After three long years of the pandemic slog, evokeAG returned with a world-class conference on the intersection of agriculture, technology and innovation at home (Australia) and abroad. Attended by more than 1,600 delegates from Australia, New Zealand and around the world, the event aimed to support the agriculture and agrifood tech community by showcasing startups, researchers and innovators doing incredible things.

We heard from politicians, industry leaders and young leaders discussed significant challenges, (climate change, biosecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic) and considered how the agrifood tech industry can overcome them to achieve sustainable food systems.

Fast forward a week post-conference, we’ve gone and collated some shared reflections on what the industry has achieved so far, more work ahead, and their underlying opportunities.

POV: sheep farmer

“AgTech… What is it really a tool for?” By Belinday Lay perfectly summarises that no one technology is the solution, but AgTech provides objective measurement and data collection tools for decision-making and practice changes at a grassroots level.

POV: academia

Scott Graham from Baker College, shared his key learnings from a perspective of a teacher in Ag and described key themes like the importance of food as medicine and nutritional security, the need for indisputable objective data for genuine change, and framing the challenges accurately to attract suitable people to the industry.

POV: telco

Imdad Khan from Telstra described how telcos can play an important role in sharing business-critical data that can help create transparent supply chains and generate greater value for industries.

POV: public sector

Danielle Roberts from LaunchVic shared her favorite panel “The collision of 4Cs - - Climate, covid, conflict and cost” where the panelists talked about the challenge of achieving environmental sustainability and who will bear the cost. Consumers are concerned about food production's carbon footprint, water, and safety but asking them to pay for sustainability might be a challenge.

POV: financial industry

Shane Wilkins from Findex reflected on the opportunities in the agtech sector with focus on nutritional security, the role of agtech in meeting sustainable production demands from trade partners, and the need for collaboration and support from the government to realise Australia's potential in the industry.

POV: impact consultant

And here’s a great summary from Lisa Barrios about people still being the greatest asset in the industry and tech is meant to help them do better instead of replacing them.

A little photo wall break amidst the chaos! Shout out to Oli Madgett’s (SpX17 alum) grape that’s fermenting well in the evokeAG logo 😆
(left to right: Adrian SoeMyint, marketing & community officer of SproutX; Liam Hescock SpX21 alum, co-founder of Azaneo; Ashlee Tayler, program officer of SproutX; Paul Voutier SpX20 alum, founder of Ambit Robotics; Andrew Inglis, founder of Cellysis; Maxie Juang, Program Director of SproutX)

It’s been a delight to reconnect with alumni and old friends in person, crashing Beanstalk Agtech’s networking dinner, 8pm pitch nights followed by 7am pitch breakfasts, producer site hopping under a 41-degree sun, and enjoying the fringe festival in Adelaide with the agtech community.

Big kudos to the Agrifutures team for bringing together the Australian agri-food tech industry and providing an excellent opportunity to share, learn, and network.

👀 See you all at evokeAG 2024 in Melbourne!

A peek at our notes from evokeAG2023: the agtech conference of the year