Over 30 producers, students, researchers and innovators turned out in force recently to take part in the Farmers2Founders workshop held at the AgriTech Incubator at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga.
The workshops are part of a series of national agricultural entrepreneurship development workshops that are part of a larger program developed by Farmers2Founders (F2F) co-founders Dr. Christine Pitt and Sarah Nolet.
The business partners aim to expose farmers to the latest information on emerging agriculture, food and fibre technologies, supporting farmers to transform their businesses both on-farm and through post farm-gate innovations.
Co-founder Sarah Nolet said the workshop held at Wagga Wagga was one of 15 workshops which will be delivered across regional Australia.
"This workshop is part of Founders2Farmers and is about exposing producers to some of the trends that are happening more broadly in technology and with consumers," she said.
"We discuss pathways and opportunities to become involved."
Ms Nolet said that could include building a solution, or becoming involved in helping tailor a solution or procuring a solution from existing providers.
"We assist people in responding to some of the trends that are happening in the tech world," she said.
Ms Nolet has witnessed the building of a lot of technology products which she said haven't really hit the mark, failing to attract attention because no one really wanted them or didn't actually solve a problem.
"We started this business because we think by starting with the problems and understanding what challenges the producers have and then talking about the businesses and technologies we can actually solve the problem," she said.
"So these workshops are about giving producers the tools and the techniques to start with the problem and to get them involved with helping to create or catalyze solutions that solve the problem."
Ms Nolet said the concept is adaptable to all agricultural pursuits.
"We think a lot of the tools and the techniques apply broadly and in particular supported by wool, wine, red meat, AgriFutures and grains," she said.
"They are the focus industries for this first year but at the workshops we've had producers from all kinds of industries."
They have all gotten value from the shared knowledge, Ms Nolet said.
