of income for farmers and their families; Tim Cannon, founder and CEO of Livestock Labs, the startup behind EmbediVet, an implantable health tracker for for livestock, working to reduce farmers' costs for herd care and management; and Grant Ryan, local serial inventor and founder of The Cacophony Project, a project to make New Zealand predator-free by 2035.
More speakers will be announced in the coming months.

Colbin says that while Grow 2019 will attract many of today’s sector leaders, the Summit is also focused on attracting the next generation—those who have the most capacity to change the world.

“The great thing about the summit is that we’ve been able to collaborate with innovative partners like Te Hono and Blinc Innovation, to identify supportive pathways and networks for action after our event. It’s not enough to know what the exponential changes affecting the sector are—we have to learn what to do with them and how the sector can collaborate and thrive together in the future as well,” she says.

Grow 2019 will be held at Horncastle Arena in Christchurch from 10-11 April 2019. More event detail at: https://grow.nz.boma.global

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