BSC Event: Future of Food - Innovating for a 21st Century Food System

Join Be Social Change on Tuesday, August 30th at 7:00 PM for a panel discussion exploring the Future of Food: Innovating for a 21st Century Food System.

They say, “you are what you eat,” but do you truly understand what you’re eating, where it is comes from, and the impact it has?

The journey of your food is often invisible and begins well before you find it in the market much less fork it on your plate. Through new innovations, the food system is evolving to accommodate a growing demand for sustainable sources, ingredients, and the distribution thereof. And with growing concern about climate change and nutrition, these innovations are more important than ever before.

Join the conversation with Be Social Change at our Future of Food panel to not only understand what’s on your plate, but also how it got into your shopping cart and onto your dinner table.

Come for the conversation, leave with some food for thought.

{Drinks & snacks will be provided!}

Join the conversation on Twitter:

@besocialchange | @marcossalazar | @sroakes| @yushahu | @TheFundingGuru | @foodXhealth | @LocalBushel | @TayLanzet | @diginn | @seedsheets | @ceonyc | @BBdotVC

SCHEDULE

6:30 AM - Doors open for Panel Event

7:00 PM - Program begins at 7pm sharp

8:00 PM - Q&A

8:30 PM - Networking & Closing

FEATURED PANELISTS: 

• Yusha Hu, CEO, Local Bushel

• Andrew Ive, Managing Director, FOOD-X

• Taylor Lanzet, Sustainability Coordinator, Dig Inn

• Cam MacKugler, CEO & Founder, Seedsheet

• Charlie O’Donnell, Partner & Founder, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures

• Summer Rayne Oakes, Founder and Author, SugarDetox.Me (Moderator)

PANELISTS BIOS:

Yusha Hu, CEO, Local Bushel

At Local Bushel, Yusha is focused on building a high-performance mission-driven company. Previous to Local Bushel, Yusha led business development at Honest Buildings, a B2B marketplace for commercial building owners to find design & construction professionals. She was also in finance and operations roles at NRG Energy, one of the largest renewable energy developers in U.S. Yusha Hu holds a BA from Swarthmore College and received a Fulbright scholarship to study environmental policy in China.

Follow Yusha on Twitter at @yushahu and @LocalBushel.

Andrew Ive, Managing Director, FOOD-X

P&G brand management trained, while in his dorm room, Andrew took a new product idea, raised angel funds, established a manufacturing facility in China and a sales force to sell his first solo product line into major US retailers. In his second Silicon Valley based company Open Shelf, Andrew raised $20M+ from VCs to focus on the data challenge between retailers and their vendors. That company was acquired. 

Andrew has focused on innovation, developing high-­growth businesses opportunities and as a business advisor in multiple verticals. He served on the Board of the Small Business Council of the Department of Trade and Industry advising the UK Government on entrepreneurialism and high growth companies; the National Science Foundation on startup grant awards, the Investment Task Force and the Centre for Policy Studies, Small Business Council (UK Think Tank).

Andrew is also an author and currently has a bestselling book, ‘Choose Your Startup: Funding Your Company’ in the startups and entrepreneurial categories on Amazon.com. He holds a BSc from the University of London and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. His first product design, the X­IT Ladder, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Follow Andrew on Twitter @TheFundingGuru and @foodXhealth.

Taylor Lanzet, Sustainability Coordinator, Dig Inn

Taylor Lanzet is the Sustainability Coordinator of Dig Inn Seasonal Market, a vegetable-forward, farm-to-counter restaurant group. Dig Inn offers an alternative to the industrial food system by cultivating a network of sustainable farmers and producers to bring tasty, healthful and mindfully sourced food to everyone. Taylor focuses on Dig Inn’s responsibly for greater good – partnerships with food justice organizations, efforts to work with women and marginalized farmers, and new approaches to disrupt the bind between economic status and ability to eat good food.

Prior to Dig Inn, Taylor graduated from Brown University (’15) with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. While at Brown, Taylor managed a food hub, recognized by the USDA and White House, which connects low-income Brown students, staff and faculty with healthy and local produce. Taylor has also worked with the RI Department of Environmental Management to write and revise state agriculture policy for a sustainable farming grants program.

Follow Taylor on Twitter at @TayLanzet and @diginn.

Cam MacKugler, CEO & Founder, Seedsheet

Cam MacKugler is the founder of Vermont-based AgTech startup Seedsheet; the Blue Apron for Agriculture. As a native Vermonter, Cam was immersed with local, organic food, but it wasn't until after college when he combined his architecture degree with agriculture to create a product that turned anyone into a successful gardener, no overalls required. The Seedsheet is a roll-out garden that's designed with an algorithm, contains organic nonGMO seeds, requires no weeding, and is planted in 30-seconds. In their first year Seedsheet grew from a Kickstarter Campaign to being carried nationally in Home Depot stores, and will soon be launching a custom creator platform. It's no longer Meal Delivery, it's time for Farm Delivery.

Follow Cam on Twitter at @seedsheets.

Charlie O’Donnell, Partner & Founder, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures

Charlie O'Donnell is the sole Partner and Founder at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. The fund makes seed and pre-seed investments and was the first venture firm located in Brooklyn--where he was born and raised.  Brooklyn Bridge invested in the first rounds of Canary, Orchard Platform, Tinybop, Hungryroot, Clubhouse, Ringly, and goTenna among others. He previously had investment roles at Union Square Ventures and First Round Capital.

Charlie has a reputation for being early to identifying important companies. Nick Bilton identifies him as an influence on early Twitter investors in his book, Hatching Twitter. Dennis Crowley credits him as having helped kick off the first funding of Foursquare before other VCs had said yes. At First Round Capital, he sourced the firm's investments in Singleplatform (sold to Constant Contact) and GroupMe (sold to Skype).  Charlie discovered GroupMe at the hackathon where the service had been built. He also sourced investments in Backupify (which was an idea he had tweeted to the founder, a friend of his), chloe + isabel, and Refinery29.  

Charlie bikes to work, has done four triathlons, the NYC marathon, and runs the kayaking program in Brooklyn Bridge Park.  The longest he has consecutively been outside of the five boroughs of New York City is three weeks.

Follow Charlie on Twitter at @ceonyc and @BBdotVC.

MODERATOR:

Summer Rayne Oakes, Founder and Author, SugarDetox.Me

Summer Rayne Oakes has spent the last decade working on sustainable systems through the fashion, beauty and food industries. She is the co-founder and former CEO of Source4Style (now Le Souk), an award-winning marketplace that connects thousands of designers in 80 countries to sustainable material suppliers in 38 countries around the world; author of the best-selling book Style, Naturally; served as a correspondent on Discovery Networks; and has designed and modeled for environmentally-preferable lines with Payless, Portico and Modo eyewear. Broadening out from what we wear to what we eat, Summer Rayne has worked closely with Good Eggs, a farm-to-fridge grocery delivery company, and Foodstand, a community-based app that is designed to keep people in the know about the good food movement. She is also the founder of SugarDetox.me, a program to help people cleanse themselves of sugar and will release her first cookbook and guide in Spring 2017 with Sterling Publishing.

Follow Summer Rayne Twitter at @sroakes.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPACE PARTNERS

The CoLab-Factory is coworking and collaboration in downtown Brooklyn. The first of its kind on the Fulton Mall — the CoLab-Factory is a coworking and shared office space for members who take action and drive innovation. The stats: 21 offices, 3 conference rooms, 1 classroom, 1 event space, 2 lounges, and a cafe.

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Refund Policy: Refunds can be issued in full up to 48 hours prior to the start of the event by contacting Be Social Change.