Indoor Ag-Con announces new food safety track, keynote speakers

Indoor Ag-Con announced the addition of a new Food Safety track as well as the speakers for its day two keynote address for its Feb. 11-12, 2026, Conference Program at the Westgate Las Vegas.

Hosted by Ceres University, an International Association for Continuing Education and Training-accredited resource for food safety training and consulting, the Food Safety track brings the event’s total to 11 crop and sector tracks, including Lettuce & Herbs, Vine Crops, the International Sprout Growers Association (ISGA) Annual Conference Programming, Mushrooms, Berries, Cannabis, Conventional Agriculture, Unique Approaches to CEA, General Applications and the Expo Theater Sessions.

"Food safety is foundational to every successful CEA operation," said Indoor Ag-Con CEO Brian Sullivan. "By partnering with Ceres University to deliver this dedicated track, we’re giving attendees the practical, compliance-ready tools they need to strengthen their operations and reduce risk."

The Food Safety track includes:

• From Compliance to Competitive Advantage: Designing a Strong Food Safety Framework - Executive Deep Dive (9 a.m. to noon Feb. 12), Karl Kolb, Ph.D., president, Ceres University: This intensive seminar goes beyond regulatory checkboxes to show how food safety can become a strategic differentiator. Led by a GFSI-certified auditor, the session explores program architecture, risk mitigation, internal auditing, certification prep (SQF, BRC, PrimusGFS) and more. Attendees receive practical templates, case studies, a certificate of completion and Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
• Safeguarding Your Grow: Developing an Indoor Environmental Safety Program (2:30 to 3:20 p.m. Feb. 12), Andy Moreno, Ph.D., bacterial surveillance systems engineer, HSG/AME Certified Laboratories, and Bryson Green, Ph.D., scientist, AME Certified PCR Laboratories: A grower’s first line of defense is its environment. This session equips attendees with tools to detect plant and human pathogens before symptoms appear, prevent cross-contamination, implement in-house testing and build proactive remediation plans. Certificate & CEU credits awarded.
• Root Cause, Corrective & Preventive Actions Made Easy (3:30 to 4:20 p.m. Feb. 12), Karl Kolb, Ph.D., president, Ceres University: Learn how to turn a food safety event into a roadmap for improvement. This hands-on class demystifies RCCAPA processes used in PCQI and GFSI programs, providing models, frameworks and guided exercises to strengthen audit readiness. Certificate & CE credits awarded.
  

Indoor Ag-Con day two keynote speakers

Additionally, Indoor Ag-Con announced that the day two keynote from 8 to 8:50 a.m. Feb. 12 is “The State of CEA Finance: Capital Flows, Discipline, and Lessons Learned,” a fireside chat with Dave Chen, co-founder and CEO of Equilibrium, and David Verbitsky, president and managing director of Verbitsky Capital.

"As the industry continues to mature following a decade marked by rapid expansion, shifting capital dynamics and heightened scrutiny on operational performance, this keynote will offer attendees a candid look at the financial landscape influencing CEA today," Indoor Ag-Con said in a news release.

The conversation will explore:

• How and where capital is moving across the CEA value chain
• How financing discipline has evolved since the sector’s early boom years
• The risks associated with scaling too quickly
• The lessons investors, operators and suppliers must carry forward to build resilient, profitable businesses

"Finance continues to be one of the most important and closely watched aspects of controlled environment agriculture," Sullivan said. "Dave and David bring valuable perspective shaped by years of working across the broader food and agriculture investment landscape. We’re pleased to offer attendees a grounded, practical conversation that will help operators and partners navigate the changing financial environment."

Chen is co-founder and CEO of Equilibrium Capital Group, which was founded nearly 18 years ago with the mission to build an institutional asset manager focused on sustainable infrastructure investment strategies that could make a positive impact on our climate challenges.

Equilibrium invests in sustainable food & agriculture and carbon transition infrastructure. With offices in San Francisco, Portland and London, the firm serves a global group of institutional investors.

Chen started his career at Solectron and McKinsey. He served as chair of the Portland, Oregon, branch of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank from 2005 to 2012. He was a general partner of OVP Venture Partners and a co-founder of GeoTrust (acquired by VeriSign).

He was a board member of HNCS from 1999 to 2002, which applies neural net technology to deliver application software for real-time credit card fraud detection for the banking sector and in healthcare insurance fraud detection; it later merged with FICO. For the past 15 years, he has also been an adjunct professor of finance at the Kellogg School Management at Northwestern University and director of the Kellogg Impact Investing Program.

Verbitsky has more than 15 years of investment banking and entrepreneurial experience and has advised on over $200 billion in M&A and financing transactions across the agriculture and food industry. His background includes serving as global head of agriculture and nutrition investment banking at Goldman Sachs; global head of AgTech and sustainable food investment banking at Nomura Greentech; and prior roles within Barclays’ Chemicals & Agriculture investment banking team.

His experience spans early-stage innovators, family-owned operators, private equity and large multinationals across the entire agri-food value chain. His career also includes venture capital roles, strategic advisory work in agri-food innovation and operational leadership as CFO of Invaio, an AgTech start-up.

He holds an MBA from Rice University and a B.S. in chemical engineering from Columbia University.

Indoor Ag-Con will announce details of its opening morning keynote — "The State of the CEA Industry from the CEA Alliance" — in the coming weeks.

To register and learn more about the 2026 conference program, exhibitor opportunities and networking events, visit indoor.ag.

Indoor Ag-Con scholarship

Indoor Ag-Con is once again partnering with CEA LED lighting company Sollum Technologies to launch the 2026 edition of the Sollum Student Scholarship to Indoor Ag-Con, which provides a graduate-level student based in the U.S. or Canada and pursuing doctoral work in a CEA-related field with an all-expenses-paid trip to attend Indoor Ag-Con.

The recipient will receive a full-access conference pass, round-trip coach airfare, a two-night hotel stay, a daily per diem allowance, scheduled one-on-one meeting time with the Sollum Technologies team in their expo booth and an opportunity to film a short video interview recapping their experience and learnings from the show to be featured by both Indoor Ag-Con and Sollum Technologies across digital channels

The deadline to apply is Dec. 19, 2025. For full eligibility requirements and to access the application, click here.