Digital Festival 2020
The Women in Food & Agriculture Digital Festival brought together over 600 professionals from across the agri-food industry to explore how to make a measurable impact on gender diversity in our sector, while also inspiring people to address the big challenges we’ll face in the years to come.
40 speakers took part in Live keynote sessions, live Q&A’s, interactive video roundtables and on-demand video content covering the latest developments with will drive food & ag forward.
If you missed the live Digital Festival, you can still watch all the sessions on-demand:
See you in 2021!
Behind every successful woman is a tribe of successful women lifting her up. This is our tribe
“Truly inspiring to hear the diverse perspectives of female leaders within our industry and understand how many of us in our role can make a positive impact towards more sustainable food production.”
2020 WFA attendee
View the Agenda
Day 1
Tuesday 8th December
Solving the Big Challenges in Food and Ag
14.00 GMT – LIVE WELCOME
Join us LIVE on day one of the WFA Digital Festival. Submit your questions, comments and ideas to our keynote speakers, and share comments with other attendees as we welcome you to the event.Â
Jamie Chadwick, Director Editorial, Urner Barry, FoodMarket.com
14.10 GMT – LIVE KEYNOTE: How can the food and agriculture industry step up to feed the world?Â
Hear from Nutritionist and Food Safety Consultant Barbara Bray on how we as an industry can come together to feed our global population in a more effective way.
Barbara Bray MBE, Food Safety Expert & Nutrition Strategist, Alo Solutions
15.00 GMT – PANEL DISCUSSION AND LIVE Q&A – Potential Disruptors to Food and Ag and How to Embrace Them
In this session we will review some of the topics discussed throughout the day to understand the key things that could disrupt food and ag value chains and how we might be able to address these head on and use them to our businesses and industry’s benefit. Submit your questions and have them answered LIVE!Â
Shannon Hauf, Senior Vice President and Head of Seed Production Innovation, Bayer
Laura Himes, Senior Director, Divisional Merchandising Manager, Produce and Floral, Walmart
Saskia Korink, CEO, Trouw Nutrition
16.00 GMT – LIVE NETWORKING: Virtual Roundtables
Attendees are invited to take part in live roundtables; once your chosen roundtable rooms, your room host will divide attendees into smaller working groups of 5-6 people so you can actually interact with other attendees and discuss the topic, before re-joining the main video roundtable room.
- How do we create more robust supply chains? Hosted by Marcio Valentim Moura, Director Global Logistics, Bunge
- How can companies in food and ag use digital tools to create a more sustainable world? Hosted by Viola Choi, Vice President, Global Human Resources Agricultural Solutions, BASF
- How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed our sector? Hosted by Olivia Midgley, Head of News and Business, Farmers Guardian
- What opportunities does data present to our industry? Hosted by Robert Walker, European Growth Officer, Alltech and CEO, KEENANÂ
- Which sustainability issues should the food and agriculture prioritize? Hosted by Jacqueline Pieters, Global Head of Banking for Food Inspiration Centre, Rabobank
- What does a post-Brexit landscape mean for UK food and agriculture? Hosted by Abi Kay, Chief Reporter, Farmers Guardian
17.00 GMT – LIVE NETWORKING – DRINKS RECEPTION
Join our live networking session with digital talking points, games and challenges to connect with fellow festival-goers from around the world
We’ve lined up some fantastic speakers who will deliver hours of extra content you can watch on-demand at any time, covering topics such as:
How can we Decarbonise Agriculture to Tackle Climate Change?
Explore what steps our industry is taking to tackle climate change and what we could do further to address this issue.
Patrick Holden, Founding Director, Sustainable Food Trust
How COVID-19 Impacted Global Trade and What this Means for the Future
Learn about the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on global trade and what this means for the industry.
Lee Ann Jackson, Head of the Agro-Food Trade and Markets Division, OECD
The Potential of Technology in Ag and Food
This session will review case studies focused on advances in technology including data, robotics and AI applications to inspire viewers and show the potential tech has for our industry.
Claudia Roessler, Director of Agriculture, Azure Global Engineering Group, Microsoft
Rebuilding Agriculture’s Reputation
With misconceptions about the impact agriculture is having on our planet, how do we educate, inform and communicate technical details to address the perception of our industry.
Poran Malani, Director S4Capital
Food Systems Transformation- How we Deal with Food Loss and Waste
Examine our industry’s ability to feed the world through creating more efficient food systems.
Geeta Sethi, Advisor and Global Lead for Food Systems, World Bank
INTERVIEW: Meeting Changing Consumer Demands
Hear about how consumer preferences are changing and how we could adapt to meet these shifting demands.
Kate Hardcastle, The Customer Whisperer
INTERVIEW: Strategies to Improve Sustainability in Animal Agriculture
In this fireside chat we discuss how businesses in livestock value chains can put in goals and adopt new approaches to ensure animal agriculture is becoming more sustainable.
Christie Chavis, Vice President, Specialties Business – DSM Animal Nutrition and HealthÂ
Day 2
Wednesday 9th December
Empowering Women in Food & Ag
14.00 GMT – LIVE WELCOME TO DAY 2
Jamie Chadwick, Director Editorial, Urner Barry, FoodMarket.com
14.10 GMT – INSPIRATIONAL KEYNOTE :Â
From Facebook to Farming: A Personal Journey
Hear about what our speaker learned from leaving the tech industry and joining the agribusiness sector and how women in our industry can support each other to progress their careers and the entire sector.
Elizabeth Hernandez, Head of External Affairs and Sustainability, Asia Pacific, Corteva Agriscience and Board Member, WOMAG (Women in Agribusiness)
15.00 GMT – LIVE NETWORKING – VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLES
Attendees are invited to take part in live roundtables; once your chosen roundtable rooms, your room host will divide attendees into smaller working groups of 5-6 people so you can actually interact with other attendees and discuss the topic, before re-joining the main video roundtable room.
- How can we work better with and manage young people in our industry? Hosted by Jane Craigie, Owner, Jane Craigie Marketing and Director and Co-Founder, The Rural Youth Project
- How do we bring and support the next generation of leaders in food and ag? Hosted by Christine Tacon, Chair, Management Development Services (MDS)
- How can we better support women in male-dominated industries? Hosted by Laura Zinger, Sales Manager, Urner Barry and Host, Urner Barry’s Market Digest Podcast Â
- How can we make the industry appealing to young people? Hosted by Lindsay Parker, Territory Sales Manager, Novus InternationalÂ
- How do we boost inclusion in our businesses? Hosted by Ebony Webber, Chief Operating Officer, MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences)
- How can we effectively support employees working from home? Hosted by Nelleke Barning, Vice President Global Communications & External Affairs for Nutrition, DSM
16.00 GMT – LIVE PANEL DISCUSSION – Working to Overcome Diversity Barriers in Food and Ag
In this final session we combine learning from the day to discuss what challenges we are facing in creating a diverse workforce in food and ag, and what solutions we can all implement and work towards to overcome these. Submit your questions and have them answered LIVE! Hosted by Laura Zinger, Sales Manager, Urner Barry & Host, Urner Barry’s Market Digest PodcastÂ
Myriam Beatove, Chief Human Resources Officer, Cargill
Deborah Borg, Chief Human Resources and Communications Officer, Bunge
Rob Sheffer, President and CEO, Zinpro Corporation,
Jennifer Weber, Chief Human Resources Officer, ADM
17:00 GMT – LIVE – Wrap Up and End of Event
We’ve lined up some fantastic speakers who will deliver hours of extra content you can watch on-demand at any time, covering topics such as:
Purpose, Passion and Perception
From innovation to inclusion, how the agribusiness industry can strengthen its positive impact through storytelling.
Dr. Mark Lyons, CEO and President AlltechÂ
PANEL DISCUSSION: How we Encourage a Diverse Group of Young People to Join our Industry
Simone Barg, Vice President, Global Communications Agricultural Solutions, BASFÂ
Anna Jones, Founder Just Farmers
Lindy Nelson, Founder, Agri-Women’s Development Trust
Connecting Under-Represented Groups with the Food and Agriculture Industry
Learn about the positive programmes at Vauxhall City Farm which through effective outreach is helping to teach young people from a range of backgrounds about our sector, to build a more diverse and inclusive food and ag industry of the future.
Monica Tyler, Chief Executive, Vauxhall City Farm
Inspirational Career Stories
Hear from a number of inspirational woman from our sector to learn about their career story and hear advice on how to boost your career
Caroline Keeling CEO, Keelings
Christine Daugherty, Vice President of Sustainability, PepsiCo
INTERVIEW: Beyond Maternity Leave: How Companies Can Support Women Employees?
Gain opinions on what challenges women in our industry are facing, how we as an industry can change this.
Laura Munoz, Associate Director of Product Management, Novus InternationalÂ
WFA Mentor Scheme
Hear about our new mentorship scheme, the benefits to mentors and mentees and how you can sign up
Olympia Theocarous, Head of Content, WFA
