Q&A: The Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) Has Come Home

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Kicking off September 23 and running to the 26, the conference will take place at the TELUS Convention Centre in downtown Calgary with 'Harnessing Science for the Evolving Consumer: The Fit of Agricultural Biotechnology' as its theme.

Usually held every two years, the conference has switched to an annual format. It marks the first time the largest agricultural biotech conference in the world has come to Alberta and the first time since 2002 that the event has been hosted in Canada.

In this month's edition of Across Canada, we asked ABIC co-chairs Art Froelich and Rick Smith about ABIC, its importance to the Canadian ag-biotech industry and what conference goers should expect to see at this year's event.

Froehlich is the managing partner at AdFarm - a marketing and communications firm specializing in agriculture. He is also the industry co-chair of the Alberta Agricultural Research Institute and is a director with the Alberta Life Sciences Institute.

Smith is the past president of Dow Agro sciences Canada Inc. - a research based, agricultural sciences company with diverse product portfolio including weed, insect and disease management for agricultural/horticultural crops and products for forestry and industrial vegetation management. He is also a director with BioProducts Alberta, BioAlberta and AVAC.

Q: What is the Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) and what are some of its goals?

Rick Smith: The first Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) was held in Saskatoon in 1996. Since then it has become an essential event for professionals around the world. Scientists, policy makers, government officials, students and ag-bio businesses circle this event on their calendar.

Initially, the intent of ABIC was to address a need within the agricultural biotechnology industry for a venue where the agricultural biotechnology community could gather together the way other major scientific disciplines gather. When the idea of ABIC was first thought up, the industry itself was very focused on the human pharmaceutical applications, and while ag-biotech may have wandered into that pond, not nearly enough attention was given to its other related applications.

Eleven years later, ABIC represents the coming together of the best minds, from academia and commercial agriculture, all in one venue. On display are the achievements of our phenomenal scientists, our extraordinarily strong lab systems particularly here in Canada and people get to see some genuine innovation on the ag-bio science side. This conference brings it all together, ag-bio scientists and companies get to meet their counterparts all at one venue, share their ideas, the cumulative result is the crossing of the threshold from scientific discovery to commercial reality.

Art Froelich: ABIC is a venue set up for all involved in the industry, to share best practices, share innovations, to discuss and debate agricultural biotechnology developments. Furthermore, its a chance for the commercialized part of the industry to further relationships, and make better contacts for their businesses.

Q: How has the conference benefited from its exposure to international markets?

AF: It's been a very positive experience for the ABIC foundation, allowing the conference to grow and become something global. It falls in line with the original plan that was set out for ABIC by the ABIC foundation. Next year the conference will be heading to Dublin and the following year, Asia will get to host it for the first time. Beyond going global, ABIC truly has become the place to go to if you're involved in agriculture and if you are involved in biotechnology. I would suspect the foundation has been very pleased with how ABIC has branched out and developed.

Q: For companies attending the conference, how does ABIC enhance access to key research and product developments in the ag-bio industry?

AF: For Canadian and foreign agricultural biotechnology companies, ABIC is an opportunity to get some exposure to some of the neat things happening worldwide within the industry. There's also a fairly strong commercial component to the conference. For example, at the exhibition or trade show, participants will have the opportunity to promote their businesses and products. For this year's conference, the trade shows registration has gone over very well, double than what we expected at 70-75% sold out.

Additionally, we've got a real nice mix of public sector and private sector research organizations from countries like Taiwan, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, as well as from Canada and the USA. There will be a lot of collaboration and discussion with these people in terms of what they're working on. Opportunities are also present for startup companies looking for venture capital.

Q: Why Calgary over other locales? Why Alberta?

AF: The application process started about two and a half years ago. Rick and I felt it was an appropriate time to come back to Canada, specifically to Calgary and Alberta. With all of the developments that have happened in Western Canada, its relationship to the ag-bio industry and the number of businesses that have offices in the province, Calgary, Alberta was a logical choice.

RS: The ABIC foundation felt it was the right time to bring the conference back to Canada and well, Art and I felt it's already been in Ontario and Saskatchewan, Alberta should get its shot too, simply because there's such a strong ag-biotech centre here. For example the head offices of Bayar Crop Sciences and Dow Agrosciences are here along with many other ag-bio companies that call Alberta home too. We figured, why not show off just how big and successful ag-bio is here in Alberta.

Q: How has this year's conference been embraced by the city of Calgary and the province of Alberta?

AF: Very favourably in fact, we've benefited from cooperation from the city, the Telus Convention Centre, the hotels and even the local restaurants. It seems the whole city is banding together to provide a very positive experience for conference goers.

RS: A major difference this year from last is the travel involved in attending the conference. There was a strong Canadian presence in Melbourne, but to get to Melbourne involved a lot of travel for North American and European delegates. This year, because of ABIC's locality we expect more. In all we're expecting 500 plus delegates and we're encouraged by the phenomenal sponsorship and how the conference has been embraced by Calgary with all the businesses that count on agricultural biotech contributing. We're very thankful.

Q: What are some of the things visitors of ABIC 2007 should look forward to?

AF: At this year's conference we have speakers and presenters from all parts of the world, including Europe and Australia. For international delegates or those coming from outside of Canada, ABIC provides a real opportunity to see what's happening in ag-bio industry here and abroad. Already meetings have been set up between Canadian biotech companies and international delegates. Also for the first time ABIC will host a public forum on the Sunday of the conference at the University of Calgary where the public will get to hear some of our keynote speakers. A particular focus of the presentations will be put on how ag-biotechnology relates to the average consumers interest.

RS: You're going to hear from a lot of commercial, global, multinational organizations all talking about the things going on in ag-biotech and how it's an exciting time for the industry. There's a realization or shift in view of what ag-bio is and the role it can play in our daily lives, whether it's saving the environment or just plants producing cheaper vaccines, there's plenty to discuss. Many of our speakers are going to be focusing on this. For example we have Dr. Rob Fraley from Monsanto speaking of how agriculture is going to continue to broaden its impact in human health.

Companies like SemBioSys will have representatives talking about plant-produced insulin from safflower, Bayer Crop Science will be here, Dow AgroSciences, BASF Plant Science will be here, all of them to discuss the incredible stuff going on with all their companies. We also have representatives coming in from India, not only to talk about advancements from a technological standpoint, but also to discuss the enormous possibilities of ag-bio in foreign markets.

We're expecting people from various companies that are providers into different industries, people from regional development authorities around the world coming here because they want to show that they can attract technology to their parts of the world. Those are the kind of people who will be coming, basically a lot of different players. I think no matter who's coming, delegates are going to learn something just because of the conferences sheer diversity.

Q: Is it safe to say then that ABIC helps raise the international profile of agricultural biotechnology and strengthen its image in Canada, and in the rest of the world?

RS: Early on ag-bio didn't necessarily have an image with the public, or more so it was suffering from lack of coverage. Part of the dilemma was that there was no redeeming social value to it. You had companies basically being the only beneficiaries from it. The tangible physical evidence of its positives was that farmers were able to use the technology and as a result to make a better crop, but nutritionally it didn't change the crop, it didn't make it cheaper for the consumer, it just made it easier on the farmers. The changes that have taken place over the past 10 years, that I'd regard as a hallmark period in ag-bio, has seen a shift in agricultural biotechnology, its importance, allowing the science to tailor solutions to challenges much more rigidly or succinctly. ABIC highlights these changes and shifts.

AF: I think it really depends on where you are in the world. I think in North America we’ve been more receptive to ag-bio. Its been probably more of a challenge in Europe, Western Europe primarily in other parts of the world to get it accepted, but concepts like ABIC have come a long way in helping the public understand the benefits of biotechnology and what it can offer consumers, the environment and cumulatively the growing population of the world. At the same time we've learned some valuable lessons since the launch of first ag-bio products, made improvements and found new applications for it and ABIC gives our industry the opportunity to educate people on where the industry has gone and is headed in the future.