Insights from the Food Changemakers Think Tank
Here are my key takeaways!
Greetings from Madrid!
I started my Euro adventure here because I was invited to attend KM ZERO Food Innovation Hub’s Changemakers Think Tank!
The event brought together 150 global leaders working on food system transformation in Madrid with the goal of facilitating networking and fostering the foundation for further collaboration in our sector.
As someone that frequently speaks on stage and is passionate about facilitation, it was so nice to be a guest and receive an expertly curated event. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and wanted to share some insights & key learnings with you!
Our day started by visiting Madrid’s centers for food innovation.
We went to La Nave Madrid which supports startups with incubation and acceleration and Madrid Food Innovation Hub which offers state-of-the-art facilities and specialized programs to accelerate foodtech startups and innovative gastronomic projects.
We were hosted by the City Council who provided insight on why Madrid is heavily investing in the future of food and why they see it as a priority for diversifying the city’s economy of the future.
In the afternoon, the official conference program began. The focus was on leveraging the wisdom in the room through small group discussions. I had the pleasure of facilitating the working group on the future of farming with an incredible group of changemakers including EthicHub, Moxē Foods, XFarm, PepsiCo Foundation, Crowd Farming, Regeneration Academy, the Embassay of the Netherlands, and Atlántica Agrícola
Our group discussed challenges, opportunities and recommendations around 3 key areas:
1️⃣ Technology & Digitization in Farming
2️⃣ Climate Change Resilience
3️⃣ Future Jobs & the Next Generation
As a facilitator, my job was to enable the discussion more than share my point of view.
So imagine my joy when the group’s recommendation for attracting the next generation farmers was to make farming sexy & glamorous. This is EXACTLTY why @top50farmers exists. It was incredibly validating to have these global leaders affirm why Top 50 Farmers is so badly needed right now to help grow the sector’s impact!
Here’s a little snippet of my speech summarizing our working group’s findings:
The evening brought a gala and award ceremony honoring Planet FWD, Green Bronx Machine, and Ferran Adrià for their work!
You must watch the below video on how we get the next generation growing and eating amazing food. I can’t wait to see the full feature of this film!
Also… I did not keep my cool when Ferran Adrià walked in to the room.
For me, Ferran is like the Beyonce of food.
The Founder of the legendary restaurant El Bulli and pioneer of molecular gastronomy, he has hugely influenced our industry. This was a bucketlist celebrity moment for me! And of course I got a pic.
I love networking so much so that I hosted a course on Strategic Networking last year. Networking is a core part of my job as an great ecosystem developer.
While I’ve been at this for years, I knew less than 10% of the people at KM Zero’s event. This is ideal and doesn’t happen that often for me! It’s a sign of getting out of one’s own bubble and expanding into new circles, which always opens new opportunities, perspectives, and ideas. I am so grateful for this!
Thanks for reading!
I am going to go and write follow ups now :)
PS: What do you think? Should I bring Strategic Networking back? Would you want to attend this 4-week community accelerator on how to use your network for business development?