Pre Event Activities – Sunday October 6 2024

Opening Night Welcome Drinks

Kick off the Summit in style: meet your fellow attendees, speakers and the event’s organisers. This is the ideal way to make early connections and get the most out of the rest of the Summit ahead of the following day.

Monday October 7 2024

LEADERSHIP SESSION: How to be an Effective Female Leader in Food and Agriculture

• Progressing your career in a male-dominated environment
• The challenges faced by women moving into more senior positions.
• Battling imposter syndrome
• Maintaining authenticity during difficult situations

Linda M Femling, Director Food Programs – The Americas, Google

Strategies to Better Communicate, Persuade and Story Tell

• The art of storytelling and how effective communication can influence perceptions and drive positive change in food and agriculture
• Understanding which communication style to apply to different situations
• How to negotiate effectively
• How to become more persuasive
• Communication in challenging and conflict situations

Julia Stamberger, President, Founder & Director, Planting Hope Brands LLC

Becoming More Resilient and Bouncing Back from Adversity

• The challenges we face as women in the workforce and how resilience can help us to overcome them
• Where resilience comes from
• Improving resilience building – how we bounce back

Denitresse Ferrell, Founder & CEO, Culture Refinery

CASE STUDY PANEL: How to Ensure Truly Inclusive Leadership

• Best practice examples of inclusive leadership in the food and agriculture sector
• How to convince senior executives that diversity, equality and inclusion is worth investing in
• How to create the next pipeline of female leaders.
• Effective mentorship – how to best support and champion women in the workplace

Elzandi Oosthuizen, Snr VP Head of Enterprise Corn Product Team, Bayer

Orla McAleer, Chief Culture Officer, Alltech

Husein Kitabwalla, CEO, North America Service Operations and Food Transformation, Sodexo

Kalica Moura, Senior Director, Produce Sourcing, Walmart

INTERACTIVE SKILLS WORKSHOPS

Join one of our interactive workshop sessions for a discussion on a topic of interest that will develop your skills and career. Learn from other food and agriculture professionals around you and share your views and experiences while networking and meeting new people.

Attendees will choose one of the following:

• How to build connections and network effectively- Tosin Jack, Director Market Reporting, Expana
• Building Confidence and Tackling Imposter Syndrome– Avery Krempp, Organizational Development Specialist, Farbest Foods
• How to develop your executive presence and personal brand- Camille Batiste, Former Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain & Procurement, ADM
• How to have difficult conversations successfully (An interactive session utilizing AI and VR Headsets)– Cortney Harding, Head of Immersive Content, Virti

 PANEL DISCUSSION: The Evolving Landscape of Work and How we Adapt to This

• Anticipated changes in the future of work for the food and agriculture sector
• How the idea of the ‘workplace’ will change over the coming years
• What the next generations want from their jobs and careers
• Taking on board the perspectives of different generations in the workplace
• How we best support an aging workforce
• Preparing yourself and your business for what the working world becomes

Simon Walley, President for Animal Nutrition in North America, ADM

Ebony Webber, CEO, MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences)

Ashley Quaintance, Vice President General Manager, TreeHouse Foods

CLOSING KEYNOTE: Overcoming Adversity – Stories from an Inspirational Leader in Food and Ag

Featuring Ertharin Cousin, Founder and CEO, Food Systems for the Future and Former Executive Director, United Nations’ World Food Programme

Hear from a leader from the food and agriculture sector on challenges they have overcome and what they have learnt over their career.

Ertharin Cousin has spent a distinguished career in both the agri-food industry and the public sector. She worked as the Executive Director of the UN’s World Food Programme for a number of years and prior to that for industry giant Albertsons. Ertharin is now the CEO of Food Systems for the Future, as well as a Board Director for both Mondelēz International and Bayer.

In this thought-provoking session she will share experiences and advice from her career and offer views on what we need to prioritize as the agri-food sector.