Conference Report: The Value I Took Home

From the President

Conference Report: The Value I Took Home

By Brent Kemp, President and CEO

AgGateway’s Annual Meeting and Conference is behind us, and if you’ve ever attended the First Time Attendee session you know that one of the questions we try and help participants frame for themselves is “the value you take home.” We recognize that each participant returns to their own organization having made or renewed relationships, joined in discussions on business and technical matters, and heard from speakers that broaden or challenge perspectives. We know that the experience gets wrapped up in a trip report and – I hope – in personal reflection and commitment to action.

As staff, we have the same reflection time and expectations of action. So, here’s the value I took back to the office and my next steps.

1 – Supply chain partners want to address issues with identification of farmers, farm businesses, and individuals, and the relationships between them. As an industry we have evolved our business processes and data needs while making short-term modifications to the resources that help us exchange, consume, and understand that data. The Entity ID working group meetings showed me the passion you have for addressing this matter. I appreciate AGDATA hosting an in-person follow-up at their offices in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA in February to develop an industry response and solution to these challenges. I have committed AgGateway staff to the task of creating and facilitating a productive meeting with defined outcomes and a roadmap to a solution. If you did not yet receive an invitation or want to learn more, reach out to Member Services.

2 – The panel discussion on environmental reporting, our catch-all for carbon, sustainability, climate, and provenance needs, was well received by attendees based on the conference survey feedback I’ve seen. One interesting thing to me, though, is that the excitement to learn more about the data needs and requirements for successful implementation of environmental reporting didn’t translate in some cases to an excitement around the ADAPT work AgGateway and its members have completed in 2024. Granted, some of the data needed for these programs is not currently collected for ADAPT to translate. And we do need allied providers to implement more of AgGateway’s completed work to make field data collection better. Still, there is a clear enthusiasm gap I am committed to understanding better, with a goal of improving our education and communication with members on this topic. Machine data interoperability with retail, agronomic, academic, and other stakeholders as implemented by ADAPT is crucial to efficient and accurate data processing.

3 – I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations had between meetings, in the hallways, and at receptions. I welcome the opportunity to build and renew professional relationships that the annual conference offers. I witnessed similar conversations happening all around the conference. I commit to AgGateway remaining a place where honesty, trust, and open dialog takes place for the benefit of members and the industry. These conversations continue beyond the annual conference, of course. Some of the sessions that were re-purposed, including Seed and Ag Retail Meet Ups, will be held as virtual meetings in the new year. If you want to be sure you’re on the announcements, contact Member Services and let them know you want to be added to these interest group mailing lists. Or, log in to MyAgGateway and update your profile so that your areas of interest reflect your current role and responsibilities. We use these individual profiles to communicate and make sure we’re keeping you informed on topics that matter to you. We’re always looking to improve, so let us know what works well and what might be confusing.

There’s a whole lot more I’m thinking about and taking action on. How about you? Let me know what got you excited and how I can help you take action.