This exciting event is BACK!
Pre-registration is required. REGISTER FOR FREE NOW
YOU ARE INVITED TO SPARK II AT THE GRANDWAY IN ELORA!
This is our 2nd annual SPARK Symposium designed to showcase excellent Canadian Ag Tech and Green Tech companies who are seeking to expand their businesses and add new product lines!
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EVENT DETAILS:
DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 2023
LOCATION: The GrandWay Events Centre (7445 Wellington County Rd. 21, Elora)
TIME:
11:30 am – Doors open and lunch is available
12:15 pm to 3:00 pm – Presentations
3:00 pm – Meet and Greet (Network with the presenters and get to know other attendees.)
FREE Event, pre-registration required.
This is your opportunity to be introduced to some fascinating companies operating in agriculture and environment-related spaces. If you have never considered agriculture as an asset class, the time has come to join us and discover more!
The global ag-tech market is worth over $20 billion and growing at a CAGR of 10.2%. The North American ag-tech market is currently valued at $7.5 billion while precision ag is at $4 billion. These technologies are found in a variety of areas such as livestock monitoring and management, indoor farming, plant-based pharmaceuticals, aquacare, data management, adaptation to environmental changes, and more. This value is driven by ever-changing consumer demands, increased disposable income, increased urbanization, a changing environment, and the need to incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into our businesses.
Join us for lunch followed by speakers, display tables, networking with industry professionals, and more! –
AGENDA:
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11:30 am – Buffet lunch is served.
12:15 pm – Welcome by Emcee, Dr. Deb Stark, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Ontario; Board member of CAPI, and an Investor with Golden Triangle Angel Network.
Welcome and introduction from Deborah Whale, 1St Vice President of Grand River Agricultural Society.
Greetings from The Honourable Rob Black, Senator (Ontario)
12:30 pm – Keynote Speaker: Andrea Gruza, Managing Partner with Bonnefield Inc, speaking on Agriculture as an Asset Class.
12:45 pm – Company 1 – MYCIONICS The world’s first robotic mushroom harvesting system. It picks, trims, weighs and packs and also checks product quality and consistency. This is perfect technology for an agricultural sector with a diminishing workforce.
1:00 pm – Questions
1:05 pm – Company 2 – BIO DIFFUSION TECHNOLOGIES BDT have developed a naturally engineered bioresin technology offering biobased binders, resins and sealants for challenges in key markets such as packaging, agriculture, land reclamation and mining. The company has its first manufacturing plant making product in Cambridge.
1:20 pm – Questions
1:25 pm – Break
1:35 pm – Company 3 – VIVID MACHINES The two co-founders have developed spectral imaging and computer vision systems to revolutionize the fruit supply chain. Vivid Machines makes orchards significantly more profitable by predicting per-plant metrics for accurate farm interventions which can maximize yields and sends yield predictions to packers and retailers to align supply and demand.
1:50 pm – Questions
1:55 pm – Company 4 – DAIRY DISTILLERY They utilize a unique technology to distill its products (Vodkow, cream liqueurs and hand sanitizer) from a waste product created by cheese and ultra-filtered milk production. Dairy Distillery will next be distilling Ethanol from waste for a large dairy processing company.
2:10 pm – Questions
2:15 pm – Company 5 – EQ CELL INC They are developing regenerative medicines using stem cells to treat osteoarthritis and damaged joint cartilage in horses and dogs along with tendon and ligament repair. Studies on equine, canine and human stem cells are pursued in parallel which could lead to novel therapies and specifically designed therapeutics.
2:30 pm – Questions
2:35 pm – Final Speaker: Jay Bradshaw, former President of Syngenta Canada and a Managing Principal of Ag Capital Canada will talk about Ag-Tech and Green-Tech as meaningful and powerful Investment opportunities.
2:50 pm – Closing comments from Emcee, Dr. Deb Stark
3:00 pm – MEET AND GREET – Networking Opportunity Chat with the presenting companies and checkout their informational booths. Beverages and light snacks available.
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Introducing our speakers…
Emcee: Dr. Deb Stark, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Ontario; Board member of CAPI, and an Investor with Golden Triangle Angel Network.
Deborah Whale, 1st Vice President of Grand River Agricultural Society (GRAS).
As 1st Vice President of the GRAS board, Deborah has spent considerable time working on behalf of Research and Development in the world of agriculture. She has been past Chair of the Agriculture Research Institute of Ontario, the Poultry Industry Council, the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, Saskatchewan, and the Board of the University of Alberta Poultry Research Centre. Her interest in technology also turned to the world of energy and as VP of Clovermead Farms, supporting the installation of one of the first biogas facilities on a farm in Ontario.
The Hon. Rob Black, Senator (Ontario)
The Honourable Rob Black has worked in the rural, agricultural, and leadership arenas for much of his working career. He has had close involvement in 4-H and other leadership programs, such as Junior Farmers and the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program (AALP). He credits his involvement in these programs with allowing him to develop the skills that would lead him to apply to be a senator. He has been involved in 4-H for almost 50 years in all aspects of the program, at the local, provincial and national levels and is a Past President of the Canadian 4-H Council.
Read more about Honourable Rob Black here: robblack.ca
Keynote Speaker: Andrea Gruza
Managing Partner with Bonnefield Inc, speaking on Agriculture as an Asset Class. Andrea leads the Capital Markets team at Bonnefield with responsibility for investor relations and fundraising across all Bonnefield products. Additionally, Andrea has responsibility for Bonnefield’s sustainability and ESG activities and new product development, and is a member of Bonnefield’s Investment Committees. Andrea is a former investment banker with experience in mergers and acquisitions across multiple industry groups including agriculture, mining and financial institutions. Prior to investment banking, Andrea worked for Risk Management Solutions, the global leader in catastrophe risk modelling where she advised U.K., E.U., and Asian clients in the insurance and reinsurance industries.
COMPANY #1: Michael Curry, CEO of Mycionics
Michael joined Mycionics as CEO in 2019 to lead the commercialization of the world’s first robotic mushroom harvesting system. His operational and investment career has been focused specifically on the intersection of environment, agriculture and healthy food production. Michael has been an owner, director and now venture partner with InvestEco Capital since 2002, investing in private North American companies that promote health and sustainability in the food and agriculture sector. Prior to Mycionics, he invested in and operated an automated greenhouse company producing micro and leafy greens, selling to all major retailers across Canada. Michael was raised on a farm in southern Ontario and graduated in Geography at McGill before beginning his career in the reforestation industry.
COMPANY #2: Dr. Tyler Whale, Partner and Senior Vice President of Business Development of BioDiffusion Technologies Inc.
Tyler’s experience is in agriculture, academia, technology, commercialization, entrepreneurship and network development. He was raised on a dairy farm and went on to earn his PhD in immunology and an MBA in Biotechnology Development. He was the founder of three companies and as the Past President of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, he assisted many innovative emerging Canadian agritech companies to grow and commercialize. As the President of AgTech Solutions, he works with Canadian companies such as BDT to find the investments and networks needed to solidify and expand their businesses.
COMPANY #3: Jenny Lemieux, Co Founder and CEO of Vivid Machines
Jenny grew up on a farm and went on to study engineering, product design and data science. She has extensive experience in physical and software products, generating over $50 million in profit and funding for large corporates and start-ups, and winning global design awards. Jenny is currently the Cofounder and CEO at Vivid Machines, a startup that is developing spectral imaging and computer vision systems to revolutionize the fruit supply chain. Vivid Machines makes fruit farming significantly more profitable by predicting per-plant fruit metrics for accurate farm interventions, and provides transparency downstream to align supply and demand and reduce food loss globally.
COMPANY #4: Omid McDonald, Founder and CEO of Dairy Distillery Inc.
Omid is an experienced technology entrepreneur. He founded VMI Medical, producing software for America’s leading pediatric hospitals. He also founded the mobile tech company Simbit, whose embedded software is shipped in millions of phones worldwide. Each of these companies was eventually acquired and generated positive returns for investors. Omid is now the Founder and CEO of Dairy Distillery which turns a waste product from the dairy industry (permeate) into Vodkow, cream liqueurs and even hand sanitizer, but his next exciting product is his story today.
COMPANY #5: Dr. Thomas Koch, Founder and CEO of eQcell Inc.
Thomas is a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Ontario Veterinary College. He is also a founding member of the North American Veterinary Regenerative Medicine Association. His PhD was obtained in the area of equine stem cells and he was the first to report the presence of stem cells within the umbilical cord blood of newborn foals. His subsequent research is focused on how these and other stem cells can be utilized to treat joint pain and damaged joint cartilage. Studies on equine, canine and human stem cells are pursued in parallel which could lead to novel therapies and specifically designed therapeutics. He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research and several grants from key organizations such as NSERC. He is the Founder of eQcell Inc. studying stem cell therapy in Veterinary Medicine and as a Proof-of-Concept for Human therapies.
Closing Speaker: Jay Bradshaw, former President of Syngenta Canada and a Managing Principal of Ag Capital Canada will talk about Ag-Tech and Green-Tech as meaningful and powerful Investment opportunities.