RASTECH 2023 Conference and Trade Fair on April 20-21 will be the biggest yet.
This year’s conference in Orlando, Flo., USA is hosted by RAStech Magazine and Annex Business Media. It will welcome a sold-out attendance of more than 400 people from 16 countries to share knowledge and experience about the recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) industry. This is an increase from last year’s event at Hilton Head, which hosted about 270 attendees.
Two keynote sessions will take place to start the program for each day. The first keynote, titled “Lessons learned,” is about sharing experiences of RAS throughout the years. Panelists are Damien Claire, chief sales and marketing officer at Atlantic Sapphire; Justin Henry, owner of Henry Aquaculture Consult and aquaculture business director at University of British Columbia; Per Heggelund, founder of AquaSeed, Sweet Spring Salmon and now, Andfjord Salmon; and Sylvia Wulf, president and chief executive of AquaBounty Technologies.
The second keynote, titled “Going vertical,” is about exploring the benefits and challenges of vertical integration. Panelists are Geno Evans, owner of Evans Fish Farm; John Keeler, founder and CEO of Blue Star Foods Corp.; Martin Gardner, president of Blue Ridge Aquaculture; and Eric Pedersen, president and founder of Ideal Fish.
Both keynotes will be recorded for future episodes of the RAS Talk podcast.
There are a total of 87 speakers from around the world will be presenting in 92 presentations in the main program. This is an increase from last year’s speaker lineup of about 50.
RASTECH 2023 conference is made up of a three-track system – Business, Operation and Research – that is designed to delve into the many facets of the RAS industry. The Business track is geared towards those who are interested in learning more about what it takes to run a successful RAS business. The Operation track is about sharing technical knowledge used in a facility. The Research track brings together the latest studies that drive the industry’s innovation and development.
The Research track was uniquely developed in partnership with Virginia Tech, the Aquaculture Engineering Society, The Conservation Fund’s Freshwater Institute, and the RAS-N & SAS2 consortium. Together, these research groups will present their latest studies and findings abut RAS technology. At the end of Day 2 (April 21), they will host a public meeting to put together a peer-reviewed journal based exclusively on the research that is presented in this conference.
An extra day (April 22) was added to this conference, which will feature a tour of Evans Fish Farm. The farm, established in 1998, is a 100-acre fish farm located in Pierson, Flo., about an hour and 40 minutes drive from downtown Orlando. The farm is one of the first complete sturgeon aquaculture operations in the United States. The farm raises four species of sturgeon for its caviar – Ossetra (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), Sevruge (Acipenser stellatus), Siberian (Acipenser baerii) and Beluga (huso huso). The farm spawns each of these species and hand rear the young fish. The farm currently has second and third generation farm-raised sturgeon. They also farm tilapia and hybrid striped bass.
This year’s exhibit hall will host 80 industry suppliers and service providers from around the world. The Product Showcase stage will feature presentations from many of the industry’s leading technology designers and supply manufacturers.
RASTECH 2023 is sponsored by Grundfos, Alumichem Technologies, Aquatic Equipment & Design, BioFishency, MAT Kuling AS, Pinnacle Ozone Solutions, Skretting, Small Boss and many others.
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