evokeᴬᴳ⋅ – Details, episodes & analysis

Everyone knows fails are a part of life. But what you choose to learn from them is where the magic can happen.  

Dr. Robert Van Barneveld is the CEO of the Sunpork Group which is responsible for producing 20% of Australia’s pork. He’s joining Bryan Van Wyk, Operations Manager at Austral Fisheries on stage at evokeAG 2025. They’ll give an unfiltered look at agritech adoption across Australia’s agricultural supply chain and outline what wins they’ve had in their businesses as well as their fails. 

They joined our contributor Jayne Cuddihy in a candid conversation about business, innovation and personal goals.

Tickets are now on sale for evokeAG. 2025 to be held on 18-19 February 2025 in Brisbane, Queensland. Following a sell-out event in 2024 we are encouraging delegates to secure their tickets, flights and accommodation early.

We look forward to seeing you in Brisbane for evokeAG. 2025. In the meantime, catch up on the other conversations about sustainability, climate resilience and the role of agtech in meeting those challenges from here.

The carbon space can be a murky realm, with a lot of information delivered in many different ways. But what if it was reimagined altogether? 

Aviva Reed is an ecological artist, environmental book author, and an art science educator. She uses techniques such as art making, storytelling, and hands-on ecoliteracy to explore complexity, making scientific concepts accessible and beautiful. 

Aviva is coming to evokeAG. 2025 and as she shares with our contributor Jayne Cuddihy, she’s exploring the world of carbon and its role in the ecosystem in new and brilliant ways.

Tickets are now on sale for evokeAG. 2025 to be held on 18-19 February 2025 in Brisbane, Queensland. Following a sell-out event in 2024 we are encouraging delegates to secure their tickets, flights and accommodation early.

We look forward to seeing you in Brisbane for evokeAG. 2025. In the meantime, catch up on the other conversations about sustainability, climate resilience and the role of agtech in meeting those challenges from here.

This series was recorded live at evokeAG. 2024 in Perth and explores the exceptional edge of agrifood tech innovation and a relentless pursuit of innovation at a critical juncture in time.

Circular economy is a familiar term, and one that is often synonymous with industry waste systems.

 But we can’t just recycle our way out of the waste crisis we are in. What if this limited interpretation is limiting the potential of a truly circular system to stop waste before it starts?

In this panel discussion, listen to industry thought leaders, Huia Adkins, the Sustainability Business Group Leader and Technical Director - Circular Economy, GHD, Antony Yousefian, The First 30 Ventures, Edwina Beveridge, Co-Owner of Blantyre Farms, and Professor Navid Moheimani from Murdoch University. 

Their conversation is facilitated by Julie Hirsch, Eloments Natural Vitamin Tea.

Tickets are now on sale for evokeAG 2025 to be held on 18-19 February 2025 in Brisbane, Queensland. Following a sell-out event in 2024 we are encouraging delegates to secure their tickets, flights and accommodation early.

We can't wait to see you all on 18-19 February 2024 in Brisbane, Queensland. In the meantime, catch up on the other conversations about sustainability, climate resilience and the role of agtech in meeting those challenges from here.

This week we speak to Agronomeye, an Australian agritech startup, giving farmers a razor-sharp 3D view of their farm using ultra-high-resolution imagery to create a groundbreaking farm-scale ‘digital twin.’

Agronomeye's AgTwin platform came to life through a collaboration with innovation heavyweights, Microsoft and CSIRO.

And it's helping optimise on-farm decision-making with advanced modelling capabilities and dynamic overlays that enable farmers to observe and understand the risks and opportunities unique to their property. 

From yield to soil data, weather, hydrology, and livestock movements, the platform enables all manner of software and hardware integrations. 

It's like your very own Sims – but for farmers. Here our evokeAG. contributor Casey Dunn, catches up with Agronomeye’s Co-Founder and CEO Stu Adam, to learn more.

From stone fruit to apples, Rubens Technologies is empowering fruit farmers to fetch the top dollar for their premium products, using AI prediction technology. 

Understanding and assessing fruit quality in a more timely, and far less intrusive way – is the solution Daniel Pelliccia, the CEO and Co-Founder of Rubens Technologies, has been testing vigorously and is ready to take to market.

Combining a hand-held scanner with machine learning analytics, users can scan fruit pre- or post-harvest and obtain real-time information that will help future-proof market outcomes and dictate quality downstream. 

Here Megan Woodward chats with Daniel about their insightful pilots in Australia and Southeast Asia and what’s next for the successful agritech startup.

This week we catch up with Mark Allison, the CEO of one of Australia’s largest agribusinesses, Elders.

Mark spoke at evokeAG. in Melbourne, back in 2020 – a time before Australia and the world were plunged into lockdown due to COVID-19. At the time, Australia had suffered one of its worst droughts on record and bushfires had ravaged large parts of the community.

Now as Australia starts to emerge from the pandemic to the ‘new normal’ and with the agricultural sector booming; Mark shares with us his optimism for the future of Australian agriculture, and how profitability, productivity, and sustainability will be key drivers for the industry going forward.

We hope you enjoy Mark's conversation with our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward.

This week we speak with Naeem Zafar who made the Silicon Valley home 25 years ago and in that time, he’s founded seven companies and invested in, and advised on, more than 30. Until four years ago though, he’d had very little to do with agriculture, let alone attempting to produce tech to solve problems for the sector.

An electrical engineer by trade, now Naeem is single-handedly disrupting the post-harvest agricultural industry through his machine learning and Internet of Things solution, TeleSense that’s helping growers predict the quality of crops in storage and transit – and provide real actionable insights.

And it’s all thanks to a sliding doors moment involving a group of Australian executives on the east and west coast, searching for storage solutions for the grain industry.

Here our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward explores the many benefits of this wireless sensing and predictive analytics solution and what’s next.  

Matt Newell, a perennial cereals research officer with NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) sees a very big future for perennial wheats in Australia. 

With the support of AgriFutures Australia, the duo have established an early-stage cluster of researchers and industry end-users to guide development of this new crop to target the premium artisan grain market.

Delivering improved sustainability, on-farm profitability, and nutritional outcomes – perennial wheats have everyone from mixed farmers to artisan brewers and bakers excited.

Here our evokeAG. contributor Casey Dunn speaks with Matt Newell about its rising potential. 

Today we hear from the Queensland AI Hub about the endless opportunities that Artificial Intelligence offers the Australian tech industry and how we can make the most of it. 

AI is already creating exponential impact globally, and locally for our food and fibre supply chain, by alleviating workforce and labour shortages – a problem for Australian and global agriculture. 

Here our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward speaks with Queensland AI Hub's CEO, Sue Keay, about how AI and robotics can help take the pressure off the agrifood industry and why it's important the government and industry support the Australian tech industry to become world leaders and firmly plant Australians as makers, not just takers, of tech.

We hope you enjoy their conversation. 

With more than 40 years in the venture capital game, Andy Ziolkowski – the Managing Director of US-based food and agriculture-focused venture capital firm, Cultivian Sandbox and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Cultivian Ventures – knows a good investment when he sees one.

With evokeAG. 2022 around the corner Andy reflects on the bounty of opportunities in food and agriculture coming out of Australia, the important connections he’s made on his past visits, like the 2020 evokeAG. Investor Dinner, and why co-investing with Australian founders, with local knowledge, has been critical for success.

Here he shares his experiences and advice for startups seeking to stand out from the pack, with our evokeAG. contributor Megan Woodward. We hope you enjoy their conversation.