Kit Franklin
Agricultural Engineering Senior Lecturer, Harper Adams University

Kit's research focuses on sustainable future farming systems, with the most notable project to date being the award-winning Hands Free Hectare

Emma Wheeler
Head of Strategy, Trust Codes

The tech sector in New Zealand is in a prime position to deliver on consumer expectations for increased transparency, with brilliant data-driven stories of provenance that our global consumers are hungry for.

Ian Reilly
Managing Director, Altrutec

Ian has spent 30+ years turning new technology into innovative, world-first products in diverse industry sectors including agtech, biotech, medtech, foodtech, renewable energy, defence and aerospace.

Greg Peyroux
CEO, OmniEye

With over 20 years as an ICT leader, manager and strategist, Greg is passionate about turning the latest technology into real-life solutions. His current focus is on OmniEye, an automated camera-based on-farm livestock monitoring system.

Russell Craig
Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft New Zealand

Russell works with sector stakeholders on matters related to technology strategy and policy for Microsoft New Zealand. Based in Wellington, his role focuses on helping customers understand and realise the broad transformational opportunities enabled by Microsoft’s cloud platform.

Bridgit Hawkins
Chief Sustainability Officer, CropX Ltd

From my earliest days of helping on the family farm to founding a technology business focused on enabling financial and environmental sustainability for farmers, I am passionate about making a difference in the agricultural sector.

Jaco Fourie
Machine Vision Manager, Lincoln Agritech

Precision agriculture has made extensive use of new technology to automate and improve common tasks. However, the pervasive use of this technology also highlighted the limitations that researchers must overcome to get practical, economically viable outputs to farmers.

Gavin McEwen
CEO, Farmax

Gavin's focus is on furthering the potential of New Zealand pastoral agriculture through adoption of information technology, believing that transparency and collaboration among the agricultural service industry is long overdue and is key to unlocking that potential.

Greg Bodeker
Director, Bodeker Scientific

Changes in the regulatory environment, and in consumer expectations, requires rapid deployment of digital technologies across New Zealand's agricultural sector. We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures (thanks to Shakespeare).

Paul Ryan
CEO / Founder, Trust Codes

With consumers desire to educate themselves further on information about the products they consume, the pressure for supply-chain participants to be transparent, means product traceability become a standard, not a value add.

Nicolás Erdödy
Director, Open Parallel

Nicolás specialises in next-gen high-tech ecosystems and believes "we have to leverage the digital opportunity to become a data-driven industry while addressing climate change, regulations and optimising productivity in the value chain."

Kylie Hall
Chief of Storytelling and Other Stuff, Hectre

The fruit tech sector has become one of the most exciting spaces to be working in. As the global appetite for technology increases, the pressures of growing escalate, and the deep need for greater insights builds, the perfect storm is brewing.