Business Environment

Novo Holdings announces investment in AgNext Technologies

Novo Holdings announced that it has led an investment in AgNext Technologies Private Limited, a breakthrough agricultural and food technology company enhancing trust along the food chains by innovating artificial intelligence-based food quality assessment technologies. Founded in 2016 with operations in India and Abu Dhabi, UAE, AgNext Technologies is committed to advancing, scaling, and commercialising an integrated platform for rapid, precise, cost-effective and portable food quality evaluations, benefiting all stakeholders across the agricultural value chain. By digitising quality assessment, the company is establishing benchmarks for ensuring transparency in food transactions from origination to consumption. The company has built scalable models providing fair pricing in food chains, usage of unadulterated crop inputs, quality-assessed procurement for businesses and consumption of safe unadulterated food across food chains notably in grains, pulses, oilseeds, spices and herbs. AgNext's solutions also significantly enhance efficiency and profitability within the food ecosystem. This latest funding round will support the company's efforts to further develop technologies for food quality assessments and enable the building of a team that will scale its product sales internationally and into new food segments. The deal also marks the first Asia investment in the planetary health sector for Novo Holdings, supporting its broader strategic goal of making investments that address planetary health and drive the green transition – to feed a growing world population, fight climate change and create sustainable cities. Dr Amit Kakar, Managing Partner and Head, Novo Holdings Asia, said: "This investment presents an exciting opportunity for Novo Holdings to collaborate with AgNext's management team in markets with unmet needs, prioritising both organic and inorganic growth in the food and agritech space in the near and long term. With an innovative technology offering, AgNext is poised to capture opportunities to grow its business across various sectors and regions. Further, the company's focus on unique and customised solutions aligns well with our vision of supporting transformative technologies in the bioindustrial and planetary health sector." Navjeewan Khosla, Partner, Novo Holdings Asia, added: "The food quality testing industry in India is driven by solid growth in the broader agricultural industry as well as a growing focus on quality control. With our investment in AgNext, we look forward to working closely with the company on its growth journey, leveraging our expertise and network to drive innovation and sustainable impact in the agritech space." Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, Founder and CEO, AgNext Technologies, said: "We at AgNext have been focused on digitising food chains enabling greater transparency and profitability for stakeholders. We are delighted to welcome Novo Holdings as an investor. Their global outlook and deep sector expertise will be valuable in supporting our mission of consolidating and integrating the best technologies for building the next generation in global food chains." Deepa Hingorani, Partner, Planetary Health Investments, Novo Holdings Asia, concluded: "Asia offers compelling opportunities for Novo Holdings to scale up its investments in infrastructure within bioindustrials and planetary health. By investing in these areas, we aim to support our companies in their growth and ambitions to make an impact on people and planet."

Global Employee Engagement Stagnated and Wellbeing Declined in 2023: Report

Gallup's latest State of the Global Workplace report finds that global employee engagement stagnated and employee wellbeing declined in 2023 after multiple years of steady gains. The result is that the majority of the world's employees continue to struggle at work and in life, with direct consequences for organizational productivity. The findings reveal a diverse and intricate picture across various nations in the Sub-Saharan region across multiple metrics. The report shows that one in five employees in the Sub-Saharan region are engaged at work, compared to the global average of 23%. In South Africa, 29% are engaged; in Tanzania, 31%; and in Kenya, 18%, but Senegal shows significantly higher rates at 40%. The Role of Work in Employee Mental Health and Wellbeing Employee engagement is a significant factor in overall life experiences. Not all mental health issues are related to work, but work is a factor in life evaluations and daily emotions. Addressing employee mental health, in part, requires support for thriving in life and engagement at work. In Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly half of all employees (48%) report experiencing stress a lot the previous day, marking a two-percentage-point increase from 2022 and higher than the global rate of 41%. In South Africa, 32% report experiencing stress, compared to 34% in Kenya, 46% in Senegal and 40% in Zambia, which is much higher than the 25% of employees in Zimbabwe. The regional rate of 28% for those experiencing sadness is higher than the global rate of 22%, but the picture is quite nuanced across the region. While in South Africa and Senegal, 20% of employees report experiencing sadness a lot of the previous day, 23% in Kenya do so, 24% in Tanzania, 28% in Zambia, 36% in Gambia and 37% in Togo. A significantly lower 15% report sadness in Mauritius and 16% in Namibia, while Guinea is much higher at 49%. Gallup finds that 20% of the world's employees experienced loneliness a lot the previous day. Social isolation and chronic loneliness have a devastating effect on physical and mental health but work itself decreases loneliness. In general, working adults are less lonely than the global average. Findings show that Sub-Saharan Africa has the second-highest regional percentage of employees experiencing loneliness. Nearly one in three in the region (28%) felt lonely a lot the previous day, compared to 22% globally. The Second-Lowest Regional Percentage of Thriving Employees Gallup's wellbeing item measures overall life evaluation by combining present and future self-reflection. Compared to the global rate of 34% of employees thriving in their overall lives, in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 17% are. Significantly higher than the regional average, 32% are thriving in South Africa and 27% in Senegal, while fewer employees are in Kenya (16%) and Tanzania (14%). Only 8% are thriving in Sierra Leone. The negative trends in life evaluations parallel decreasing confidence among employees regarding several countries' job markets. While 49% in the region think it is a good time to find a job, marking a one-percentage-point decrease from last year, 75% are watching for or actively seeking a new job. This rate greatly exceeds the global rate of 52%. In South Africa, however, just over half of employees (56%) are watching for opportunities or actively seeking a new job. In Kenya, 81% of employees report doing so, 88% in Sierra Leone, 68% in Senegal, 63% in Namibia and 71% in Ghana. The global workplace has changed since 2020. The rise in hybrid work for remote-capable employees has made people management more complicated. When organizations increase the number of employees who are engaged at work, it improves a host of organizational outcomes. There remains a vast potential for workplaces in Africa to address employee engagement and wellbeing, but the diversity of findings confirms that the underlying factors can vary significantly from one country to another.

CareFlash Unveils Careopolis and Kiddopolis: Pioneering "Whole Person" Employee Empowerment

In a groundbreaking initiative, Careopolis and Kiddopolis represent a paradigm shift that redefines workplace culture. Founded in 2005 by Jay Drayer, CareFlash offers Careopolis and Kiddopolis, innovative platforms spearheading a movement toward "whole person" employee empowerment. These platforms transform the way organizations empower employees and loved ones through life's most challenging journeys. As organizations prioritize the holistic support of employees, these solutions stand at the forefront, fostering a culture of compassion, strength and resilience through the interconnectedness of personal and professional well-being. "An organization's culture is not its mission statement, the words on its website or the posters on its walls. Its culture is instead how its people feel on Sunday night," remarks Jay Drayer, reflecting on his experiences within corporate cultures as an ex-CFO. Drayer's journey began as he witnessed colleagues grappling with the strains of caregiving, often around ailing loved ones. These experiences laid the foundation for Careopolis and Kiddopolis, born from a deep understanding of the impacts of stress and caregiver burnout on employee engagement, workplace morale and overall well-being. "Careopolis and Kiddopolis offer something truly unique and valuable to the transformation of workplace culture by prioritizing the holistic well-being of employees and loved ones," adds Tom Cunningham, former Chief People Officer of Pariveda Solutions. "These online "caring community" platforms provide a space for families to collaborate and support one another through life's challenging moments." Key features in both Careopolis and Kiddopolis are a collaboration calendar, interactive storytelling tools, 3-D medical animations, community blogs and photo/video sharing tools. Kiddopolis is set apart from Careopolis by its focus on challenges and joys surrounding maternity, pediatric illness and child development. By addressing the diverse needs of families, each solution ensures employees feel supported at every stage of their personal and professional journeys. Dr. Steve Paulson, Texas Oncology CEO adds, "beyond enhancing connections among loved ones, Careopolis and Kiddopolis exemplify Texas Oncology's mission, core values and commitment to innovation by strengthening resilience and peace-of-mind. Caregiving is one of the biggest destroyers of workplace engagement and morale. Careopolis and Kiddopolis are important in empowering the "whole person" throughout journeys that accompany involved illnesses. Quality empowerment for our patients and their loved ones, and our team come first at Texas Oncology, and this longstanding collaboration elevates this commitment even higher." "Austin Regional Clinic has partnered with CareFlash since 2018 and we have been impressed by the growing numbers of families using the Careopolis tool and touched by their personal stories", added Heidi Shalev, Austin Regional Clinic VP Marketing, Communications and Engagement. "The growth curve of the number of sites and number of engaged users, which now exceeds 240,000, reflects how much people find the tool helpful and even needed. We value the importance of keeping loved ones connected and supported through life's most challenging circumstances."

Leadership, benefits, and technology risks top of mind for risk and HR professionals surveyed by Mercer and Marsh

Mercer and Marsh, businesses of Marsh McLennan, the world’s leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people, released today their US People Risk 2024 Report. Based on responses from more than 1,000 risk and HR professionals nationwide, the survey revealed that ineffective leadership is viewed as the biggest people risk facing organizations today, followed by improper rewards decision making, and increasing health and benefit costs. Risk managers also identified a lack of cybersecurity knowledge and mismanagement of AI as key people threats in 2024. “The breadth and depth of intersecting risks organizations face today is staggering,” said Susan Potter, Mercer’s US and Canada Region President. “People are an organization’s most important asset, but they can also expose organizations to risk without the right culture, policies, and training. By taking a proactive, predictive, and disciplined approach to people risk management, businesses will be better prepared to help their people and businesses thrive in this increasingly complex risk environment.” Risk and HR managers have several concerns related to ineffective leadership at their organizations. According to the report, a third (34%) of employers are concerned about significant dependencies on key people and inadequate succession planning. Only 30% feel they currently have an effective workforce strategy where talent can be acquired, grown, and deployed based on skills. Additionally, one out of three (35%) respondents say they are concerned ineffective leadership will lead to negative organizational culture or work environment, tense team dynamics, and mistrust. A recent Mercer survey showed that the average per-employee cost of employer-sponsored health insurance rose by 5.2% in 2023. The People Risk Report finds more than one in three risk and HR professionals are concerned about significantly increasing medical costs beyond general inflation. Nearly a quarter (24%) said their organizations do not have an articulated cost containment strategy in place, and 37% cited concerns about limited available strategies to control costs beyond benefit reduction. Risk and HR managers also cited concerns regarding improper rewards decision making, the second most highly-ranked risk for both HR managers and the US overall. Four in ten shared concerns with making benefit decisions without considering long-term cost impact, and 39% voiced concerns about making benefit decisions without considering the impact on employees. Nearly half (43%) of respondents said they are concerned about the increased risk of cyber-attacks due to lack of cybersecurity awareness among their people, and 34% said they are concerned with employees’ over-reliance on and complete trust in AI-generated content. Despite these challenges, 97% of risk and HR managers say their organization is collaborating to mitigate various people risks, and respondents at organizations with a great deal of collaboration overwhelmingly report higher numbers of risks being managed “very well.” The results indicate that the stronger the partnership between risk and HR teams, the more effective risk mitigation measures will be. “Leaders should encourage risk and HR professionals to work together to build a risk management culture,” commented Michelle Sartain, Marsh’s US and Canada President. “Through collaboration, they can better analyze and address the people risks inherent in the business environment.”

Hazel Technologies Honored as One of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Companies"

Hazel Technologies Inc., a Chicago-based technology company delivering solutions for fresh produce to extend shelf-life, increase sales, and combat food waste, was recently named to Fast Company magazine's prestigious "Most Innovative Companies" list. Recognized in the Agriculture category for its success reducing food waste for many of the world's biggest produce companies, Hazel Technologies and the other honorees will be recognized at a special Fast Company Most Innovative Companies gala taking place tonight at the Pavilion at North Javits in New York City. Fast Company described Hazel Technologies as part of, "a burgeoning category of AgTech products that promise to keep fruit and veggies fresh along the supply chain." However, according to Fast Company, what differentiated Hazel from its competitors was its ease-of-use, "while most solutions more closely resemble wax coatings or an eco-friendly plastic wrap and require producers and distributors to buy equipment, train workers, then burn time applying them, Hazel's inconspicuous Hazel 100 sachets are designed for the supply chain as it is." Just drop the sachet into a box or bin of produce before shipping or storage and you're done. To date, Hazel's solutions have treated over 5 billion pounds of produce, helping to eliminate an estimated 400 million pounds of waste. In the year ahead, Hazel aims to take that impact to even greater heights as it prepares to extend into the fast-growing Canada market. The crops in focus for the Canada market include apples, pears, cherries and other stone fruit for its Hazel 100 product, and cucumbers, peppers and cherries for its Breatheway offering. Helping lead Hazel's northward expansion is Ben Axell, Hazel's Key Accounts Director, Mike Russell, Territory Manager for the Pacific Northwest Region & British Columbia, and Joe Parker, U.S. Account Executive, who will oversee Canada's Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia provinces. "Like everywhere else in the world, food waste is a big problem in Canada," explained Russell. "According to estimates, roughly 60% of all food produced in Canada ends up in a landfill. Most people think of that waste as food we throw away at home or in restaurants, and that's certainly part of it, but the reality is that most of that waste occurs much sooner in the food's lifecycle. In fact, over 70% of food waste happens before it ever reaches a consumer. This waste comes at a huge cost to food growers, exporters/importers, and retailers — that's the business problem we help solve. It just so happens that solving that business problem also delivers a massive environmental benefit."

RRD Recognized for Exceptional Leadership in Employee Benefits

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (RRD), a leading global provider of marketing, packaging, print, and supply chain solutions, announced that it was recognized for its innovation in employee benefits. HealthEquity honored RRD with the 2024 Connecter Award for Innovation, underscoring the company's dedication to employee health and well-being. In 2022, RRD partnered with Paytient® to implement Health Payment Accounts (HPAs) – an employer-sponsored, interest-free line of healthcare credit allowing employees to pay for care over time – into their benefits package. It works alongside the company’s HealthEquity-provided Health Savings Account (HSA) plan to ensure employees always have a way to pay out-of-pocket costs. A recent global medical trends survey from WTW found that the cost of medical care benefits in the U.S. is projected to increase about 8.9% in 2024, compared with 8.2% in 2023. The research emphasizes the value of offering employees more options to pay for medical expenses. “We are thrilled to be recognized by HealthEquity for our commitment to employee well-being and ability to implement transformative solutions in the benefits landscape,” said Christy Goldberg-Hirsch, Senior Vice President, Global Rewards at RRD. “RRD extended its benefits value after identifying a growing need in our workforce for additional payment options, amid rising healthcare costs.” Goldberg-Hirsch adds, “Partnering with Paytient to introduce an interest-free line of healthcare credit to the entirety of our U.S-based workforce has given employees more options and opportunities to seek out care.” Since launching its partnership with Paytient, RRD’s workforce has taken advantage of the HPA, allowing them to pay for a wide variety of health-related expenses, including prescriptions, healthcare visits, and even vet bills. “RRD’s benefits team has made strides in bridging the affordability gap to provide meaningful aid for our employees,” said Deb Steiner, Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer at RRD. “Employees can now rely on their HPAs and HealthEquity HSAs to afford their medical and wellness-related needs without having to pay upfront from their paychecks.”

Disability:IN Introduces the Early Career Talent Accelerator for professionals with disabilities

Disability:IN, the global nonprofit driving disability inclusion in business, introduced the Early Career Talent Accelerator—a first-of-its-kind development program for professionals with disabilities—and announced the initial cohort of 25 individuals. Launching this week, the Early Career Talent Accelerator will give participants the opportunity to develop the skills needed for several aspects of holistic career development. With a curriculum designed to be culturally competent, Disability:IN created the program to be inclusive of the unique experiences of professionals with disabilities. The program also considers participants’ career stages and relevant needs as individual contributors or first-time supervisors. The entire cohort self-identifies as a person with a disability, and more than half of the cohort identifies as either a person of color or a member of the LGBTQ+ community. “The Early Career Talent Accelerator was created in response to interest from our partner network to address the gap in corporate career development programs for people with disabilities,” said Jill Houghton, president and CEO, Disability:IN. “We’re providing training on skills that all professionals need regardless of identity, and we’re doing it through a disability lens. We want our participants to confidently own their story and position their disability as a meaningful aspect of their professional identity.” The Early Career Talent Accelerator offers employers an opportunity to retain and engage valued employees as well as signal their commitment to disability inclusion. In the 2023 Disability Equality Index, a median disability self-identification rate of 4.6% was reported from among the subset of 485 participating companies that provided such data. Furthermore, only 5% of these companies said they offer employee retention and advancement programs that solely focus on employees with disabilities. The program follows Disability:IN’s NextGen Leader Initiatives, which provide professional mentoring and career readiness resources for college students and recent graduates with disabilities. The 12-week Early Career Talent Accelerator combines self-paced content with virtual instruction and will culminate with an in-person capstone learning session and graduation at the 2024 Disability:IN Global Conference & Expo on July 15-18 in Las Vegas. The inaugural cohort was selected after a competitive, nomination-based process that evaluated candidates on their career accomplishments to date and projectable potential to benefit from the program. Disability:IN engaged subject matter experts within its network to create the curriculum, and each week’s session will be led by a professional with a disability. U.S. salaried employees of a Disability:IN corporate partner are eligible for the program. Sena Pottackal, an associate of client experience, DEI, and corporate communications at Current Global, is an Early Career Talent Accelerator participant and NextGen Leaders alum. “I’m seeking guidance on embracing my new identity as a neurodivergent person with a mental health disability, and I look forward to meeting others with shared experiences and empowering each other to grow,” Pottackal said. “Together, we can learn how to leverage the power of our stories to champion disability inclusion in the workplace.”

Oracle Introduces New AI-Powered Skills Solution to Help Organizations Drive Employee and Business Growth

Oracle announced a new AI-powered upskilling solution within Oracle Grow, part of the Oracle ME employee experience platform within Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM). Oracle Grow for Business Leaders supports employee development and strengthens organizational agility by helping business leaders quickly develop, upskill, and empower their teams to better achieve business outcomes. "Today's fast-paced market has created a continuously moving target around business outcomes and the skills needed to achieve them. To maximize talent potential and business success in this environment, business leaders need the tools to upskill their teams quickly and efficiently," said Chris Leone, executive vice president, applications development, Oracle. "Oracle Grow for Business Leaders addresses this need and gives business leaders the ability to find the right people and successfully align skills and business strategy." Oracle Grow for Business Leaders connects all talent information from across the enterprise to provide leaders with a unified solution to effectively support skills development, maximize employee growth, and improve business success. The new AI-powered upskilling solution includes: Leadership-Driven Role Guides: Helps business leaders ensure critical needs are met with the right talent and skills by creating prescriptive guides that give employees clear guidance to align themselves with strategic outcomes. The new guides leverage AI-powered skills recommendations and generative AI capabilities to help leaders quickly detail the purpose and goals of the strategic roles and identify the necessary resources to help employees achieve success in each role, such as training, required reading, or mentors. Centralized Leader Dashboard: Improves business leader agility with real-time visibility into development progress against role guides, specific skills and qualifications, and the overall skills of their business. The new dashboard leverages AI-powered insights from across the suite to help leaders proactively track skills progression by department, business unit, position, or person; identify emerging gaps; and monitor the organization's progress in meeting business outcomes. Enhanced Workforce Transparency for Strategic Roles: Enables business leaders to better help employees grow and develop their careers by incorporating role guides directly within an individual's personalized Oracle Grow feed. This gives employees full transparency into the expectations from their leadership and delivers AI-powered recommendations on specific tasks, skills, and training needed to meet key business needs. Innovative Internal Mobility: Enables business leaders to maximize internal mobility and discover the right talent faster by incorporating role guides into Opportunity Marketplace, an internal talent marketplace within Oracle Cloud HCM. The new addition leverages AI-powered recommendations to go beyond standard internal job or project postings and helps employees discover new career path opportunities while giving business leaders the visibility they need to find the right talent and skills within their team or the broader organization. Skills Aggregation Platform: Accelerates an organization's adoption of skills-based talent practices through the Oracle Dynamic Skills Platform, a robust skills aggregation platform that enables a single skills infrastructure fully unified with people and work data wherever it exists. Directly embedded in Oracle Grow, Oracle Dynamic Skills Platform provides an extensive library of seeded skills, consolidates an organization's existing or third-party skills data, and delivers AI-driven recommendations to power talent intelligence, experiences, and practices. "With the demand for new skills evolving at such a rapid pace, organizations need to reevaluate their upskilling strategies in order to meet key business goals," said Trish Steed, CEO and principal analyst, H3 HR Advisors. "Oracle has proven investments in the skills marketplace, and with the introduction of Oracle Grow for Business Leaders, they are now delivering a truly complete upskilling solution for employees, business leaders, and HR professionals. Powered by AI and machine learning capabilities, this new solution is making talent management more simple, efficient, and effective." Oracle Grow dynamically connects learning, skills growth, and career mobility in one hyper-personalized development experience. The addition of Oracle Grow for Business Leaders further drives employee and business growth by empowering employees to maximize their potential and helping leaders align upskilling with business outcomes. It also empowers HR with unparalleled insights into the supply and demand of skills and development resources across the enterprise, to strengthen people initiatives, optimize workforce investments, and improve business outcomes. Built for the cloud, Oracle Cloud HCM is a complete solution connecting every human resource process from hire to retire across an organization with a native employee experience platform. By connecting all employee data on a single platform, HR teams have access to a single source of truth to help inform their people strategy. In addition, built-in AI acts as an advisor to help analyze workforce data, generate content, and surface recommendations and critical insights to help improve business operations.

Covalent Unveils Intelligent Work Allocation Solution

Covalent, a leader in workforce operations software for the manufacturing sector, announced the official launch of its latest solution, Intelligent Work Allocation (IWA). Built upon extensive industry research, IWA leverages machine learning to optimize how frontline leaders conduct workforce assignment processes. Addressing Critical Industry Challenges In today's fast-paced manufacturing environment, frontline leaders face a myriad of challenges when it comes to aligning workforce resources with production demands in real-time. Worker absenteeism and fluctuating product demand make assigning jobs during a shift even more complex. In many cases, using only tacit knowledge to decide "who should work where" leads to significant productivity loss and increased labor costs. Introducing Intelligent Work Allocation IWA represents a paradigm shift in workforce optimization, leveraging Covalent's unique dataset on worker capabilities and proprietary machine-learning models. This groundbreaking solution empowers frontline leaders to make data-driven task assignment decisions with confidence, while reducing the administrative burden of job performance tracking. Proven Impact and Market Readiness After trials in 2023 with select customers, IWA has already demonstrated impressive results. Clients have reported up to a 12% increase in efficiency and a 35% reduction in time spent on shift management. With these promising outcomes, IWA is positioned to upgrade a critical business process for the industry. "Our commitment is to deliver top-tier workforce solutions through high-fidelity data, and IWA aligns perfectly with this vision," says Andrew Knez, CEO of Covalent. "This represents a significant advancement in our mission to empower our frontline users and help our customers achieve operational excellence." Yogi Rana, VP of Product, adds, "IWA places worker capability at the heart of operational decisions, allowing manufacturers to unlock the full potential of their workforce. This is a testament to our ongoing commitment to innovation and customer success." An Operations Manager leveraging the tool, shares, "IWA changes the way we approach worker assignment. It is intuitive, and has features that reduce pre-shift pressures for our supervisors, resulting in more successful shifts."

CEAg World Announces Launch of Inaugural CEAg World Conference and Expo

CEAg World, Meister Media Worldwide's new diversified business venture serving the rapidly expanding controlled environment agriculture (CEA) industry, announces the inaugural CEAg World Conference and Expo taking place August 26-28, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. "This innovative new event will bring together the growing CEA ecosystem, filling a market void with an event serving the broad spectrum of sectors advancing food produced under cover," said Karen Varga, CEAg World Content Lead. "CEAg World Conference and Expo will provide an exclusive forum for all CEA businesses including traditional outdoor farms utilizing protected cropping systems (e.g., hoop houses, netting, and/or tunnels), greenhouses, vertical farms, urban agriculture ventures, aquaponic operations, and more," Varga said. CEAg World Conference and Expo will attract 700+ attendees and over 100 exhibiting companies from all industry sectors with an innovative new event. "Attendees can tailor their experience, engaging with thought leaders and innovators throughout the high-impact, multi-track conference program, an expansive exhibit hall showcasing the latest technology, and a variety of networking events designed for collaboration and idea exchange," said Amy Reddington, CEAg World Conference and Expo Show Director. "The programming will address key challenges for businesses and cover areas such as cost management strategies, optimizing lighting solutions, increasing ROI, crop growth optimization, market insights, climate control, pest and disease management, sustainable practices, and more." "CEAg World Conference and Expo will showcase the cutting-edge technologies and companies developing solutions to advance food under cover," said Ron Trznadel, CEAg World Event Sales Director. "Companies can participate through premium event sponsorships, tech presentations, and an engaging tradeshow floor, all enhanced with our integrated multi-media market access for year-long engagement that will deliver high-impact opportunities to build businesses serving controlled environment producers." Meister Media Worldwide's decades of experience serving fruit and vegetable farms and greenhouse businesses, with leading national brands American Fruit Grower, American Vegetable Grower, and Greenhouse Grower, along with conducting events around the world for specialty agricultural markets, ensures CEAg World Conference & Expo will be the gateway to success for this emerging sector.