IRVINE, Calif. (Feb. 2, 2016) – Western Growers will launch its first Tech Talk Series on Tuesday, February 9 at 4:00 p.m. at its Center for Innovation & Technology in Salinas, Calif. The new program will introduce the community to start-up companies working to develop innovative solutions to the biggest challenges facing agriculture. The series, which is also available via webinar, launches next week and continues monthly.

“With a global population expected to reach 9.3 billion within the next 30 years, it is up to us to bring entrepreneurs and farmers together to create technologies that will help dramatically increase food production,” said Tom Nassif, Western Growers president & CEO. “Through our Tech Talk Series, we are now bringing the community into this partnership, allowing them to connect with leaders in agtech to help advance our mission to bring the agriculture industry to the next level.”

Speakers from a wide spectrum of the agricultural technology (agtech) arena including food waste conversion, drone/satellite imagery, farm management applications, natural gas cogeneration, food safety software, and packing specification management will be presenting throughout the series. All speakers will be resident start-up companies in Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT), an agtech incubator that opened its doors in December 2015.

Kicking off the series will be Inteligistics, a software company that aspires to improve the fresh produce industry’s cold chain. Inteligistics offers innovative cool chain temperature visibility solutions to the fresh produce industry using “Internet of Things” and “Big Data” technologies. During the event, the Inteligistics team will speak about new technologies and their products, as well as answer questions and offer valuable feedback on entrepreneurship and agtech. 

The Tech Talk Series is offered at no cost. Please RSVP to Jennifer Krebs at [email protected] to attend the February 9 event in-person, and to attend via webinar, register here. Additional information about the Tech Talk Series or the WGCIT can be found at http://www.wginnovation.com.