What to expect at the 4th Annual Indoor Ag-Con
1. LED Lighting
One of the hottest topics in indoor agriculture is LED lighting: how to pick it, when to implement it, how to know if you’re getting the most from it. Experts from Lighting Science Group, Heliospectra, Illumitex, and Philips Lighting will be speaking, and you can learn more from the 18 lighting companies – such as Transcend Lighting - included at Indoor Ag-Con's 50+ exhibitor trade show hall.
2. Finance & Investments
Growers and tech entrepreneurs alike generally cite funding their product roll-outs and grows as one of their greatest challenges, though private investment in the combined produce and legal cannabis indoor agriculture industry more than doubled last year to nearly $300mn. The session on finance & investments includes speakers from the equity crowd-funding (AgFunder), lending and grants (USDA) and private investments (Palliatech) worlds.
3. Big Data & Controls Systems
Agriculture is no exception to the big data revolution that’s sweeping industries from healthcare to manufacturing, and you will hear about it from several angles at Indoor Ag-Con. Sponsor AEssense and grower See Jane Farm will talk about the future promise of big data, while Autogrow Systems, Priva and Agrilyst will talk controls systems.
4. Robotics & Automation
With new grows ever more sophisticated – sponsor Spread Co, Ltd is building a semi-automated plant factory in Kyoto, Japan at the moment for instance – there is an increased interest in robotics and automation for indoor farms. The speakers from Spread Co, Ltd, Harvest Automation & Cultivo will cover the topic at Indoor Ag-Con. Need a primer? Check out Indoor Ag-Con's previously released white paper on Robotics and Automation, which was co-authored with Local Roots.
5. Aquaponics
With a number of commercial-scale builds now underway in the aquaponics space, the organization of Indoor Ag-Con is excited to hear more about the potential and application of aquaponics from Dr. Nate Storey of sponsor Bright Agrotech, Dr. Nadia Sabeh of sponsor Guttmann & Blaevoet and Jason Green of Edenworks. In the meantime, brush up with this infographic on fish species for aquaponics systems, which Indoor Ag-Con jointly authored with the moderator for the session, Sarah Taber.