Agenda & Speakers

Grower Chats: Building Resilient Operations
Join CEAg World editors in candid, one-on-one conversations with leaders in controlled environment agriculture. These informal sessions offer firsthand insights into the challenges, breakthroughs, and everyday decisions shaping modern production—no slides, no scripts, just honest dialogue. 

10:00–10:10 AM
Grow with Us: Hundred Acre's Journey from Seed to Sale.
How a Milwaukee vertical farm is tackling food insecurity while building a pipeline of skilled workers through hyperlocal CEA.

Chris Corkery, Founder, CEO 
Hundred Acre

10:15–10:25 AM
The $250K to $1M Leap
How Piedmont Microgreens is scaling production, sales channels, and operations to quadruple revenue — lessons for small farms with big ambitions.

Garrett Corwin, Founder and Farmer, Piedmont Microgreens

10:30–11:10 AM
Breed for Success: Seed Selection and Breeding Strategies that Boost Yield, Quality, and ROI
Explore the cutting-edge work in seed breeding and genetics that’s shaping the future of controlled environment agriculture. From developing virus-resistant varieties like those targeting Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus to tailoring crops for CEA systems, this session dives into how new genetics are unlocking better performance, resilience, and market potential. 

Grower Chats: Building Resilient Operations
Join CEAg World editors in candid, one-on-one conversations with leaders in controlled environment agriculture. These informal sessions offer firsthand insights into the challenges, breakthroughs, and everyday decisions shaping modern production—no slides, no scripts, just honest dialogue. 

1:00–1:10 PM
From Blueprint to Bounty: Ellijay Mushrooms One Year Later
Howard Berk returns to share how his vision for a state-of-the-art mushroom facility has flourished over the past year—covering what worked, what surprised him, and what’s next for the farm’s growth and innovation.

Howard Berk, President / Co-Founder, Ellijay Mushrooms

1:15–1:25 PM
Dollars and Sense: Turning Farm Data into Smart Financial Decisions
Explore how growers can use budgets, KPIs, and simple financial models to guide investments, cut waste, and improve profitability at any scale.

Trevor Gibson, CFO/Controller, Equinox Growers

1:30–1:40 PM
Aquaponics and A New Way of Thinking
Discover how aquaponics can serve as a powerful educational tool, helping cultivate smarter, healthier, and more compassionate people.

Sam Fleming, Executive Director, 100 Gardens

Labor-Smart Growing: Tools and Strategies to Do More with Less
Labor shortages and high turnover are pushing CEA operations to rethink how work gets done. This session highlights practical tools, automation solutions, and workflow strategies that help growers boost productivity through cross-training, smarter systems, and labor-saving innovations. 

From Farm to Buyer: What Distributors Really Want
What are distributors looking for in today’s evolving food system—and how can CEA producers of all sizes stand out? Explore what drives purchasing decisions, from sustainability and regional sourcing to consumer expectations and tariff concerns. Hear directly from those on the front lines of getting fresh food to market. 

Grower Chats: Building Resilient Operations
Join CEAg World editors in candid, one-on-one conversations with leaders in controlled environment agriculture. These informal sessions offer firsthand insights into the challenges, breakthroughs, and everyday decisions shaping modern production—no slides, no scripts, just honest dialogue. 

3:35-3:45 PM
The Microgreen Advantage: Flavor, Safety, and Scale
Explore how Farming Turtles carved out a niche with certified organic, food-safe microgreens grown in greenhouses on a 22-acre farm in Rhode Island.

Nick Testa
Director of Cultivation
Farming Turtles

3:45-3:55 PM
Winning with Retail and Food Service Buyers
Insights on what buyers really want, how to build strong go-to-market partnerships, and how CEA growers can stand out in a crowded produce category

Marc Oshima
Chief Executive Officer
Babylon Micro-Farms

Hybrid Production Systems: Choosing the Right Fit for Your Farm
From stacked vertical farms to hybrid models that blend greenhouse and indoor elements, controlled environment systems come in many forms—each with its own strengths and trade-offs. This session breaks down key system types, how they perform in different climates and markets, and what to consider when scaling or switching. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of which system aligns best with their goals, resources, and crops.

Art van Rijn
Founder & President
Artechno

 Session Sponsored by

Smart Crop Selection: Matching Plants to Markets, Systems, and Regions
Success in CEA starts with choosing the right crops—and the right varieties. This session explores how to identify high-value crops, navigate trends in consumer demand, and work with breeders and seed companies to find varieties suited to your region and growing system. You’ll gain insights into patent-protected genetics, variety trials, and the resources available to help you make informed, profitable crop decisions. 

Tom Stenzel

Executive Director
CEA Alliance

Kristin D. Zeit

Content Lead
CEAg World

Roundtable Discussions: Practical Ideas from the Ground Up 
After the keynote, pull up a chair and join fellow growers for direct, small group conversations on real challenges in CEA. It’s a chance to ask questions, share your experiences, and walk away with insights you can use. 

1. CEA Problem Solving Clinic – Ask Me Anything
Join an interactive small-group clinic where an experienced CEA grower and advisor answers your toughest questions on profitability, choosing and sizing the right system, defining scale for small farms, and adjusting crop selection seasonally, among other essential topics for CEA growers.

Paul Brentlinger, CEO, CropKing Inc.

2. Growing Communities: Hyperlocal CEA in a Circular Economy
Join fellow growers to explore how vertical farms can balance market fit, community partnerships, and workforce development while staying sustainable.

Chris Corkery, Founder, CEO, Hundred Acre

3. Food Safety Fast Track: What You Need to Know (and When It Applies)
Food safety in CEA isn’t one-size-fits-all. In this interactive discussion, we’ll unpack how compliance requirements change with farm size, structure, and sales volume—helping you compare notes with peers and leave with a clearer path to staying audit-ready as you grow.

Nick Testa, Director of Cultivation, Farming Turtles

4. Cooling the Chaos: Lessons Learned from CEA HVAC Projects
Explore common pitfalls in new builds and retrofits, why vertical farming adds unique HVAC challenges, and how growers can set projects up for success.

Erika Summers, Business Development and Sales Manager, AGronomic IQ

Session Sponsored by

5. Beyond Uniformity: Tailoring Light to Crop, Stage, and Market
Join us for a real-world conversation about the next evolution in greenhouse lighting — adapting your spectrum to fit each crop, stage, and market need for better results and fewer compromises.

Matt Bonavita, VP Sales, US, Sollum Technologies

Session Sponsored by

CEA Pulse Check 2025: Insights from the Global CEA Census
This year’s CEA Census, developed with Agritecture, is our most ambitious yet. As climate pressure, market volatility, and new technologies reshape the agricultural landscape, we’re asking: what does it really take to run an economically viable, future-ready CEA business today?

How are farmers managing costs, pricing, and profitability? Where is AI already being used? What’s helping—or holding it back—from delivering real value on the ground? Use our data-backed insights to guide your next move! 

Henry Gordon-Smith

Founder & CEO
Agritecture

Building the Framework: Codes, Standards, and the Future of U.S. CEA
For controlled environment agriculture to scale nationally, the U.S. needs a unified approach to codes, permitting, and education. This session offers a fast-paced, TED Talk-style update on emerging standards, zoning and permitting challenges, and the influential players shaping the regulatory landscape. Attendees will gain clarity on how to navigate current barriers, get involved in standards development, and prepare for upcoming code cycles—including lighting and DLI requirements. If you’re building or expanding in the U.S., this is the session you can’t afford to miss.

Gretchen Schimelpfenig

Executive Director, Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) and Senior Energy Engineer, Energy Resources Integration

Session Developed in Collaboration with