The third successful in-person meeting of the one-year-old Women in AgTech (WiAT) was held on Monday prior to the kick off of Tech Hub LIVE in Des Moines. Attendance at the WiAT was strong and very diverse, with first-time attendees, new women in the ag tech space, and plenty of experienced professionals to share their career journeys.
Keynote speaker Wendy Srnic, Vice President of Biotechnology for Corteva Agriscience, provided the group with a good working knowledge of what gene editing is, and what it is not, so they can be informed as the technology is more widely adopted.
“In issues like technology and food, women are the thought leaders,” said Srnic, who brought her 13-year-old daughter Mirjana and many of her female Corteva colleagues to the WiAT meeting. “Women are concerned about feeding their families healthy food and they want to know what goes into producing those foods…there will be gene edited foods available to select, it’s already starting to enter the marketplace.”
“Turning networking on its head” was the intriguing title for remarks from Jacquelin Kiple of John Deere who gave everyone some interesting new ideas to consider when it comes to your professional network.
“I have grown exponentially because of people I have met through my network, projects I would never have been offered and opportunities to learn and do something different,”” said Kiple.
2024 THL WiAT speaker Jacqueline Kiple, Deere 4:28Women in Ag Tech held its first in-person meeting at the 2023 Tech Hub LIVE conference and the second at the VISION conference in January. All women working in the agricultural technology space are welcome to join. Find out more here.