Crop Enhancement Presents at Agtech Nexus USA
In June, we were invited to speak at the Agtech Nexus USA 2018 conference in Boston. Produced by Global AgInvesting, this event convened leading agribusinesses, investors, tech companies and other stakeholders from around the country to discuss trends and opportunities in the expanding agtech sector. The focus of my talk was on how tools and experience from adjacent industries can be applied successfully to agriculture.
Like me, discussion moderator David Potere (CEO of Tellus Labs) arrived in the ag industry bringing a set of skills and experience from outside the industry: in David’s case satellite imaging and machine learning, in my case materials science and engineering. We discussed how diverse backgrounds and “outsider” experience enable our companies to offer fresh solutions to big challenges in the ag sector. I illustrated the Crop Enhancement approach of applying innovations in materials science to uniquely deliver effective, sustainable crop protection for growers around the world.
I shared how at our company we team up ag industry veterans (for example, our VP of business development, field development manager, and staff entomologist) with technology development experts (scientists from the chemical and advanced materials industries) to solve the problem we are attacking creatively through a blend of our different areas of expertise.
I described that in order to augment our team’s knowledge and capabilities, we actively engage the services of business development and technology consultants, leverage our distinguished board of industry advisors, and seek the advice of respected mentors.
In my concluding remarks, I quoted Dan Vradenburg, president of the Wilbur-Ellis Agribusiness Division, who once said that “farming is a noble profession.” We at Crop Enhancement wholeheartedly agree. As entrepreneurs eager to solve some of the world’s most challenging agricultural problems, we will ultimately only be successful when we approach our grower partners with the respect they’ve earned striving to feed our planet.
Watch Kevin Chen, CEO of Crop Enhancement, at Agtech Nexus USA 2018:
AgTech Nexus from TellusLabs on Vimeo.