Get the jump on the future of ag-tech

Get the jump on the future of ag-tech at University of Waikato alumni event

A Tauranga business leader helping Kiwi technology entrepreneurs break into Silicon Valley is the guest speaker at a free event being hosted by the University of Waikato’s Management School on Tuesday, 5 April.

The talk, ‘The future of ag-tech with Peter Wren-Hilton’, is open to alumni and members of the public. Numbers are limited, so if you wish to attend, please register online at http://bit.ly/ceealumnievent

Peter Wren-Hilton is the founder of The Meteoroid Program, an accelerator programme that helps Kiwi start-up agriculture-technology (ag-tech) companies to connect with the leading entrepreneur and investor networks in California’s Silicon Valley, and get them ready to launch on the global market.

Wren-Hilton is keen for New Zealand ag-tech companies to not only embrace new technology, but to love it.

He says emerging new digital technologies - such as robotics, drones, sensors, digitalisation and big data – are already having a significant impact on agri-business opportunities, and will enable Kiwi companies to become even more profitable, productive and sustainable on a global scale.

By 2050, the world needs to increase food production by 70%, whilst also improving sustainable farming practices, and technology will be the main driver for this, says Wren-Hilton.

Innovative technologies introduce new ways of doing things and can totally disrupt established businesses in all sectors, such as finance, health, media, retail and high value manufacturing.

Wren-Hilton is probably best known as the founder of Wharf42 Ltd, the Tauranga-based company which is
co-organising a major AgTech conference in Silicon Valley on 21 April.

The 2016 SVForum Agtech conference will bring together key international industry leaders and players, including Callaghan Innovation & New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, to discuss how digital technologies are rapidly transforming the ag-tech sector. It will highlight case studies of innovative Kiwi companies that have responded positively to the challenges facing the agricultural sector.

The conference aims to give New Zealand ag-tech leaders the opportunity to meet and engage with key executives from leading US food producers, innovators, investors and global thought-leaders seeking the transform the ag-tech sector.

Wren-Hilton is also the founder/director of WNT Ventures General Partner Limited, a technology-based incubator hub in Tauranga, which seeks to identify amazing commercialisation opportunities from New Zealand universities, Crown Research Institutes and the private sector that have global market potential.

ENDS

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