24. November 2017
A congress for discussion and exchange about the current status of industry
Maximilian von Löbbecke explains what Farm & Food is all about
The first Farm & Food 4.0 took place in 2016, initiated by Maximilian von Löbbecke, Managing Director of the software provider 365FarmNet. The congress has been held, under the leadership of German farming publishing house “DeutschenBauernverlag dbv”, since 2017. 365FarmNet is a premium event partner. We spoke to Maximilian von Löbbecke prior to the event about how the congress has developed.
Farm & Food: You founded Farm & Food 4.0 in 2016 – what’s the event’s current standing and why is it so important to the industry?
Maximilian von Löbbecke: It focusses on the topic of data, the networking of data and, in doing so,a completely new level of transparency and business models. New players are entering the market and new rules are created. This generates a lot of questions for established companies in the industry. From initial production in agricultural operations, to food sector. These questions need answers.
Most companies currently find themselves in an orientation phase and need the exchange on how to best deal with it and which competitive boundaries are shifting. What are the new players doing? Is it still a case of larger companies swallowing up smaller ones, or faster ones overtaking the slower? Farm & Food 4.0 tries to answer these questions – a congress for exchange and discussion, where the industry finds itself today and which influencesdigitalization entails.
The third Farm & Food 4.0 event will be taking place in January. In your opinion, what tendencies will be the main subjects of discussion?
The topic used to be relatively broad. There were representatives from European politics with Günther Oettinger, Minister Christian Schmidt from the German politics scene, as well as big players such as Google and Axel Springer.
These days it is more about specific topics. The digital world is developing extremely fast and the congress needs to follow suit and be specific as to which topics crystallize as a result. These will be encountered at the new congress in January.
What, in your view, is the biggest challenge companies in the agricultural and food industries, considering progressing digitalization, need to confront?
Digitalization attacks everything and anything that is inefficient. Many business models are based on inefficiencies. The biggest challenge is to question your own business purpose as an established company, even though it is the foundation of your success. Only few manage to achieve this.