FASTcon 2026

Food, Ag, Sustainability & Supply Chain in Tech Conference

April 10, 2026 at Best Buy HQ, Richfield, MN

We are excited to announce the return of FASTcon, set for April 10, 2026 at Best Buy HQ! This free, all-day conference will focus on Food, Ag, Sustainability, & Supply Chain in Tech. The first cohort of speakers has been announced, but we are still accepting speaker and startup submissions! Registration coming soon.

Submit a Speaker Proposal

SPEAKERS & SESSIONS

Alice Nadeau, PhD

Senior Data Scientist, C.H. Robinson

The Road Not Taken: Counterfactual Analysis for Freight Emissions Savings

Tess Kornfield, PhD

VP, Data Science and Strategic Insights, ThredUp

A Dive into the Data at the Heart of ThredUp's Secondhand Marketplace

Claire Zoellner, PhD

Director of Data Science, iFoodDS

Beyond Scanning: Tracing Lot Codes with Probabilistic Engines

Brian Fitch, PhD

VP - Digital Transformation & Analytics, Barr Engineering

AI at Two Frontiers: Internal Transformation and Client-Centric Innovation

Elizabeth Buescher, PhD

Principal Scientist, Soil & Plant Research, Land O' Lakes

Visualizing Plant-Product Interactions: 3D Point‑Clouds Guide On‑Farm Placement

Shrey Pareek, PhD

Computer Vision Capability Lead, Cargill

RGB Vision in Food Processing: From Classical CV to Deep Learning

Michael Edwards, MBA

Systems Administrator, Groome Industrial Service Group

Creating descriptive narration at scale using Python + SLM

Nathan Miller

Product & Business Operations Consultant, Astra Ops

Applying Trading Desk Analytics to Food Supply Chain Innovation

Sruthi Pisipati, MS

Principal Data Scientist, Boston Scientific Corporation

Are TSFMs a Magic Wand for Forecasting?

Jie Ding, PhD

Professor, University of Minnesota, CEO, MorphMind

AI Agents for Transforming Data-Driven Agriculture and Supply Chain Operations

Mara Jorgensen, MSM

CEO, Technical AgTech Product Leader, Strategic Consulting Corp.

AI Enablement: A Framework for Ag Business Innovation

Ahmed Ashraf Sadek, MS

Data Analytics Manager, Taylor Corporation

Building AI-Powered Freight Audit Pipelines

Ganesh Kumar Suresh, MS

Agile Product Delivery Manager, Sara Plus - ( DSI Distributing Inc )

Sprint to Insight: Applying Agile to Data-Driven Vehicle Software Supply Chains

Ryan Ambrose

Director - Finance Process, Data, and Technology, Mortenson

From Reports to Intelligence: Empowering Finance with AI, Governance, and Insight.

Deepak Joshi, PhD

Assistant Professor, Kansas State University

Application of Earth Observation Data and AI for Crop Hail Damage Assessment and On-farm Decisions

Brandon Nordell

Data Scientist, C.H. Robinson

Applications of Alternative Fuels in Third-Party Logistics

Rob Rowbotham, MS, PhD

Senior Principal Data Scientist, Grande Cheese Company

From Excel to an Enterprise Level Application integrated with an ERP

Kate Kuehl

Lead App Engineer, FieldKit

Open Source Agricultural Instrumentation, Software, and Data

Ryan Wolbeck, MS

Head of AI & MLE Platform, Kraft Heinz

Operational AI in Action: Computer Vision for Manufacturing Lines at Kraft Heinz

Ricardo de Deijn, MS

Data Scientist I - AI Engineer, Taylor Corporation

Building AI-Powered Freight Audit Pipelines

Jiyeon Jecha

Data Scientist, iFoodDS

Beyond Scanning: Tracing Lot Codes with Probabilistic Engines

Cody Hoerning, MS, PhD

Senior Scientist of Plant Phenotyping, Land O' Lakes

Visualizing Plant-Product Interactions: 3D Point‑Clouds Guide On‑Farm Placement

Abhishek Roy, MS

Global R&D Leader of AI, Cargill

RGB Vision in Food Processing: From Classical CV to Deep Learning

More speaker announcements coming soon!

Call for speakers

Want to speak at this event? Fill out the speaker proposal form. You can view the schedule from the first edition of this event here.

Call for startups

Like past events, FASTcon includes a startup showcase session featuring startups doing something unique or innovative in food, ag, sustainability, or supply chain tech. Learn more and submit your startup here.

SPONSORS

Sustaining Education Sponsor

Learn about sponsor opportunities