NGMA Spring Meeting Agenda Features Focus On Cannabis, Aquaponics, And More

By Brian D. Sparks|March 16, 2016

Details for the National Greenhouse Manufacturers Association’s Spring Meeting, which takes place April 10-12 in Tucson, AZ, have been announced.

Following a golf event and a welcome reception on Sunday, April 10, the event kicks into high gear the following morning. Monday’s highlights include two presentations:
• “Understanding the Complexity of the Cannabis Farm” presented by Ari Seaman and Eric Senders from iGROW. This session will help equipment and system suppliers understand what specific environments are necessary for this crop and what obstacles need to be overcome to ensure a successful outcome.
• “Introduction to Aquaponics – Efficient, Sustainable and Local” presented by Kevin Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., from the University of Arizona Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science. This session will describe how aquaponics systems are moving from the academic community to backyards, schoolyards, and commercial-scale greenhouses around the world.

During the afternoon, attendees will head to the University of Arizona’s Controlled Environment Agriculture Center (CEAC) for more sessions and a reception. The CEAC supports education, research, and Extension/outreach as part of the Department of Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering and the School of Plant Sciences — both programs of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Tuesday, April 12 features the following presentations:
• “The New Reality of Sales and Business Development: The Rules Have Changed” — Neil Thornton, President of The Thornton Group of Companies, will discuss how business development and growing sales remain top areas of focus and concern for business owners. Customers today have more options at their disposal and consider themselves highly educated and researched. So, how do you compete? Sales teams today require new tools and skills.
• “Expanding Public-Private Partnership Markets & Marketing Niches” — Michael Munday, Managing Director & Chairman of Hungry Planets Systems & Service, LLC, will look at how the University of Arizona’s CEAC has engaged in a number of public-private partnerships to expand knowledge of UA-CEAC itself and the integrated greenhouse growing, research, and results its faculty, staff, students, and partners produce. In conjunction with UA-CEAC partner Hungry Planets Systems & Service, LLC, UA-CEAC has expanded its live and mediated audiences to the millions, and has created market and marketing niches with increasing impact. This presentation discusses a selection of those opportunities.
• “Structural and Supplier Presentations and Discussion/NGMA Member Presentations” — This session will allow several companies to address the group. The focus will be on projects currently underway, the technology being applied, and/or the problems addressed and solved during the process.

Registration for the Spring Meeting is now open.