Representatives from well-known companies such as NASA and ESA sat at the virtual table of the two-day online conference organized by Design Terminal within the X-Europe programme. The main topics of the Future of Agritech Online Summit were the digitization and innovation trends in agriculture.
What is space data good for in agriculture? Why is urban farming so popular? What can the new generation bring to agriculture? Viewers could take part in inspiring presentations, constructive panel discussions and debates at the Future of Agritech online summit that elaborated the most pressing issues in agriculture.
Design Terminal organized the online event on November 16 and 17 2020 as part of the X-Europe programme. The event attracted the interest of numerous agricultural professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors. Viewers from all over Europe and even from overseas joined the programme in front of the screens. A total of 23 speakers from 14 countries, including renowned national and international experts, presented their ideas on a variety of topics.
The first day of the conference was built around agricultural digitalisation and also focused on the new generation of agriculture. The second day addressed broader issues affecting the sector such as the effects of climate change, the water footprint of food and the consequences of COVID-19.
Great minds, great talks
The importance of the conference and the speakers invited is well illustrated by the fact that on the first day, Design Terminal sat Inbal Becker-Reshef, Director of NASA Harvest and Joana Kamenova, Outreach and Business Analyst at the European Space Agency (ESA) at a common virtual table. Alongside them, the audience could hear, among others, Attila Csányi, CEO of Bonafarm Group, Ferenc Balogh, Marketing Director of KITE Ltd., Borris Förster, associate partner of the German digital consulting company eccerate, Juan Francisco Delgado, Vice-President of the European Foundation of Innovation (INTEC), Vice-President of Smart Agrifood in Portugal.
The X-Europe startups discussed the future of agritech
Design Terminal’s main goal was to bring together the most exciting companies, startup founders, ecosystem players, and agritech experts during the two days of the conference. Startups in the agritech cohort of the X-Europe programme also took part in the event. Three CEOs: Kirill Zelenski (Intellectual Farms), Ru Wikmann (BeeSage) and Dror Tamir (Hargol FoodTech) spoke in one panel relevant for each of them.
Kirill Zelenski from Intellectual Farms talked about the role of farming in urban life together with Gábor Rosta, president of the Urban Gardens Association in Hungary. The discussion focused on the fact that farming is thriving indoors and in the middle of cities due to technological advances, and whether the city is our new countryside.
Dror Tamir from Hargol FoodTech talked about the future of food’s protein and he also answered viewers' questions in the session. This topic was about the question of whether artificial meat or insects could change our protein consumption and how do we react to these changes.
Ru Wikmannfrom BeeSage had a panel together with István Arnócz, general manager of Space Apps, which helps apiaries with data processing and IoT systems and Gábor Szalkai, public affairs and sustainability manager of Bayer Hungaria. They elaborated on the subject of bees being indispensable parts of our ecosystem. Our agricultural system is unsustainable without them, yet their numbers are declining drastically. What can we and agricultural companies do for them?
After cohorts focusing on HealthTech and AgriTech, X-Europe will soon be addressing startups in AI and ML.
Those who missed the live program of the conference, can still watch all of the panels and conversations on Design Terminal’s Youtube channel.
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