Silicon Valley Forum 2017
Posted on April 06, 2017 08:40 AM by WGCIT
On April 3, 2017, the Silicon Valley Forum kicked off its second annual AgTech Week “The Seeds of Our Future: AgTech and the Connected World.” This year, the three-day event incorporated a stop at the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology in Salinas. Dennis Donohue welcomed the Silicon Valley Forum attendees to the WG Innovation Center, discussed the mission of the Center, and introduced the agtech startups that were on-hand.
A press release for the Silicon Valley Forum states that the Immersion Program “invites attendees to take an up-close look at innovations in agriculture technology—right from the farms, classrooms, and businesses that are fostering innovation and change.” On the second day of the conference, Hank Giclas, Senior Vice President Science & Technology at Western Growers, moderated the morning session on Robotics and Mechanization with a very impressive panel of industry leaders:
· Ernie Farley, Andrew Williamson
· Danny Royer, Bowles Farming
· Frank Maconachy, Ramsay Highlander
· Brian Antle, T&A and PlantTape USA
· Erik Ehn, Blue River Technology
The international audience, of over one-hundred people that traveled to participate in the Immersion Program, asked questions like:
- Why is mechanizing ag operations important?
- Why not move growing operations all together?
- Where are the biggest opportunities for mechanization?
- Why are robotics not as pervasive in ag as they are in other industries?
- How do you get a new technology in front of an expert like yourselves (to the panel participants)?
- Are you sharing information being learned/developed in your operation?
- How should ag collaborate to speed up the development of robotics?
- How should ag collaborate to speed up the process of industry adoption?
The Silicon Valley Forum concludes today, April 6, with a full-day conference in Sunnyvale, CA, where they “will hear presentations and panels on agtech innovations from around the world, featuring voices and points of view from countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and New Zealand, as well as North America.”