Curt Gervelis is the founder of CPG Engineering an independent wireless telecommunications, information technology, and intellectual property consulting company.

Curt has over 30 years experience in the wireless industry including the leading roles in the expansion of the AT&T Wireless network in New York City, the design and launching of the first GSM system in the New Jersey / New York region, and the expansion of the MetroPCS system into a national prepaid carrier.

Curt has experience in cellular based IoT systems including SIM card management and provisioning systems.

Curt holds a Masters in Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, a Bachelors in Physics and Mathematics, and a certification in Business Development from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

Curt is the co-author of two industry publications by McGraw Hill on wireless networks and has experience and training in patent law and intellectual property portfolio management.

Trevor is in charge of developing new ventures, partnerships and additional revenue streams for Hortau. He has spent 20 plus years in the precision ag and tech industries working in various capacities with John Deere, Leica Geosystems, CNH Industrial and Uptake.

Trevor started his career in global positioning system (GPS) precision ag working at a Silicon Valley startup, at a John Deere dealership as GPS coordinator, and at Leica Geosystems – where he participated in the development of the company’s precision agriculture products, including SaaS telematics services. Trevor then spent five years at CNH Industrial as Director of Precision Solutions and Telematics. Before joining Hortau in 2017, Trevor was VP of Agriculture and Construction verticals at Uptake, a fast-growing data analytics company.

Founded in 2002, Hortau is a leader in precision irrigation management systems for commercial agriculture. Hortau’s patented irrigation management, automation and weather monitoring solutions help growers manage crop stress in real time using soil tension, ensuring optimal production while reducing water use, energy consumption and environmental impact.

With U.S. operations based in San Luis Obispo, Calif., Hortau has offices, representatives and technicians throughout North America, including a Canada headquarters in Lévis, Québec. Learn more at www.hortau.com.

Michael is the Director of IoT Business Development for MultiTech (a hardware platform provider for the IoT industry). Michael specializes in designing wireless and wire line WAN (wide area network) topologies and implementing M2M and IoT solutions. Michael has over nineteen years of experience and has a passion for leading technical design, engineering and commercialization of embedded systems for the “Internet of Things”. Formerly, Michael was a Sales Engineering Executive at Sprint. He was a founding member of Sprint’s Emerging Solutions Group (ESG). He spearheaded an entrepreneurial division to identify and seek out high-value retail and wholesale M2M and embedded systems solutions across all channels and all markets. Michael successfully launched the world’s first M2M Collaboration Center. Michael graduated from Saint Mary’s College in California with a degree in Business Administration and Management.

Paul Schrimpf, an award-winning journalist, has been a professional trade journalist for more than 20 years and has worked in the agriculture market since 1998. As executive editor for the Agribusiness Media Group at Meister Media Worldwide, Paul leads an editorial team covering the ag retail distribution channel under the CropLife® brand, the ag technology sector through its PrecisionAg® brand, and the global crop protection and plant health industry through the AgriBusiness Global® brand. Paul holds his B.A. in Communication from Cleveland State University and is frequently asked to speak at meetings on technology in agriculture.

Founded in 1994 and acquired by Meister in 2000, the PrecisionAg brand includes a website at PrecisionAg.com, a bi-monthly magazine, a weekly e-newsletter, a variety of in-person events, and the PrecisionAg Institute. The Institute is a consortium of agriculture companies that is dedicated to facilitating the adoption of precision agriculture products and practices, and promoting the benefits of precision agriculture for improving profitability, sustainability, and efficiency in the farming operation.

Jim leads all content for Meister Media’s 12 major brands across print, digital, and event platforms and also heads the company’s cross-market strategic initiative in the rapidly growing area of precision agriculture. As the executive content lead, he maximizes the company’s editorial strength while developing new sources of content to serve the agricultural market’s growing demand for quality, round-the-clock intelligence. He earned his B.A. in English (Summa Cum Laude, University Honors) from Cleveland State University.

Michael Gilbert is the CEO and founder of Semios, the leading precision farming IoT platform for tree fruits, nuts and grapes. Michael is a natural product synthetic chemist with a PhD from UBC and a post-doctoral fellowship at University of Vienna. He has 25 years of experience in biotech R&D and production at Merck and Cardiome. After Cardiome sold its main asset in 2009 for over $800M, Michael founded Semios to meet the growing demand for sustainable and traceable food production with precision crop data and intelligence. Semios is the now the largest precision farming wireless network (150,000+ sensors) in Ag.

Established in 2010, Semios is a precision farming platform that includes a system to account for real-time conditions and deliver targeted pheromone release with the aim of maximizing efficacy while reducing costs. The proprietary Semios system consists of various sensors and controls which are placed in the field and connected through a wireless network. These sensors and controls include aerosol pheromone dispensers, monitoring traps equipped with cameras, weather stations, and micro-climate sensors. Data gathered from the devices is stored in cloud databases and displayed on a web-based user interface where reports can also be generated. With the availability of networked camera traps, on-site climate sensors and pheromone dispensers, the Semios system offers the ability to sync pheromone release to pest activity with greater precision than any other system can provide.

Ray Asebedo is a Kansas native.  He received his bachelor’s in agronomy and Ph.D. in soil fertility and is serving as assistant professor of precision agriculture at Kansas State University. Dr. Asebedo has focused his research program on developing agronomic algorithms to drive the agricultural artificial intelligence of ground and aerial autonomous vehicles (GAVs, UAVs).  Dr. Asebedo’s current federally funded projects support research to develop and integrate robotic swarms into production agriculture.

Kansas State University is a comprehensive, research, land-grant institution serving the people of Kansas, the nation, and the world. Since its founding in 1863, the university has evolved into a modern institution of higher education, committed to quality programs, and responsive to a rapidly changing world and the aspirations of an increasingly diverse society. Together with other universities, K-State shares responsibilities for developing human potential, expanding knowledge, enriching cultural expression, and extending its expertise to individuals, business, education, and government. These responsibilities are addressed through undergraduate and graduate degree programs, research and creative activities, and outreach and public service programs.

Josh Ruiz is passionate about farming and he puts his passion first and foremost and will compromise nothing in its pursuit.

As VP Ag Operations of Church Brothers Farms, Josh is responsible for the new broccoli floret harvesting method and is an integral part of the agriculture operations team. Josh is constantly thinking about the next generation of harvest, growing, and methods to improve our current operations.

Church Brothers Farms is a vertically-integrated family owned and operated company that produces a full line of fresh vegetables year round with an in-house farming/harvest program and state of the art processing plant, True Leaf Farms. We are a grower-owned processor, farming the majority of our raw product ourselves; adhering to industry-leading food safety and quality standards.  The Church family has a legacy of service and innovation.