AgTech All Day Every Day at PMA Conference
Posted on May 23, 2016 15:40 PM by WGCIT
The Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology represented in full force during the PMA Tech Knowledge Conference in Santa Clara on May 17-19, 2016. Eleven of the 15 residents from the Center participated in various sessions of the conference, enlightening audience members about their latest agtech innovations.
The event featured multiple educational panels, power sessions, a pitch competition and a learning lounge. Center residents made quite an impact during the power sessions—lightning sessions where innovative entrepreneurs presented quick overviews about what types of solutions their innovations offered. Brandon Udelhofen of TerrAvion spoke about how the company’s cutting-edge imagery technology will help control operational costs and create efficiencies in ag-related businesses. Trace Genomic’s Poornnima Parameswaran, iFoodDecisionsSciences’ Matt Salley and Geo-Visual Analytics’ Jeffrey Orrey were among the startup companies that showcased their solutions to address food safety challenges.
Hank Giclas, Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning, Science & Technology at Western Growers, kicked off the “What’s the Pitch?” competition as moderator. California Safe Soil and HarvestPort—two Center residents—were among the five startup companies who presented to a panel of investors, industry experts and attendees during the competition. Sponsored by Western Growers, the winner of the competition received a complementary Western Growers’ membership and tickets to the Fresh Summit in Orlando. PalleTech (judges’ choice award) and Soliculture (audience choice award) took home the win but all participants received invaluable feedback on how to advance their products to full commercialization from the panel of expert judges.
The Learning Lounge served as the “go-to” place during the conference. Throughout the event, attendees were welcome to network with start-up companies at their booths and learn more about each innovator’s technological solution. Center residents who set up a booth included California Safe Soil, Concentric Power, HarvestPort, HeavyConnect, iFoodDecisionSciences, Inteligistics, Lotpath, Plant Nutrition Technologies, specright, TerrAvion and Trace Genomics. For more information about innovators at the Center, click here.
Visit the PMA website for full conference details.