Cultivating the Next Generation of AgriFood-Tech Leaders

F2F TEKWOMEN Agri-Rise at the Gatton Showcase

The future of Agrifood-tech isn’t being written in boardrooms alone; it is being tested, trialled and reimagined in research paddocks, smart farms and showcase fields across Australia.

This October, one of those proving grounds will be UQ’s Gatton Campus, host to the annual Gatton AgTech Showcase. A two-day convergence of producers, researchers, startups and innovators.

Running in parallel, the F2F TEKWOMEN Agri-Rrise program will immerse its 2025 cohort in a full day of hands-on learning and industry connection at the showcase. For this group of young women (18–25) from across Queensland, the Gatton immersion is more than a field trip: it is a launchpad into the realities of modern agriculture and the opportunities shaping tomorrow’s food systems.

Why it matters

The Agri-Rise workshop is designed to meet the moment where technology, sustainability and talent intersect. Participants will begin their day in a facilitated workshop, reflecting on their career journeys and mapping how emerging Agtech aligns with their goals. From there, the cohort will step directly into the Gatton Showcase; a living laboratory of innovation featuring protected cropping facilities, live demonstrations, an Agtech trade show and a speaker program curated by AusAgriTech.

The structure is deliberate: connect personal ambition with industry reality. It’s not just about seeing robots in the field or data dashboards in action. It’s about asking: How does this technology serve community, environment and future livelihoods?

Building industry fluency and leadership

For Queensland’s Agrifood-tech ecosystem, the Agri-Rise presence at Gatton is more than symbolic. It reflects a growing recognition that the next wave of innovation requires not just capital and technology, but diverse leadership. By encouraging participants to identify trends, engage with exhibitors, and practise critical reflection, the program is actively shaping career readiness.

As the day closes with a sundowner among peers, researchers and entrepreneurs, participants will leave not only with notes in their resource packs, but also with expanded networks and a clearer sense of how they might lead within this fast-evolving sector.

---

A wider signal

The Agri-Rise Gatton immersion demonstrates what purposeful program design can achieve: embedding emerging leaders into the heart of industry showcases, creating touch-points for collaboration, and ensuring that conversations about the future of food are informed by those who will be responsible for it.

As the Agrifood-tech landscape grows more complex, initiatives like Agri-Rise remind us of a simple truth: technology alone does not shape the future. People do. And in Gatton this October, a new generation of women will be stepping into that role.

Find out more about the Agri-Rise program initiatives here.