Forbes magazine announces its third annual AgTech Summit

Forbes recently announced its 2017 Forbes AgTech Summit. This two-day, invitation-only event on June 28-29, 2017, in Salinas Valley, California, will bring together more than 600 of the most entrepreneurial minds in global agriculture with those from the Silicon Valley to tackle some of the world's most critical challenges.

Held once again right in the heart of the Salinas Valley, the third Forbes AgTech Summit provides participants with a fully immersive experience into the burgeoning world of agricultural technology, from tours of state-of-the art processing plants to hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge, in-field technologies. The summit is designed to foster an energetic debate and generate rich networking opportunities while showcasing the latest innovation for farmers, investors and stakeholders of the global agricultural ecosystem.

"We're convening over 600 of agriculture's leading voices to debate, discuss, showcase and collaborate on innovative, near-term solutions to the most daunting challenges facing global agriculture," said Paul Noglows, executive director, Development, ForbesLive, Forbes Media and executive producer of the Forbes AgTech Summit. "We can think of no better place to do that than historic Main Street Salinas-epicenter of global agtech innovation, where Salinas and Silicon Valley meet."

The Forbes AgTech Summit will kick off on Wednesday, June 28, with exclusive tours for 150 of the participants, who will visit Taylor Farms' state-of-the-art processing plant, Grupo Flor's cutting-edge cannabis cultivation facility and the grower owned processing plant of True Leaf Farms. The tours will conclude with a series of Field Demos at Hartnell College's Alisal Campus.

The Innovation Showcase and the Plenary Sessions will follow under the summit's signature white tents on Main Street Salinas, where Janet Napolitano will present the opening keynote. The Innovation Showcase continues to expand and will feature 50 innovative agtech startups offering a wide variety of solutions to the challenges of achieving higher crop yields and less food wastage. Showcase presenters include Arable, California Safe Soil, Cool Planet, Harvest CROO Robotics, HeavyConnect, HydroGrow, Lumigrow and SWIIM.

"Participating in the Forbes AgTech Summit exposed HeavyConnect to a wider spectrum of AgTech stakeholders and led to dozens of follow-on discussions after the event with industry leaders looking to leverage the HeavyConnect platform in their operations," said Patrick Zelaya, Founder of HeavyConnect Inc. "Our inclusion in the summit's Innovation Showcase and the Field Demos definitely raised our profile and very much helped bring us to the attention of 500 Startups."

"As an early-stage venture fund and seed accelerator, we're excited to be participating in this year's summit so we can continue investing in the world's best agtech startups," said Tristan Pollock, Venture Partner, 500 Startups. "Some in Silicon Valley may think this industry is unsexy, but that's exactly why we like it. It's feeding the future, and farming innovation is desperately needed in the U.S. and around the world as the population grows." Zelaya and Pollock will be featured in conversations on the afternoon of June 28 at the opening of the Innovation Showcase.

Starting on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 28 and continuing through Thursday, June 29, the plenary sessions will encourage dynamic discussions around such topics as drought solutions, future of food production, rise of organics, robotic tech in the field, labor and the farmer of tomorrow.

Speakers include:

• Brian Antle, Harvest Manager, Tanimura & Antle

• Sallie Calhoun, Owner & Manager, Paicines Ranch

• Amol Desphande, CEO & Co-Founder, Farmers' Business Network

• Geoffrey Eisenberg, Principal, Ecosystem Integrity Fund

• Mike Federle, President & Chief Operating Officer, Forbes Media

• Steve Forbes, Chairman & Editor-In-Chief, Forbes Media

• Robert T. Fraley, Ph.D., Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Monsanto

• Xuemei Germaine, Chief Executive Officer, MicroGen

• The Honorable Joe Gunter, Mayor, City of Salinas

• Neal Gutterson, Ph.D., Vice President, Research & Development, DuPont Pioneer

• John Hartnett, Founder & CEO, SVG Partners

• Thomas Healy, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Hyliion

• Dan Hodgson, CEO & President, FarmQA, Inc & Founding Partner, Linn Grove Ventures

• Dr. Glenda Humiston, Vice President, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources

• Miku Jha, Chief Executive Officer, AgShift

• Justin Kamine, Managing Member, Kamine Development Corporation

• Dr. Mathias Kremer, Head of Strategy & Portfolio Management, Bayer

• Mike Macrie, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Land O'Lakes, Inc.

• Maggie McGrath, Staff Writer, Forbes Media

• Krystine McInnes, Director & Chief Executive Officer, Grown Here Farms

• Trent McKnight, Rancher & Founder, AgriCorps

• Daniel Morash, Founder, California Safe Soil

• Janet Napolitano, President, University of California, Former Secretary of Homeland Security

• Paul Noglows, Executive Director, Development, ForbesLive, Forbes Media

• Tom Nunes, Vice President, Operations, The Nunes Company

• Nancy Pfund, Founder & Managing Partner, DBL Partners

• Shami Patel, Chief Executive Officer, LumiGrow

• Tristan Pollock, Entrepreneur-in-Residence & Venture Partner, 500 Startups

• Matthew Seeley, Co-Founder & CEO, Organic Produce Network

• Chloe Sorvino, Staff Writer, Forbes Media

• Dan Steere, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Abundant Robotics

• Bruce Taylor, Founder & CEO, Taylor Farms

• Mike Teel, Owner & CEO, Raley's

• Kip Tom, CEO, Tom Farms

• Rob Trice, Founder, The Mixing Bowl

• Tomer Tzach, Chief Executive Officer, CropX

• Mariana Vasconcelos, Chief Executive Officer, Agrosmart

• Mark Young, Chief Technology Officer, Climate Corporation

• Javier Zamora, Owner, JSM Organics

• Patrick Zelaya, Founder, HeavyConnect

• David Zaitz, Chief Executive Officer, Pieper Farms

"The Forbes AgTech Summit has helped Taylor Farms accelerate our discovery and implementation of new technologies in farming, harvesting and fresh-food-processing operations," said Bruce Taylor, founder and CEO of Taylor Farms.

The City of Salinas is the host partner. DuPont Pioneer is a presenting sponsor. Partner sponsors include Bayer, Hyliion, Land O'Lakes, Inc. and Monsanto. Supporting sponsors include Intel, Wells Fargo and Western Growers. Salinas Business Leaders include Taylor Farms, Driscoll's, Grupo Flor, Hartnell College and Yamaha.

The official wine partner is Scheid Family Wines. The official travel partner is Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau. The Mixing Bowl and Organic Produce Network are program partners. AG/SUM is a media partner. The founding partner of the Forbes AgTech Summit is SVG Partners and its Thrive Accelerator.