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The WGCIT Agtech Blog

Agtech innovators. WGCIT stories.

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  • Dan Morash

GUEST BLOG: Tomatoes and Webinars

Posted on March 15, 2016 14:38 PM by WGCIT

By Emily McNamara
Marketing Director for California Safe Soil

On Wednesday, February 25th, I completed my first company webinar at the Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology (WGCIT). California Safe Soil currently works with numerous growers and a wide variety of crops throughout California; however, for this particular webinar, the California Safe Soil Team and I wanted to focus on one crop, so we chose tomatoes due to their fertigation and growing schedule in respect to the current month.

The presentation and list of invitees were tailored to fresh market and processing tomato growers in California. The goal of the webinar was to discuss the benefits of using California Safe Soil’s liquid fertilizer product, Harvest-to-Harvest (H2H), to grow tomatoes in an efficient, effective and sustainable way. The four panelists included: Dan Morash, founder of California Safe Soil; Bruce Rominger, a processing tomato grower who has two years of experience using H2H; Jeff Dolan, the field operations manager for The DIMare Co., who ran 2 trials using H2H last year; and David Holden, a notable private researcher and PCA who has conducted research trials with our product for the last 3 years. Hank Giclas, Western Growers Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning, Science & Technology moderated the event.

From the first webinar discussion I had with the staff at Western Growers CIT, to the moment the webinar concluded, the CIT Staff provided invaluable support and assistance to ensure that the webinar was conducted as smoothly as possible and was an overall success. The CIT team was responsive and timely in answering any questions I had and providing me with the necessary information to conduct the webinar.

After finalizing the invite as well as the list of invitees, the host, Western Growers, issued the e-invite to tomato growers across California.  As the day of drew closer, Western Growers sent reminders to the invitees, further illustrating their support to California Safe Soil.

On the day of the webinar, the CIT Staff as well as the webinar panelist, the California Safe Soil Team and I had a test-run in the morning to work out any technological issues and discuss the layout and timing of the event. Some of the panelists were calling into the webinar remotely rather than sitting in the CIT conference room where the webinar was held, which necessitated some extra coordination. Although there were a few slip-ups and technical difficulties at first, the process turned into a great learning experience for everyone involved.

The official webinar took place in the late afternoon and marked a great success. I was very pleased with the experience as well as the opportunity to connect with Western Growers CIT and gain a first-hand experience of the bridge they are establishing between startups and growers. I look forward to my next webinar at the Western Growers CIT!