Seeds&Chips 2019

The Fifth Edition of The Global Summit Showcases International Expansion  

Kicking off on May 6 at Rho FieraMilano, the next edition will welcome world renowned guests, hundreds of speakers, and conference sessions discussing food, innovation, and the planet’s most pressing challenges.  

In 2019, Seeds&Chips will also be a part of the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco (January 2019) and New York (June 2019)  

Global goals: in September 2019, the first Australian edition of the Summit will take place in Melbourne, and plans are in the works for Africa and China

Milan, 9 October 2018 - The fifth edition of Seeds&Chips, The Global Food Innovation Summit, the most important international event dedicated to Food Innovation, was presented today, with the exceptional institutional support of the Lombardy Region. 

From the 39th floor of Palazzo Lombardia, the announcement of latest edition of the Summit was welcomed by consulates representing countries from all corners of the world: Ecuador, Uruguay, Slovenia, Turkey, Lebanon, Algeria, Tunisia, Brazil, USA, Australia, Romania, Kuwait, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Lithuania, Israel, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Argentina and Finland. The President of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, delivered a video message of greetings and thanks to the assembled audience, while onstage, speeches were delivered by Walid Haidar, Dean of the Consular Corps and Consul General of Lebanon in Milan; Marco Gualtieri, Founder and President of Seeds&Chips; Alessandro La Volpe, Vice President of IBM Cloud, and Alan Christian Rizzi, Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Lombardy Region responsible for relations with international delegations.

With this united front, the Region of Lombardy and Seeds&Chips demonstrated their unity to guiding the future of food system both in Italy and the world; indeed, with the city of Milan as the central point of the debate, this theme was the most important takeaway. Lombardy was the driving force behind Expo Milano 2015 and The Global Food Innovation Summit, born and bred in the region’s capital, is a testament to its legacy, its message and its global reach.

"It is a great privilege for us to receive the both support and concrete backing of the Region of Lombardy and to thus have a crucial partner to carry forward the legacy of Expo Milano 2015 - said Marco Gualtieri, Founder and Chairman of Seeds&Chips. For the first time, the world has placed a conversation about food at the center of an enormous matrix including the challenges linked to the growth of the world population, climate change, urbanization, and to a fundamental word for today and for the next decades: sustainability. I have always considered Expo to have been a huge success but, to be such, we must continue to carry forward those themes and all that they represent, never forgetting to keep both Milan and Italy in the center. In the same year that Expo took place, in New York the United Nations approved the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and in Paris almost all the countries of the world signed the Cop21 agreement to combat climate change.

Together, these milestones generated an epoch-defining transformation that crossed every economic sector, each united by the concept of sustainability and with food as the transversal and dominant factor. We created the first edition of Seeds&Chips with the knowledge that it was essential to represent and enhance this transformation as well as establishing three fundamental pillars: the presence and the real and practical involvement of young people including both Millennials and teenagers, the continuous research and presentation of solutions and new models, and a strong international identity. This fifth edition of Seeds&Chips will be a new starting point: much has been done, but much remains to be done ".

"Seeds&Chips has helped to maintain a healthy and articulate debate on the issues that emerged during Expo Milano 2015, thus representing the natural evolution of that first step”, added Alan Christian Rizzi, Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Lombardy Region with responsibility for relations with international delegations. “Food security and food safety, the fight against food waste, agricultural sustainability: these are issues that our regional government is determined to tackle with the urgency they deserve. An event like Seeds&Chips stimulates this discourse through the involvement of experts and authorities from all over the world. Lombardy is the largest agricultural region of Italy, and an area with a storied culinary tradition of food and wine, with dozens of certified products.

The growth and prosperity of the agri-food sector cannot, however, ignore elements such as innovation and research, which are now essential for competing in an increasingly fierce market. The combination of agri-food, research and business in Lombardy is very strong. One example is the High Technology Agrifood Lombardy Cluster, which creates synergies between major universities, large companies, SMEs and regional research institutions to explore the new possibilities of agritech and industry 4.0. Milan, the capital of the region, also hosts 10% of startups in the Italian food sector, with 8.5% located in or around Bergamo. These are the elements we want to enhance and develop.” 

A GLOBAL VISION

Seeds&Chips 2019 will take place from 6 to 9 May at FieraMilano Rho, running concurrently with TUTTOFOOD. Over four days, the Summit will host conference sessions and meetings on the major topics related to food and innovation around the globe, from climate change to robotics, from e-commerce to precision agriculture, and from food waste to the circular economy, among many other themes. An exhibition hall will allow start-ups, companies, accelerators and incubators to present and showcase their projects, while hundreds of international speakers, investors and policy makers from all over the world will discuss major global challenges.

Following the success of the last edition’s WaterFirst! Call for Ideas, which gathered more than 65 projects from countries on 4 continents, a special focus will once again be placed on the theme of water, one of the biggest global challenges in the coming years.

The Global Food Innovation Summit recently announced their partnership with the Government of the State of Victoria and Food + Wine Victoria to create Seeds&Chips Australia in the city of Melbourne in September 2019. It will be an international event focused on innovation in agrifood, with the goal of becoming the standard bearer for food innovation not only in Australia, but throughout Southeast Asia. The event will feature sessions, debates, forums, workshops, business meetings and awards, to give a 360 ° view of food and innovation.

Seeds&Chips has already signed a three-year joint venture agreement with the Specialty Food Association, the American organization behind the Fancy Food Show, the oldest and most well-known American event dedicated solely to food. Beginning in 2018, Seeds&Chips will have a significant presence at the both the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco and the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. The next edition of the show takes place in San Francisco in January 2019, and in New York in June 2019.

The fifth edition of the Summit in Milan will welcome institutions, companies and startups from scores of countries around the world. Australia, Germany, Holland, Israel, San Marino and Slovenia are among the first confirmed for 2019.

In addition, several African countries as well as China will have an important part to play in the upcoming Summit. These regions are strategically vital in developing best practices related to environmental stability, innovation, and the global food chain. Seeds&Chips is also in talks with representatives of these regions to develop international agreements and working relationships. 

MILLENNIALS AND GENERATION Z

As always, young people are the real heroes of Seeds&Chips. However, it is not only millennials but the emerging “Generation Z” of teenagers who have a vital role to play.  The fifth edition of the Summit will provide even more opportunities for engagement for young people and teens with a range of innovative formats and programs. Each conference will have at least one speaker at the under the age of 30 and will be opened by a Teenovator, activists from 13 to 19 years old who are particularly active in food innovation and the food revolution. Young innovators will also have the chance to participate in the Give Me 5! program, where they will meet with global leaders one on one for 5 minutes and propose their projects, ask questions, and gain inspiration for the future.

INVITED GUESTS AND SPEAKERS

A number of international speakers are already confirmed to join the fifth edition of the Global Food Innovation Summit, with many more to follow. Among those scheduled to speak: Howard Yana Shapiro, Chief Agriculture Officer, Mars Incorporated; Giovanni Battistini, Senior Vice President, Open Innovation Science, Ferrero; Alexandre Bastos, Director of Global Innovation, Givaudan International; Danielle Nierenberg, President, Food Tank, Andrew Ive, Founder, Big Ideas Ventures; Victor E. Friedberg, Co-Founder,  S2G Ventures and Founder and Chairman, FoodShot Global; Bernardo Hernández, Entrepreneur e Executive Chairman, Citibox; HRH Princess Viktoria de Bourbon de Parme and Donald Kaberuka, president of the African Development Bank until 2015 and current president of the Global Advisory Council, Africa Leadership University, and member of the Board of Trustees , Rockefeller Foundation.

In addition, representatives of the largest food innovation centers will participate at the Summit, such Natalie Shmulik, CEO The Hatchery Chicago and Angeline Achariya, CEO, Monash Food Innovation Centre.

Finally, Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria, will be among the global leaders present at the fifth edition of the Global Food Innovation Summit, along with representatives of the Forum of Kings, the organization that brings together Princes, Sheikhs and leaders of African countries around the themes of peace, economic development and sociocultural cooperation. 

Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit, founded by entrepreneur Marco Gualtieri, is the premier Food Innovation event in the world.  An exceptional showcase entirely dedicated to the promotion of technology, solutions and talent from all over the world, the Summit features an exhibition hall and a complete conference schedule discussing the innovations that are changing the way food is produced, transformed, distributed, consumed and discussed. The third edition of Seeds & Chips, The Global Food Innovation Summit, featured President Barack H. Obama as a keynote speaker in his first post presidency appearance. The 2017 event featured 300 global speakers, over 240 exhibitors, 15800 visitors and recorded 131 million social impressions over 4 days. The fourth edition of Seeds & Chips featured keynote addresses from John Kerry, 68th Secretary of the United States of America, and Howard Schultz, Executive Chairman of Starbucks. The 5th edition of Seeds & Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit will be held at FieraMilano Rho, from 6 to 9 May 2019.