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X-WR-CALNAME:Grand River Agricultural Society
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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Grand River Agricultural Society
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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20250415T113000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20250415T173000
DTSTAMP:20260520T175600
CREATED:20250213T144814Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260106T152014Z
UID:10000072-1744716600-1744738200@grandriveragsociety.com
SUMMARY:SPARK V4
DESCRIPTION:JOIN AG AND ENVIRO TECH INNOVATORS AT SPARK V4 IN ELORA\nSPARK V4 Symposium is presented by Grand River Agricultural Society (GRAS). This year we are continuing to showcase new high-growth potential emerging companies. This is our 4th annual SPARK Symposium designed to accelerate Canadian Ag Tech and Green Tech companies who are seeking to expand their businesses and add new product lines! \n  \nEVENT DETAILS: \nDATE: Tuesday\, April 15\, 2025 \nLOCATION: The GrandWay Events Centre (7445 Wellington County Rd. 21\, Elora) \nTIME:\n11:30 am – Doors open\, networking\, booths in The GrandWay Lounge\n12:00 pm to 12:45 pm – Lunch available\n12:45 pm to 5:00 pm – Pitches and presentations\n5:00 pm – Meet and greet \nSEE THE FULL AGENDA HERE.\n  \n$25 attendance fee. All of the funds raised will be matched by GRAS! Live at the event you will have a chance to vote for your favourite pitch\, via a poll\, and one of the pitch companies will be awarded the funds. \nPre-registration is required\, tickets will not be sold at the door. \n**No refunds will be issued for this event.** \n  \nBUY TICKETS!\n  \n— \nOUR SPEAKERS: \n \nEmcee: Dr. Deb Stark\, Independent Director \nDeb calls herself a leader and a learner with a lifelong interest in Canadian agriculture and the people who feed us. She is a former Deputy Minister of OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture\, Food and Rural Affairs) and Chief Veterinary Officer for Ontario. \nShe spends her time volunteering and sitting on boards including the University of Guelph (Vice Chair)\, Ontario Genomics (past Chair)\, the Golden Triangle Angel Network and most recently\, the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network. \n  \n  \n \n  \nKeynote Speaker: Evan Fraser\, Director\, Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph \nEvan is Director of Arrell Food Institute and full Professor of Geography. He is an award-winning author\, with five books\, over 150 academic publications\, and opinion editorials that have appeared on CNN\, the Guardian\, and all major Canadian media outlets. As one of Canada’s most cited academics working on the future of food\, sustainability\, and climate change\, he is a sought after expert and speaker and works with communities\, the corporate sector\, the Federal Government of Canada\, and the United Nations. \nHe is an inaugural co-chair of the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council\, which is a multi-stakeholder group that advises the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on the implementation of Canada’s food policy. He is one of fifteen international experts who sit on the United Nations’ High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition. This is the scientific body that advises the Committee on World Food Security and is the top-most global body dealing with issues related to food systems and sustainability. As vice chair of the Maple Leaf Center for Food Security\, he helps direct funding to community groups across Canada and as a scientific mentor for Creative Destruction Labs he works with agri-food technology start-ups and entrepreneurs. \nEvan is also part of a team made up of producers\, NGOs\, and the senior leadership from some of Canada’s largest corporate players (including the Royal Bank\, Loblaw\, Maple Leaf Food\, McCains and Nutrien)\, that founded the Canadian Alliance for Net Zero Agrifood (CANZA). CANZA is initiating programs aimed at creating financial incentives and the infrastructure to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions caused by Canada’s agri-food sector. \nOther present and past leadership roles include holding a Canada Research Chair between 2010-2020\, being a Fellow of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau foundation\, acting as a scientific advisor to Genome Quebec and Proteins Industries Canada\, being a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars\, and a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. \n  \n \n  \nDr. Shari van de Pol – CATTLEytics\n \nAs the winner of the 2024 Spark V3 Pitch Competition\, Shari and her team at CATTLEytics have had impressive milestones\, awards\, and funding over the past year. Their journey stands out as one of the great success stories from our SPARK events and she’ll be sharing more on their successes. CATTLEytics offers dairy farmers and cattle owners tools to farm smarter. They design and maintain software and data systems that enable proactive animal health management. Their hardware solutions\, such as cattle thermometers and automated dosing devices\, further elevate efficiency. Their dairy management software will empower farmers to manage their operations seamlessly while promoting sustainability metrics. www.cattleytics.com \n  \nSpeaker PDF print out. \n  \n— \nPITCH COMPANIES:\n \n1) VETSON \nVETSon is veterinary telemedicine platform\, specializing in helping rural and large animal veterinary practices reach their clients more efficiently through video consultations\, direct to client shipping of medication. VETSon also helps practices maintain case records\, manage medication and invoice while innovating how animal health information can get the veterinarian without travelling hours. \nVETSon is supporting practices from the Yukon to PEI and now into the US\, with over 450 farms connected. www.vetson.ai \n  \n \n2) CSTAINABLE INC. \nCstainable Inc. is a Canadian precision ag-tech & climate-tech company dedicated to optimizing the growth of greenhouse vegetable crops with our Cstainable™ Crop Enhancement technology. We enable greenhouse growers to increase yields\, double profits\, reduce CO2 emissions and make more money. www.cstainable.com \n  \n \n3) FARM HEALTH GUARDIAN \nFarm Health Guardian is a biosecurity management technology (hardware and software) to help farms and food companies improve animal health and protect against the devastating impact of animal disease. The patented system controls barn entry using facial recognition technology and provides real-time alerts when people or trucks breach biosecurity protocols. www.farmhealthguardian.com \n \n4) FLONERGIA SYSTEMS INC. \nFloNergia Systems\, an Ontario corporation spun off from the University of Guelph and based in Hamilton\, Canada\, provides innovative FloMov™ airlift pumps. The company has been selling its products since 2018\, successfully penetrating key markets such as water/wastewater\, aquaculture\, and agriculture systems for water circulation and aeration. FloMov™ pumps reduce energy consumption by 50-70%\, improve aeration efficiency by up to 40%\, effectively strip CO2\, and handle solid waste—all with no moving parts and minimal maintenance. www.flonergia.com \n  \n \n5) HAGGERTY ROBOTICS \nHaggerty AgRobotics is a leader in the emerging agriculture robotics and automation industry. For several years\, Chuck Baresich\, Founder and President\, has been researching and testing various technologies on the Haggerty Creek farming operation. Haggerty AgRobotics is proud to offer a wide range of cutting-edge technologies that can help farmers increase efficiency\, reduce operational costs\, and improve crop yields. The farming operation is part of Haggerty Creek Ltd. owned & operated by Chuck & Justin Baresich and AGRIS Cooperative since 2001. www.haggertyagrobotics.com \n  \nPitch Companies PDF print out. \n  \nQuestions about the event? Please contact DKey@grandriverag.com
URL:https://grandriveragsociety.com/event/spark-v4/
LOCATION:The GrandWay Event Centre\, 7445 Wellington County Rd. 21\, Elora\, Ontario\, N0B 1S0\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Events
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