This is a guest post written by Tom Chapman, director of innovation and entrepreneurship for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. In his role, Mr. Chapman works with new ventures, innovation programs, at large companies, service providers, innovation thought-leaders and community advocates.
The 2010 American Food Venture Forum took place this past Tuesday and Wednesday, October 19-20, at Harrah’s Hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The forum was the brainchild of Jude Conway of Entrepreneurial Advisors, Inc. in Clive, Iowa. The Forum is billed as the largest gathering of food companies and investors in the U.S. In total, the conference was attended by more than 60 individuals and at least six venture firms were in attendance. Considering how important the food industry is to the Midwest, I was surprised by the size and scale of the show – it was much smaller than I had expected.
However, this intimate feel allowed me as an attendee to talk to almost all of the other attendees and get a feel for why they were in attendance and what they were hoping to gain. In general, the audience was split into three groups – investors or intermediaries looking out for current investments or hoping to find a diamond in the rough, presenters who were hoping to sell their companies (or at least shares in their companies) and people with local or topical interest. I probably fell into the last category.
While food is an important part of the Omaha and regional economy and while food has seen some interesting new ventures in the region lately, my basic reason for attending was networking with the hopes of finding some good connections to money and advice in this space. I definitely was able to make these connections at this conference. There was an expressed frustration by some of the attendees, however, that they were not able to make the type of contacts that they desired.
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As someone who knows relatively little about the food industry, it was fascinating to see the variety of businesses that were on display. There were companies that produced food – such as Gelati-Da (gelato) and Solar Flare (energy bars) – but also companies that had kitchen related equipment and organic insecticides – such as KitchenStir and Vestaron. So, the companies were varied and from all over the country.
In particular, I was impressed with the technology behind ClickRWeight. The company basically solves a problem for the cattle market. The company has proprietary technology that allows them to take pictures and create a pixel map of the mass of the animal. From this map they are able to judge its weight within 1% in a controlled environment. While I don’t know if this a huge problem in the cattle market, I did ask some industry folks that I know and they said that it would be a significant benefit for people raising range fed beef in open ranches in certain parts of Nebraska (and I assume elsewhere).
I was also really intrigued by GrowTech from Waltham, Massachusetts which takes “photographs” (left) of plants and can utilize an algorithm and advanced optics to identify potential diseased or damaged plants before the naked eye. This technology seemed really interesting, although the market opportunity and market need were still a bit opaque for me as a layman.
In particular, the show could have benefitted from some more companies, investors and tracks. Basically, the show had too much variety and not enough focus making it difficult to get a clear handle on the companies that were presenting and propositions being offered.
That being said, unlike some other shows, the explicit financial ask and valuation was very present at this conference. Thus, in the brochure provided to participants, it was clearly outlined how much money the company had raised, how much they were asking for and the pre-money valuation of the company. Obviously, the valuation part is up for debate, but as an attendee, I found it very helpful to have information regarding the company in the program associated with why they were there. At many shows, it appears that the company is trying to sell its products rather than its shares and this can be challenging as an attendee where you assume the product is useful and good and what you really want to know about is the business that produces the product.
In general, there were the beginnings of a good program but the forum still seems to be in its beginning stages with the ability to grow significantly and provide more value to both presenting companies and investors.
To learn more about the American Food Ventures Forum, see our post: Q&A with founder Jude Conway.
