Nearly 80 agtech entrepreneurs, community leaders and pioneers in the agricultural industry came together yesterday to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology®.

The Center first opened its doors on December 10, 2015, with six agtech start-up companies. In just one year, the Center has transformed into a hub of collaboration and innovation, now housing 27 startups. On any given day, the Center is buzzing with energy from entrepreneurs who are all collaborating on ideas of innovative technologies to help solve agriculture’s biggest challenges.

In honor of its one year of agtech success, Salinas Mayor Joe Gunter awarded a proclamation to the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology during the event. Festivities of the celebration included:

• An Open House where entrepreneurs collaborated with farmers on current and future technologies.
• Presentations from Hank Giclas (WG Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning, Science & Technology), Bruce Taylor (Taylor Farms CEO), Dennis Donohue (Lead of the Center for Innovation & Technology) and Joe Gunter (Mayor of Salinas) on the past, present and future of agtech.
• An update from Concentric Power’s Brian Curtis, one of the Center inaugural residents, about his latest energy-savings models and how the Center has facilitated connections with leaders in the industry.

“During this first year, the Center has grown organically and going forward we are going to take a more solutions-orientated role,” said Giclas. Moving forward, the Center plans to zero in and seek out agtech startups who are developing technologies that solve the industry’s most immediate needs.

For more information about the one-year achievements and the future of the WG Center for Innovation & Technology, click here to read the press release. Images from the event can be found on the WG Center for Innovation & Technology’s Facebook page here.

For questions, contact Hank Giclas at (949) 885-2205.