Publish Date: Feb 20, 2018
Salinas Valley Ag Tech Summit
Features fireside chat with Radicle Growth CEO Kirk Haney
SALINAS, Calif. – The 5th Annual Salinas Valley Ag Technology Summit will open Tuesday, March 27, 2018, at 5:30 p.m. at Hartnell’s STEM Center with a fireside chat and reception featuring Salinas’s natives Kirk L. Haney and Dennis Donohue. The reception is free of charge but reservations are recommended at http://svagtechsummit.com/ .
Kirk is the CEO and Managing Partner of Radicle Growth, an Ag and food tech accelerator fund focused on transforming the speed of innovation in agriculture. Under Kirk’s leadership, Radicle has secured top tier financial and corporate investors including Finistere Ventures, $150M AgTech fund, OurCrowd, $300M funding platform, Bayer Crop Science and DuPont Pioneer. Just a few days prior to the Ag Tech Summit, he will be giving away $250,000 as part of the World Agri-Tech Pitch Day and Radicle Challenge.
Dennis is the former three-time mayor of Salinas and rapidly becoming known as the “Mayor of Ag Tech” throughout the state of California. He is the lead for the Western Growers Innovation and Technology Center based in downtown Salinas. Under Dennis’ oversight, more than 50 innovators have become center residents. The WGITC was specifically created to help identify fresh produce industry priorities, discover technologies to address those priorities, set up testing, facilitate industry feedback and communicate progress to regional fresh produce farmers.
Together these two Ag tech champions will share their vision, experiences, and insights for today and the future. Salinas possesses all the ingredients to be the nerve center for Ag tech in fresh produce. Attendees will hear how those ingredients can be packaged to make an economic difference for students, employees, managers, entrepreneurs, and business owners.
The Ag Tech Summit educational tracks, Ag tech vendor trade show, hands-on demonstrations, and new idea/start-up pitch competitions will begin at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 2018 . Event admission is free and includes a sponsored lunch. Community members, Ag Industry members, Growers, PCAs, CCAs, QALs, pilots, students, growers, and participants in Ag tech and software industries are encouraged to attend. The event is organized by the Hartnell College Agriculture Business and Technology Institute in collaboration with the Monterey Bay Chapter of the California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA).
Exhibitor, Sponsor and Program information can be found at: http://svagtechsummit.com/ .
Hartnell Community College District – established in 1920
The Hartnell CCD serves over 17,000 students annually through its main campus in Salinas, the Alisal Campus in East Salinas, the King City Education Center, and various outreach learning centers throughout the Salinas Valley. Hartnell College, a Hispanic Serving Institution, provides associate degree and certificate programs, workforce-training, courses in basic skills, and prepares students for transfer to four-year colleges and universities. Hartnell College is recognized for its innovative public and private partnerships that support world-class education for STEM, career technical education, fine and performing arts, humanities/social sciences, nursing/healthcare, and athletics. We are proud to be the winners of the 2015 Innovation Award for CSin3 – a Computer Science bachelor’s degree in three years. We are growing leaders through opportunity, engagement, and achievement. For more about Hartnell CCD, visit www.hartnell.edu . ###