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- Vertical Farming World Congress 2022
Vertical Farming World Congress 2022
Bringing together vertical farming operators, investors, suppliers and customers, this 3rd annual Vertical Farming World Congress is designed to help develop and advance the sector’s future. It is the most substantial dedicated event of the year, featuring two days of conference sessions, exhibits, networking with key industry figures presentation of the 2022 Vertical Farming World Awards. For new entrants as well as industry leaders.
About
Zenith Global’s Vertical Farming World Congress is the industry’s highest level and most significant dedicated event of the year.
After two successful years online, the 3rd annual Congress will be held in Brussels, Belgium – the heart of European policy-making.
Bringing together vertical farming operators, suppliers, investors, customers and advisers, the Congress will assemble key industry leaders from around the globe to debate and advance the sector’s future.
The three-day Congress will include presentations and panel discussions, visits to local vertical farming operations, a welcome drinks reception, extensive networking breaks and a gala industry dinner where the 2022 Vertical Farming World Awards will be presented.
Speakers at last year’s event included 80 Acres Farms, AeroFarms Bowery Farming, IGS, IKEA, Infarm, NASA, Plenty, Vertical Future and YesHealth Group.
2022 programme details will be announced soon.
Speakers include
Monday 19 September
Tours to local vertical farm facilities. Timings to be confirmed.
Informal social gathering around sponsor and exhibitor displays
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Tuesday 20 September
Speaker to be announced
Professor Leo Marcelis, Head of Horticulture and Product Physiology Group at Wageningen University, Netherlands
Lambert van Horen, Senior Fresh Produce Analyst for Rabobank Research Food & Agribusiness, Netherlands
Erez Galonska, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Infarm, Germany
Questions and discussion
Refreshment and networking break around sponsor and exhibitor displays
Introduction by Thomas Zoellner, Secretary General of FarmTech Society, Belgium
Speaker to be announced
Questions and discussion
Panel discussion on key industry issues such as identity, standards, investment, growth, sustainability and communications
Irving Fain, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bowery Farming, United States
Erez Galonska, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Infarm, Germany
James Lloyd-Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Jones Food Company, United Kingdom
Additional speakers to be announced
Lunch and networking break around sponsor and exhibitor displays
Speaker to be announced
Andreas Wilhelmsson, Chief Executive Officer of Ljusgårda, Sweden
Maarten Vandecruys, Founder and Chief Technology Officer off Urban Crop Solutions, Belgium
Rick Vanzura, Chief Executive Officer of Freight Farms, United States
Speaker to be announced
Questions and discussion
Refreshment and networking break around sponsor and exhibitor displays
Speaker to be announced
Tisha Livingston, Chief Executive Officer of Infinite Acres, United States
Hyeyeon Leo Kim, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of N.THING, Korea
Gary Grinspan, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Future Crops, Netherlands
Questions and discussion
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Wednesday 21 September
Conrad Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Stacked Farm, Australia
Speaker to be announced
Alexandre Van Deun, Co-founder of Urban Harvest, Belgium
Andrew Carter, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Smallhold, United States
Questions and discussion
Gilles Dreyfus, Co-founder and President of Jungle, France
Clément Ray, Founder of InnovaFeed, France
John Diener, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vertical Oceans, Singapore
Questions and discussion
Refreshment and networking break around sponsor and exhibitor displays
Thibaut Pradier, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of La Grangette, France
Jacob Pechenik, Founder of LettuceGrow, United States
Speaker to be announced
Speaker to be announced
Questions and discussion
Lunch and networking around sponsor and exhibitor displays
Join round tables of 5-10 delegates to discuss and advance policy debate on key industry issues of choice, such as Industry identityIndustry representationIndustry communicationsLabelling claimsKey performance indicators and benchmarkingRecruitment and trainingNutritionSustainability
Plenary reports back from round tables
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Speakers
Irving Fain
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bowery Farming, United States
Irving Fain leads Bowery Farming, the largest vertical farming company in the United States. He founded the company in 2015 with a mission to reimagine farming from the ground up.
Irving founded Bowery as a way to solve hard problems for the common good. Some of the world’s most pressing issues, including climate change, food waste, nutrition, food safety, and food access, are at the core of Bowery’s business, and by scaling Bowery’s successful economic model, Irving is also able to incite real change in communities and for the planet. For example, Irving has improved people’s access to fresh food by making Bowery’s produce available across the economic spectrum, at a range of retailers and through community-oriented nonprofits.
Business leaders across industries have taken notice of what he is building. Irving has raised $472 million to date from institutional and venture capital investors and leaders from both culinary and agricultural fields. The consulting firm EY named Irving its 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year in New York. Goldman Sachs has picked him for its Builders & Innovators Award three years in a row. Media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and Business Insider repeatedly place Irving and Bowery on lists of top innovative startups and climate-tech industry leaders. His passion for reinventing agriculture and our fresh food supply chain through technology has attracted top talent in engineering, plant science, sales, marketing, supply chain, technology, AI and more to the company.
Irving is a founding member of the Controlled Environmental Agriculture (CEA) Food Safety Coalition, which is developing a food safety standard for indoor farms. He also sits on the Leadership Council of Tech:NYC, where he helps connect tech and civic communities throughout New York City. He has forged long-term partnerships between Bowery and a half dozen nonprofits that work towards food justice and to help make sure that all Americans can access nourishing food.
Before founding Bowery, Irving was the co-founder and CEO of CrowdTwist, a venture-backed loyalty marketing SaaS business which worked with brands like PepsiCo, L’Oreal, Nestle, and Tom’s Shoes amongst many others. CrowdTwist was acquired by Oracle for over $100 million. Prior to CrowdTwist, Irving ran a division within Clear Channel Online focused on moving the largest radio group in the world into the digital age. While there, Irving built, launched, and ran iHeartRadio with a small team; today iHeartRadio has more than 120 million monthly users. Irving began his career helping early-stage companies raise capital as an investment banker at Citigroup. He graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in English.
Thomas Zoellner
Secretary General of FarmTech Society, Belgium
Tom Zoellner is a proven expert for innovative agri-tech initiatives in metropolitan spaces and has 25 years’ experience in agricultural consulting as well as in business development and sustainability in the food supply chain.
He is the co-founder and the secretary-general of the FarmTech Society based in Brussels after many years being part of the expert networks and policy development working groups in the US and the EU.
Rick Vanzura
Chief Executive Officer of Freight Farms, United States
Gary Grinspan
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Future Crops, Netherlands
Erez Galonska
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Infarm, Germany
Erez is co-founder and CEO of Infarm, the world’s largest cloud-connected farming network.
Today, the Infarm network produces millions of plants a month for 50% of the world’s largest retailers in Asia, Europe and North America. Infarm’s tech-driven, modular approach tailors production to customer demand, uses 95% less land and 95% less water, and travels 90% less than industrial farming.
Under Erez’s leadership, Infarm has recruited an industry-leading team and developed cutting-edge R&D to help cities become self-sufficient in their food production, while significantly improving the quality and environmental footprint of food.
Erez has been recognized by the European Commission as one of Europe’s top innovators in agriculture and technology.
Tisha Livingston
Chief Executive Officer of Infinite Acres, and Co-founder of 80 Acres Farms, United States
Tisha Livingston began her career in the food industry over twenty years ago. Since then, her roles have introduced her to every aspect of the industry—from finance to logistics and operations to engineering to research and development.
Clément Ray
Founder of InnovaFeed, France
James Lloyd-Jones
Chief Executive Officer of Jones Food Company, United Kingdom
James founded Jones Food Company in October 2016 having been introduced to technology via a feature on ‘Tomorrow’s World’.
The JFC growing estate continues to expand as the company broke ground last year on what will become the world’s largest vertical farm.
James does not have a traditional horticultural background, allowing him to come to the field with a pragmatic business mind, priding himself on trying lots of things very quickly and scaling on a phenomenal level. He predicts that vertical farming could provide 70% of the UK’s fresh produce within the next 10 years.
Gilles Dreyfus
Co-founder and President of Jungle, France
Thibaut Pradier
Chief Executive Officer of La Grangette, France
Thibaut Pradier is a visionary entrepreneur with a track record of professional success in various fields such as the music industry, hotel and event management services, and the construction industry before creating La Grangette.
Since then, society has changed considerably: today, few people are willing to put in that much effort and there’s much less space available. I’m convinced that, one day, our kitchens will have indoor vegetable gardens and that these will become standard features – just like fridges and washing machines are today."
Jacob Pechenik,
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LettuceGrow, United States
Jacob Pechenik is a passionate entrepreneur who’s built a career around questioning and improving industry status quos.
Andreas Wilhelmsson
Chief Executive Officer of Ljusgårda, Sweden
Hyeyeon Leo Kim
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of N.Thing, Korea
Lambert van Horen
Senior Fresh Produce Analyst for Rabobank Research Food & Agribusiness, Netherlands
Lambert van Horen is working as a RaboResearch senior analyst in Utrecht. His focus is on CEA and floriculture.
Before joining Rabobank, he worked at the Agricultural Economics Research Institute of Wageningen University) and the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture. Lambert holds a master’s degree in horticulture from Wageningen University.
Andrew Carter
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Smallhold, United States
Andrew Carter is Co-Founder and CEO of Smallhold, a commercial mushroom farm in Brooklyn, Austin and soon California that leverages technology to distribute its growing footprint into retail, grocery and hospitality settings.
Andrew is widely regarded as a thought leader in indoor agriculture, with focus on mushrooms, commercial hydroponics, and greenhouse production.
Conrad Smith
Chief Executive Officer of Stacked Farm, Australia
Conrad has over 30 years experience in the food service sector. As CEO of Alpha Flight Services Australia, he presided over Australia’s largest airline caterer with revenue of $500million, a national footprint of 13 kitchens and over 2,000 staff.
Maarten Vandecruys
Founder and Chief Technology Officer off Urban Crop Solutions, Belgium
Maarten Vandecruys is the Founder and CTO of Urban Crop Solutions. After graduating from Vlerick Business School in 2014, he started-up Urban Crop Solutions.
As the industry advances into more sectors beyond directly-for-consumption plants, the time is already ripe for the indoor farming pioneers to scale their businesses. Today, Urban Crop Solutions offers complete end-to-end indoor farming solutions, supporting their clients with contract research trials, business planning, as well as the engineering and construction of indoor farms. Their own award-winning indoor farming solutions can be commissioned and scaled anywhere in the world, from remote islands to crowded metropoles. The state-of-the art UCS Research Centre houses multiple growth chambers in which the team of plant scientists develop recipes for applications ranging from staple foods to space exploration missions.
Alexandre van Deun
Co-founder of Urban Harvest, Belgium
Alexandre is the co-founder of Urban Harvest, an engineering company active in the development of vertical farming technology with a focus on strawberries, cutting propagation and leafy greens.
After his law degree, Alexandre pursuit a master’s in general management and a master’s in finance. Before launching Urban Harvest, he was active in supply chain and treasury at a multinational company.
John Diener
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vertical Oceans, Singapore
Professor Leo Marcelis
Head of Horticulture and Product Physiology Group at Wageningen University, Netherlands
Professor Dr Leo Marcelis is head of the chair group Horticulture and Product Physiology at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Location
As the administrative centre of the European Union, the Belgian capital of Brussels is at the heart of European policy-making. Not only is it a major focus for international politics, but the city also offers an inspiring mix of historic architecture and modern-day attractions.
The Steigenberger Wiltcher’s is a 5-star hotel located on the exclusive shopping promenade Avenue Louise. With 267 rooms and suites, it features stylish interiors and high-class comforts, a fitness room, swimming pool and spa.
For delegates wishing to book accommodation, an allocation of rooms is available at negotiated rates on a first-come, first-served basis. Please book online via this link.
The Steigenberger Wiltcher’s is located 17 kilometres from Brussels Zaventem Airport - a journey which takes between 20-40 minutes – and 3 kilometres from the Brussel-Centraal train station.
Address: Steigenberger Wiltcher’s, Av. Louise 71, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
| Pay by 22 Jun Super saver rate (limited) | Pay by 22 Jul Early booking rate | Pay by 19 Sep Standard booking rate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Congress | Each delegate | €990.00 | €1,090.00 | €1,190.00 |
| Concession* | €390.00 | €440.00 | €490.00 | |
| Separate elements | 19 Sep tours/reception | €390.00 | €440.00 | |
| 20 Sep conference | €690.00 | €790.00 | ||
| 20 Sep awards dinner | €190.00 | €240.00 | ||
| 21 Sep conference | €490.00 | €590.00 |
*A concession rate is offered to start-ups and early-stage entrepreneurs. To be eligible, you must have annual sales below €1 million. For more information and to book at this rate, please contact events@zenithglobal.com
Substitutions will be accepted at any time. Cancellations will be subject to €150 + VAT administration charge per delegate and cannot be made after 22 July. Bookings are subject to Zenith Global Event Terms and Conditions, available here.
All delegates must pay VAT at the prevailing rate in Belgium. The rate may be subject to change.
Visas may be required from some countries. Zenith Global will be happy to help with visa support and document where possible.
Awards
The industry's only Vertical Farming World Awards are designed to celebrate excellence and innovation across the global industry.
The awards are a great way for you to attract validation for present and potential future investors, enhance your brand and ensure your product, concept or campaign is recognised on an international scale.
The awards will open for entries on 12 May and run until 5 August 2022. Winners will be announced at a gala industry dinner on 20 September, during the Vertical Farming World Congress 2022 in Brussels.
The categories
Crops
- Best Crop Innovation
- Best Crop Enhancement
- Best Yield Improvement
Technology
- Best Lighting Development
- Best AI/Automation Development
- Best Climate Control Innovation
- Best Farm Design Innovation
Sustainability
- Best Energy Efficiency
- Best Sustainability Initiative
- Best Water Saving Initiative
- Best Community Initiative
Financial
- Best Profitability Improvement
- Best Return on Investment
Commercial
- Best Brand Marketing
- Best Retail Innovation
- Best at Home Innovation
- Best New Business
Products can be entered into multiple categories.
To register your interest in the awards, please visit the awards page on our website or contact awards@zenithglobal.com.
Sponsorship
Our event and awards sponsorship packages offer a unique and effective opportunity to showcase your brand and services to a highly relevant audience.
You can choose from our Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsorship packages, or we can create a custom sponsorship package to suit your specific needs and budgetary requirements.
Sponsorship opportunities include:
- Presentation within the main event programme
- Opportunity to host a workshop, roundtable or drinks reception
- Exhibit display in the networking area
- Distribution of marketing material / product samples
- Delegate passes
- Discounted delegate access for your clients
- Branding across event collateral, including stage backdrop, lectern and programme
- Logo on event webpage hyperlinked to your website
- Sponsored email communication to all attendees
- Sponsored social media posts
- Regular mentions in Zenith Global's event marketing and press releases
- Discounts on Zenith Global market reports and discounted access to our Globaldrinks.com database.
For information and pricing, please contact Francesca Hall, Associate Director - Events
e fhall@zenithglobal.com t +44 (0)1225 327900
