Accelerating innovation into the agriculture sector is crucial if farmers and growers are to continue to provide nutritious, affordable food for an ever-increasing global population. Leveraging new technologies, thinking outside the box and applying them to on-farm production and supply chain systems is the critical factor at play.

It’s against this background that the Summit organizers are delighted that Guy Kawasaki, tech titan, former Chief Evangelist at Apple, venture capitalist and best-selling author will be a keynote speaker at the 2024 Salinas Biological Summit.

In his most recent book, Think Remarkable, Guy teamed up with Madisun Nuismer, producer of the Remarkable People podcast, to share invaluable knowledge from more than 40 years of working with game-changing organizations such as Apple, Canva, Google, Mercedes Benz, and Wikipedia.

Guy knows all about addressing the big issues. In the world of specialty crops, there are few bigger than the global call from regulators and consumers for ‘less chemistry, more biology’.

Are growers ready for the significant transition required to meet these calls?  It will require developing strategies that enable you to transform your plans to prepare for the major changes ahead. That will require growers to adopt a growth mindset, develop grit and build resilience. These are some of the key themes in Guy’s Think Remarkable.

At June’s Summit, Guy will close out the Day 1 session. He joins an amazing set of speakers and domain specialists who will be sharing their insights and expertise. You can view their profiles on the Summit Speaker page.

I am stoked that Guy will be joining us in June. The reason is personal.

Apple Computers is where I started my ‘tech’ career. 35 years ago. That’s of course all we did. Think Mac Plus, LC, CI, FX. Plus the odd laser printer. Since then, the company name changed and Apple has gone on to create whole new industries through its technology stack.

There are strong lessons to be learnt. With Platform10, Western Growers and Wharf42 are seeking to enhance grower confidence and facilitate market development and adoption of new biopesticide products. This will require a whole new generation of smart agritech devices and software that will spray, monitor and manage the application of these new biological solutions. June’s Summit program has been designed to provide stakeholders from the wider ag sector with both inspiring content and the opportunity to meet and engage to discuss this opportunity.

To quote Steve Jobs;

‘The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”