We’re unveiling something BRAND NEW at Indoor AgCon this year
January 17, 2024
Will you be joining us in Vegas for Indoor AgCon this year?
If you are, you’ll be one of the first people in the world to see a preview of a game-changing tech solution we’ve been developing alongside Ryzee technology.
If you’ve followed us for long, you know we work with farmers day in and out. We know the needs and the pain points. We’ve identified gaps that other tools have failed to fill. At Indoor AgCon, we’ll be announcing our game-changing solution to help farmers of all sizes take their operation to the next level of efficiency and ease of use.
Make sure to get your tickets ASAP. The early bird offer ends in just a few days!
Use exclusive code AMHYDRO24 at checkout to receive 20% off a Full Access Conference Pass.
Offer expires January 26, 2024.
Register now at indoor.ag >
As a bonus this week, we got the chance to speak with Suzanne Pruitt, Indoor AgCon’s legendary event director. She gave us some insight into this year’s event, and how Indoor AgCon has become such a crucial fixture of the industry.
Last year’s event was the biggest ever, and it seems like this year’s is on track to be even bigger. This is despite the fact that many investors and financiers seem to have gotten a bit colder when it comes to investing in CEA. What do you think explains the continued upward trajectory of interest and attention to the industry?
That’s a great question, and I think there are several factors at play. This year’s event is definitely going to be bigger from an exhibition standpoint. We’re expanding the expo floor. Industry suppliers are looking to find new customers and to drive business. So naturally they’re looking for shows that attract decision-makers, which makes it our challenge to deliver attendees.
But even with the setbacks in the industry, there is still a heightened cultural awareness of the benefits of indoor farming and CEA. COVID put a spotlight on the fragility of many food supply chains, so growing local is still more important than ever. Rapidly-scaling farms obviously struggled with viability, but more and more startups are still getting into the space and looking for educational resources, trying to find the trends, and seeking out proven growing tactics.
There are other great CEA events, but Indoor Ag-Con seems to have really established itself as the industry standard. What are some of the steps you’ve taken over the years to solidify this convention as such an important forum?
From the beginning we tried to look at indoor agriculture as an all-encompassing field. Some events focus on vertical farms or other more niche aspects. We look at everything involved in growing crops indoors – from vertical farms to high tech, fully-automated greenhouses to smaller greenhouses tracking production on a whiteboard – as part of the same conversation.
This year in addition to the traditional agriculture side, we’re adding a cannabis education track. Of course, there are lots of cannabis shows, but we’re focusing on the plant side -bridging the gap of cannabis as another CEA crop. We are all things Indoor.
Speaking of education, that’s another key differentiator for us. We work closely with our conference advisor Kyle Barnett to build a tremendous offering of panel discussions, keynotes, other session formats and tracks that touch on the issues that are most important to growers. And, we work to make sure that these sessions are not infomercials, but expert-led sessions bringing different perspectives together to offer hands-on solutions, insights and best practices that operators can really implement.
What are you personally excited about for Indoor Ag-Con this year?
It’s been really fun to watch this event grow. I’m not an expert in agriculture personally. My background is in events. This is the 11th year of Indoor Ag-Con’s existence, but we only acquired the show at the end of 2018. It was really niche then. Just 30-40 exhibitors and about 300 attendees. Last year there were 1600 attendees, and this year we will welcome more than 200 exhibiting companies.
I’m personally most excited by just hearing from everyone who will be there. It’s tremendously rewarding to hear from industry movers and shakers about what an important space this event has become for the industry.
What would you say to someone who is on the fence about attending?
You won’t know if you don’t go! This is the largest CEA industry gathering!
It’s a tremendous time for networking, discovering new resources and talking to peers. I would never denigrate any other CEA-related shows as each industry event is different, has its own unique profile and offers great value to its audiences. But for your time and money, we offer everything under one roof: education, product resources, networking, and more. It’s an unbeatable value.
Thanks Suzanne! We’ll see you in March.
And once again, don’t forget to register in the next few days to take advantage of huge early bird savings. We can’t wait to see you all at Indoor AgCon to share our big announcement!
