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Hi everyone. I’m Jess Fealy. For those of you who don’t know me, my hubby and I farm at Blue Sky Produce in Mareeba. We grow mangoes, avocados and limes. Sorry about the cat – we’ll get rid of the cat. So I wanted to talk to you about the Future Agro Challenge, it’s an event I’m really passionate about and I think it’s a terrific event that we host here on the Atherton Tablelands and basically where, as part of the competition, we’re looking for the best in the business in Australia who are working in the food, ag tech, food tech space and developing new technology and innovations for Australian farms.

Look, there’s a lot happening in Australian agriculture. I think we’ve gotten a little bit complacent as an industry and the Future Agro Challenge is a really great opportunity for us to come together and have a think about what the future might hold for agriculture and get to see some of the latest technologies and innovations in the farming and food space.

We’ve got some great judges coming to the event this year. So we’ve got Leanne Kemp, Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur and also she has her own multimillion-dollar business, working with blockchain. She’s a great speaker, Leanne with some terrific business advice and just a really down to earth person.

And we also have been Ben van Delden coming who is one of the directors with KPMG Australia and does a lot in the ag-tech and agricultural consulting space. So I think it’s really valuable to have such high profile speakers coming here on the Tablelands and I really encourage everyone to come along and have a listen and check out the finalists and the pitch competition and just really come with an open mind about what the future holds for agriculture and farming here on the Tablelands. See you there!

Hi everyone. I’m Jess Fealy. I’ve been doing some work with Startup Tablelands over the last few years and have my own business – Back Paddock Business and I’m really passionate about rural businesses and startups, particularly in country areas like up here on the Tablelands.

I just wanted to make sure you all knew that Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur, Leanne Kemp is coming to the Tablelands on Saturday the 2nd of November. So there’s a great event happening. It’s only $10 so I’d encourage all business people, startups, want to be business students to come along and meet Leanne, she’s got an amazing business story. She runs a multimillion-dollar business as well as being Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur. So she’s got some great tips and advice to share and she’s just a really down to earth lady, so terrific opportunity to come along and meet her.

I know she’s really keen to get to know as many of us here on the Tablelands as possible.

So book your tickets. It’s only $10. So see you there!

Hi everyone. I’m Jess Fealy for those of you who don’t know me, my hubby and I farm at Blue Sky Produce in Mareeba and I’m very passionate about the Future Agro Challenge Australia event which I’ve been involved with for the last couple of years. So last month I was lucky enough to head over to Greece and attend the Global Future Agro Challenge event, which our Australian Future Agro Challenge feeds into. Now we were really thrilled to have SwarmFarm Robotics who is our winner, our Australian winner from last year, based out of Emerald, come over to Greece and they took part in the pitch competition, battling it out for the title of Global Agripreneur of the Year. It was amazing to kind of see the quality of competitors that are working in the ag and farming startup space and to see the real diversity and variety of ideas that are coming out all over the world, that are working in this space.
And to see Andrew Bate pitch Australian agriculture. So it wasn’t just his business, but it was the terrific things that we do in Australian agriculture to the world. And they took out third place, which was a really well-deserved spot for them. And I think even more so highlighted to the rest of the world that Australia’s really one of the players in this ag-tech ag startup space and to keep their eyes out for us. So we had David Davies the year before who was the founder of AgUnity, a take out the number one position of Global Agripreneur of the Year. So we’re producing some really top quality startups and ag innovators out of Australia and I’m really thrilled that they come to the Tablelands and pitch in our competition and locals up here get to see that quality of business. So come along to the Future Agro Challenge!

Hi everyone. I’m Jess Fealy and for those of you who don’t know me, my hubby and I farm at Blue Sky Produce, our mango, avocado and lime farm in Mareeba and I’ve been involved with the Future Agro Challenge since we first kicked it off up here on the Atherton Tablelands four years ago now. So I just wanted to tell you a little bit about the terrific experience I had in September heading to the Global Future Agro Challenge event in Greece. Now that was a terrific opportunity to head over there and see the best in the world, compete for the title of Global Agripreneur of the Year. But the other terrific thing was to see how many people all over the world are really passionate about agriculture and about solving the problems of food and fibre and farming for the future.

And I think that the agricultural industry is an amazing industry to be a part of. It’s really important for us as human beings but it has some really big challenges heading into the future in terms of what our food’s going to look like, what we’re going to do to keep our environment pristine and available for future generations and to ensure that everybody in the world has enough to eat. So I think that to solve a big problem like that, we need to work together. And so it’s not just Australia, but it’s globally, people all over the world focusing on agriculture and the future of it. And really trying to make sure it’s a vibrant and profitable industry moving forward. So come along to the Future Agro Challenge this year!

Hi everyone. I’m Jess Fealy. For those of you who don’t know me, my hubby and I farm at Blue Sky Produce over in Mareeba.I just wanted to encourage you all to come to this year’s Future Agro Challenge events. So I’ve been involved with the event for the last four years. It’s an Australian national competition, which is hosted here on the Atherton Tablelands, which is a pretty awesome thing in itself. But also it’s an amazing event to get along to. So it’s one of the only pitch competitions in the world that’s hosted on-farm and it feeds into a global competition so the winner of this pitch competition gets to win an expenses-paid trip over to the global agripreneur summit, so last year that was held in Turkey and this year in Greece so it’s a pretty big deal.

And also you get to see some of the best up and coming kind of ag food, food tech businesses in Australia as they battle. And it really is a battle. It’s totally different to other pitch competitions where the contestants have to answer some questions in front of an audience and the judging panel. So they don’t just roll out their pre-prepared spiel. You really get to know them and understand the process that they’ve gone to for building their business.

So it’s a really exciting event to come along to. Skybury is a terrific venue and I’m sure there’ll be amazing food. So make sure you jump online to the Future Agro Challenge Australia Facebook page or website and get your tickets. I’ll see you there!