Shownotes
Episode Summary
CEO of Indoor Ag-Con, Brian Sullivan joins the show to share his years of experience in event management and what led him to acquire Indoor Ag-Con, the premier trade show & conference for indoor vertical farming & controlled environment agriculture. Today, Harry and Brian discuss the highs and lows of the events industry, the resilience Brian showed throughout the course of the pandemic, and the importance Brian places on problem-solving and fostering a familial-type culture among his team.
Thanks to Our Sponsors
CEA Summit East - https://indoor.ag/cea-summit-east-2025/
Indoor AgCon - https://indoor.ag/
Key Takeaways
07:14 – Harry welcomes CEO of Indoor Ag-Con, Brian Sullivan, to discuss their shared love of New York City, how Brian got into the events industry and his path to entrepreneurship
18:11 – Brian reflects on two major snags he’s experienced while putting on trade shows
21:44 – Acquiring Indoor Ag-Con and Brian’s vertical farming origin story
25:17 – What Brian looks for in an event before deciding to acquire it
33:34 – Gathering input on how to grow, change, and make it better
36:44 – Brian speaks to some of his favorite moments from event management
43:36 – Brian shares what he learned about resilience and leadership throughout Covid
48:29 – Where Brian learned his resilience and why fostering familial support is so important
52:33 – Harry thanks Brian for joining the show and Brian makes a specific ask of the audience
Tweetable Quotes
“I fell in love with the [events] industry. It really is Lights, Camera, Action. It’s buildup and it’s creating something again and again. There’s always a twist. There’s always excitement. And business is transacted there.” (12:49) (Brian)
“Connors Exhibition Group was the company I worked for. And the show I was brought onto was the National Hardware Show. It was actually the third-largest trade show in North America. I got a lot of experience but then I left honestly because it was very corporate. My wife was working in the same industry which is how we met. And we saw an opportunity to try to start a little company, and it worked.” (13:55) (Brian)
“For me, it’s fun. I can’t see myself ever doing anything else. It gets in your blood and it’s a lot of fun producing events.” (21:03) (Brian)
“If you’re building a farm, in my mind, where do you start? Do you start at building it or do you start on who your customer is going to be? Are you selling it to a restaurant? Are you going direct-to-consumer? Are you going to grocers?” (32:53) (Brian)
“There are two things I say to our teams at times. ‘If we run into a problem, it’s not the problem. It’s how you resolve it.’ And I also tell them, ‘The road to success is not a superhighway. It’s a goat path.’” (45:22) (Brian)
“I believe the best learning moments are when things go wrong.” (47:57) (Brian)
Resources Mentioned
Indoor Ag-Con – https://indoor.ag/
Brian’s Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-sullivan-13b3651a/
Sponsor Info
Cultivatd’s Website – https://cultivatd.com/
Cultivatd’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cultivatdco/
Cultivatd’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/cultivatd
Cultivatd’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/cultivatd/
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Mentioned in this episode:
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
Transcripts
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Speaker:spelled C-U-L-T-I-V-A-T-D.com
Speaker:or click the link in the show notes. Honestly, because it was very corporate and
Speaker:I saw the corporate ladder, you know, and a corporate ceiling and I just
Speaker:decided, you know, at that time I was married with children, hadn't come yet
Speaker:and everything, but getting married and we saw an opportunity. My wife was working
Speaker:in the same industry, that's where I met her and we had an opportunity where
Speaker:she had a job and we thought, well, you know, I didn't want to do
Speaker:the corporate thing anymore, can we just try and start a little company and
Speaker:it worked.
Speaker:Welcome to the Vertical Farming Podcast, weekly conversations
Speaker:with fascinating CEOs, founders, and agtech
Speaker:visionaries. Join us every week as we dive deep into the
Speaker:world of vertical farming with your host, Harry Duran.
Speaker:Vertical Farming Podcast, Season 5. Welcome back. First-time listeners, you
Speaker:are in the right place if you're looking for a show where we speak to
Speaker:fascinating CEOs and founders of the leading vertical farming companies from around
Speaker:the world. I'm your host, Harry Duran. In case you missed last
Speaker:week's episode, we spoke to Stephen Eaves, the CEO and founder of
Speaker:VoltServer. And Stephen joined the show to share over 20 years of
Speaker:experience in the energy industry, his passion for doing things that have never been done
Speaker:before, and why and how he ended up being an
Speaker:expert in battery management, power electronics, and energy infrastructure.
Speaker:He has 15 patents issued or pending related to energy storage and power
Speaker:conversion. As you might imagine, we geeked out a lot about
Speaker:electricity and power and the need for that
Speaker:in the vertical farming industry. We talk about the origin story of VoltServer
Speaker:and the technology behind it, digital electricity. I had the pleasure of meeting
Speaker:Stephen at Indoor AgTech NYC
Speaker:last week. I met Stephen and his brother James, had a blast.
Speaker:I'll be talking more about the event, and to be honest, so
Speaker:excited with the opportunities that happened as a result of Indoor AgCon NYC.
Speaker:So shout out to them for partnering with me, and
Speaker:probably lined up close to 20 new interviews. So it's going to be
Speaker:interesting. I got to get everything in order and do my outreach, but I'm really
Speaker:excited about the opportunities that are there to tell those stories. This
Speaker:week we keep the stories going with Brian Sullivan, the CEO of Indoor
Speaker:AgCon. Speaking of conferences, I was at Indoor AgCon in Las
Speaker:Vegas, my first vertical farming conference, and I really had a
Speaker:blast. And I'm sure I'll be making it out there next year. He
Speaker:joins the show to share his experience in in event management and what led him
Speaker:to acquire Indoor AgCon, one of the premier trade show and conferences
Speaker:for indoor vertical farming and CEA. In this episode, we discuss
Speaker:the highs and lows of the events industry, the resilience Brian showed through the course
Speaker:of a pandemic, and the importance Brian places on
Speaker:problem-solving and fostering a familial-type culture among his team.
Speaker:Very interested to have this conversation as I
Speaker:wanted to know what it is that he saw in terms of the opportunities in
Speaker:this industry, and the conversation does not disappoint.
Speaker:This episode is brought to you by the Vertical Farming Weekly newsletter. Each week, our
Speaker:team member Noah brings you the latest and greatest in the world of vertical farming.
Speaker:It's also how you're notified when new episodes are available, so please sign up
Speaker:today at verticalfarmingweekly.com. If you enjoyed this episode or
Speaker:past episodes, I'd love it if you leave a rating and a review at ratethispodcast.com/vfb.
Speaker:I'd love to read yours out next. The show has been growing steadily,
Speaker:but I want to make a heartfelt request to you as the
Speaker:listener. If this is a new show for you, or if you're a longtime listener,
Speaker:if you're getting value from these episodes, one of the
Speaker:best ways to increase the
Speaker:listenership of a show is when someone who is listening to the show
Speaker:currently recommends it to a friend. So if you are in this space and you're
Speaker:getting value, I'd love it if you just recommend it to one person this
Speaker:week. Vertical Farming Podcast. We love to see those listenership
Speaker:numbers grow over the course of the weeks and the months, and I appreciate
Speaker:your help in getting us there. Okay, let's jump into this conversation with
Speaker:Brian Sullivan. So Brian Sullivan, CEO of Indoor Icon, thank you so much
Speaker:for joining me on the Vertical Farming Podcast. Yeah, great to see you
Speaker:today. A special shout out to Suzanne from Indoor Icon who
Speaker:connected us. I was able to attend my first Indoor Icon
Speaker:at my first vertical farming conference ever in Las
Speaker:Vegas. And I'm pretty new to this space, started the show in 2020.
Speaker:But it was a really fun experience. And then we were chatting
Speaker:because we were— doing a little bit of sponsorship with the event. And I
Speaker:was— I'm always interested in, as regular listeners will know, in
Speaker:origin stories. And I thought, well, let's get Brian on and let's see
Speaker:how this all got started. But maybe for the benefit of
Speaker:listeners, where's home for you right now? Well, first of all, you mentioned Suzanne Pruitt.
Speaker:So I just have to say, Suzanne, the best thing she does is tell me
Speaker:no. And so it's great. She really kind of keeps a
Speaker:guide on us embedded in the industry. So it's really good.
Speaker:But my origin is I've been a special event producer for
Speaker:many years, and I live in Trumbull, Connecticut. So, which is—
Speaker:I'm about halfway between New York City and Boston, so
Speaker:we're in and out of those cities quite often. I know of Trumbull. I grew
Speaker:up in Yonkers, so home is Minneapolis now, but I grew up in Yonkers, New
Speaker:York, so I'm very familiar with the Northeast. Ah, you're right, that was right
Speaker:down the street. I can actually be on 42nd Street in an hour, so
Speaker:it's, uh, we go through Yonkers to get there. So, so
Speaker:it's, uh, I love it. Yeah, and the beauty of that corridor
Speaker:is the train system, like the Metro-North commuter railroad
Speaker:train. You don't have to live in the city to have the city within, to
Speaker:your point, an hour's reach away. And so it's really nice
Speaker:between Connecticut and upstate New York. Yeah, 1 hour to
Speaker:42nd Street. I can take a 10-minute drive to Fairfield, Connecticut,
Speaker:get on the train, and then if you get the express trains— you can
Speaker:get a local, which will take you longer— but in 1 hour, you can be
Speaker:on 42nd Street. Literally, in Times Square, you know, a couple blocks away is
Speaker:Times Square, and you're really sitting in the heart of Manhattan.
Speaker:Did you grow up in Connecticut? I did. My parents were
Speaker:born one street apart from each other in Bridgeport,
Speaker:Connecticut, and they moved to Trumbull, Connecticut. And I am from
Speaker:a large family. I'm number 5 of 8 kids. So we have—
Speaker:we do big golf outings and things that we call Dozens of Cousins,
Speaker:because we literally have dozens of cousins. And so where I
Speaker:was brought up is really only about a mile away from and all my family
Speaker:is in and around here. You know, we've all kind of left and come back,
Speaker:but somehow we've all ended up, you know, back very close. Do you remember the
Speaker:first time or your first foray into New York City? I do.
Speaker:That's when I was in my, you know, 16,
Speaker:17, 18 years old, and I'm not sure we tell those stories in public
Speaker:anymore, so— because the
Speaker:pack I ran with. I say that
Speaker:because I grew up in Yonkers, and for those who don't know, there's the 5
Speaker:boroughs, there's Manhattan, which everyone is most familiar with, and then you have the
Speaker:Bronx. And then once you leave the Bronx, you're in Yonkers. So it's the first
Speaker:city outside of Manhattan. So New York City was my backyard,
Speaker:and I was just like, there's parts of, uh, Yonkers is very hilly, so
Speaker:there's parts of Yonkers where you can see New York City, you know, you can
Speaker:see the skyline. And so it was, it was, uh, beckoning to me. And I
Speaker:do remember, like, always, as soon as I got my driver's license, I was like,
Speaker:I have to go check it out. And the trains make it easy too. So.
Speaker:Energetically, I mean, it was just a fun experience. And I remember the
Speaker:feeling. And I still love big cities. I've lived in LA as well. There's something
Speaker:about stepping into New York City where you just— you feel like the pulse and
Speaker:the energy of the city, which I really enjoy. It's the same story, Harry, that
Speaker:I had. I'm a little further away on it. But the
Speaker:excitement of going into the city and being a part of the
Speaker:beating heart was always kind of a thrill. You would go in,
Speaker:hang out, and actually could be home before morning at times.
Speaker:So— Yeah.
Speaker:So, you know, before the sun came up, sometimes.
Speaker:Sometimes. What's funny about that railroad system, the Metro-North,
Speaker:is the last one out of, uh, Grand Central is midnight
Speaker:or 1, and if you missed it, you'd have to hang out in Grand Central
Speaker:until 6 AM. And they didn't have Uber
Speaker:back in those days. No, just very
Speaker:expensive cabs. Yes, exactly,
Speaker:exactly. Oh, too funny. So how did you get into the
Speaker:events business? Is that something that you studied in college? I'm curious about how that
Speaker:started. You know, I literally tripped and fell. I was in a
Speaker:position that I wasn't happy with, and I was working for
Speaker:a manufacturing organization, and I was in customer service,
Speaker:and I, I really just wasn't happy. And a headhunter called
Speaker:me, and it was a little unusual because he was an engineering headhunter. And I
Speaker:said, for me, engineering? I'm not that much. He goes, no, I got this thing
Speaker:that I want you to go and check out and I worked for— or I
Speaker:came in and he said, I want you to interview for this organization
Speaker:called Conner's Exhibition Group, and everything. I said, well, I don't know anything about it.
Speaker:He goes, just go. Well, the short story is that I went in for
Speaker:the interview and I liked it and I saw that the vice
Speaker:president liked me, so I accepted the job. He
Speaker:never offered me the job, I accepted the job. I said, okay,
Speaker:I'm ready to start on Monday, do you want me? And he said, oh no,
Speaker:we need a We have a few more interviews and things, and we'll let you
Speaker:know. Well, before I got home from the interview, they called and they said, yeah,
Speaker:we do want you to start on Monday. So that's how I
Speaker:got into the industry, and the rest is I fell in love with the
Speaker:industry. It really is lights, camera, action. You know, it's
Speaker:buildup, and it's creating something again and again,
Speaker:and it's— there's always a twist, there's always excitement, and there's,
Speaker:you know, business is transacted there. So there's— I've seen companies
Speaker:that have started with a widget get sold for millions and millions of dollars
Speaker:and, you know, companies that may have not made it, you know. So it's exciting.
Speaker:You know, we're in Las Vegas with Indoor AgCon, but I've done events
Speaker:in New York, Chicago, Miami, you know, across Singapore. You know, we even
Speaker:did indoor ag in Singapore one year. Yeah. So it's— every city is
Speaker:different, and it's not like throwing a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese or
Speaker:something like that. We're just call-upping it. There's a lot of details
Speaker:that go into it, and, you know, the devil is in the details. But if
Speaker:you know those details and get through them, it's a great, great environment. So—
Speaker:I'm curious, Brian, when you got that job, you started— that was your first foray
Speaker:into the event space. How many years passed, or what was the
Speaker:path for you to start to figure out, you know, that this is something you
Speaker:wanted to do on your own, start your own company, and start to, you know,
Speaker:sponsor and throw your own events? I— Connors Exhibition Group was the
Speaker:company that I worked for, and the show that I was born onto was the
Speaker:National Hardware Show. And within a few years of me working on that,
Speaker:it was actually the 3rd largest trade show in North America. So I
Speaker:got a lot of experience on it and I worked for them. They were purchased
Speaker:by the Reed Exhibition Group, but then I left. I started there in
Speaker:1988 and I left in 1994, honestly
Speaker:because it was very corporate and I saw the corporate ladder and the
Speaker:corporate ceiling and I just decided at that time, I was
Speaker:married with children, hadn't come yet and everything, but we were getting married and we
Speaker:saw an opportunity. My wife was working in the same industry, that's where I met
Speaker:her. And we had an opportunity where she had a job and we thought, well,
Speaker:you know, I didn't wanna do the corporate thing anymore. Can we just try and
Speaker:start a little company? And it worked. We left and
Speaker:started contracting to help organizations do things. And we
Speaker:launched a couple of shows and things, some that worked and some that didn't. But,
Speaker:you know, that's the education of entrepreneurship. And
Speaker:eventually it worked for us to have contracts and then
Speaker:launch trade shows. There's— I've worked in the gourmet food industry in the trade
Speaker:show event. We did an event, one of the first successful successes I had
Speaker:was we launched an event called SATCON, S-A-T-C-O-N,
Speaker:which was Satellite Application Technology. So, you know, they say this
Speaker:isn't rocket science. Well, this was rocket science,
Speaker:honestly. And it turned into
Speaker:a great event. It was satellite communications, but the biggest thing that hit it back
Speaker:then— Okay. —was, you know, government and broadcasters. So we actually morphed
Speaker:it from satellites into a broadcasting show. at the Javits
Speaker:Center in New York City. And we— yeah, that's where we held
Speaker:it. And eventually we sold it to the— to NAB, the National
Speaker:Association of Broadcasters. Oh yeah, yeah, I've been there as well.
Speaker:They're an enormous, uh, organization, and it's now—
Speaker:it still exists. The name has changed. I think they call it NAB East now,
Speaker:and it's the largest broadcasting event on the East Coast right now.
Speaker:Of course, you know, in the country, they own the largest one in Vegas. So
Speaker:it's been exciting. It's been, you know, a great education because, you know,
Speaker:as I mentioned earlier, you know, putting on a good event is a lot
Speaker:of details on it. There's a lot of things you have to make sure, you
Speaker:know, lights, camera, action, signs, registration, everybody's name
Speaker:has to be spelled correctly and registered. And, you know, the building has
Speaker:to be right. Hotel rooms are— it's a separate business just to run, make sure
Speaker:everybody can get a hotel room or, you know, that. I'm kind of a stickler
Speaker:at times on times for conferences. You know, if we say we're going to start
Speaker:at 9, I'll give you till 9:03.
Speaker:But to the same thing, I'm checking mics at
Speaker:7 AM because something's going to go wrong between 7 AM and
Speaker:9 AM and you better be ready for it. So check the mics at 7
Speaker:and things to be sure everything's ready so that you can handle, you know, what's
Speaker:going on. It's again the details for a good conference and
Speaker:a good trade show. There's a lot of them and you don't just do
Speaker:it in, you know, people think, oh, you take all year to do this. Yeah,
Speaker:we do take all year to do this, you know. Yeah, you know, for the
Speaker:one coming up We're sold beyond where we were just, you know, just a
Speaker:couple of months ago with the event, I think. So, okay, there's a lot of
Speaker:activities and things that have to happen. So how many would you
Speaker:estimate events you've put on since you started your own company?
Speaker:I lost count, Harry. I really— I lost count. I have some friends in the
Speaker:industry, and we were trying to come up with that number and we couldn't. So
Speaker:we were even just trying to figure out how many times we've been to Vegas
Speaker:alone, and we couldn't come up with a number just the times we've been in,
Speaker:because there are times that I've been into Vegas at events. You know, some
Speaker:people go once or twice in their life. There's times that we were going, you
Speaker:know, 6 or 8 times a year. And there are times, you know, being from
Speaker:New York, if you have meetings that I've literally numerous
Speaker:times gotten on a plane in the morning, fly out to Vegas, have a
Speaker:meeting, have dinner, have a breakfast meeting, and fly home. Not even on the ground
Speaker:24 hours. So we basically fly. My kids say, Dad, you flew to
Speaker:Vegas for dinner? Well,
Speaker:Yeah, I did. Yeah, the good thing about Vegas is
Speaker:there's always a ton of cheap flights in and out.
Speaker:Well, with the price of oil these days, that's
Speaker:starting to go up. So, but yeah, yeah, there's— So I'm really curious, Brian,
Speaker:with all your experience and all the events you've put on, and we'll dive a
Speaker:little bit deeper into ICON, but can you tell a story about— we'll do
Speaker:both sides. First is one that didn't go so well. You don't have to
Speaker:get into specifics if you don't want to, but I'm just curious because it's all
Speaker:about ups and downs. you know, in business. And I'm wondering if there's one that
Speaker:comes to mind and it didn't go well and what happened. I'll do 2
Speaker:quick ones if it's okay. I'll do— first, there was one, yeah, we were doing
Speaker:the International Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. And if you know San
Speaker:Francisco at all, the Moscone Center is on— I think it's on 4th Street or
Speaker:whatever it is on. And we're using both sides of the street, and a
Speaker:protest started for— there was— and I was on a
Speaker:TV camera, got caught, you know, talking to an
Speaker:8-foot-tall goose in the middle of the
Speaker:street because they were protesting goose liver pâté. And
Speaker:there I was on the TV trying to do it, you know. You know, they
Speaker:had some validations and stuff, we took it, but being on TV on it— and,
Speaker:uh, but then there was another one I can remember. We were in Vegas putting
Speaker:on a show and we needed to get a jet, an
Speaker:airplane, a jet onto the show floor. It was a brand new Raytheon.
Speaker:Wow. At that time it was $12 million, so It has to fly into
Speaker:McCarran, uh, well, which is Harry Reid now, and they have to
Speaker:defuel it, and then they have to get a special tug, as they call,
Speaker:and tug it up the street to get it to the convention center.
Speaker:So we're going along and we're kind of following it along, and we have to
Speaker:go by a number of bars on the way, and there's people that— it's like
Speaker:2 o'clock in the morning, people are coming out of the bars looking as, am
Speaker:I really seeing an airplane come up the street? Well, yes you are.
Speaker:But the funny thing about it is, is that we get to the door and
Speaker:the door is 48 feet wide and the plane is 53.
Speaker:Oh no. So, but you
Speaker:know, these guys are experts. They actually tipped it in, they put the nose in,
Speaker:and actually it started going in nose first and
Speaker:everything. And at a certain point they turn it and flip it and backed it
Speaker:in. And I was like, well, another round please,
Speaker:and everything. And they got it in and we, and we, uh, and
Speaker:It was great, it was wonderful. There's, you know, all kinds of stories, you know,
Speaker:some good, some bad, and, you know, because you can't put thousands of people
Speaker:together and have everybody happy. We try, but, you know, there's
Speaker:medical issues that pop and things that happen on show floors. So
Speaker:you have to be ready, you know, at all times. And there's sometimes you just,
Speaker:you never know what's going to happen and things, you know. We have to have
Speaker:medics there because, you know, people even, you know, from, you know, a scratch with
Speaker:a Band-Aid to more severe things that have happened. I think so, but
Speaker:it's— Allergic reactions or accidents
Speaker:or— heart attacks, epileptic seizures.
Speaker:We did gaming shows and the lights, the flashing lights will react on folks.
Speaker:Oh yeah. So there's a lot of things that have happened, but the stories for
Speaker:me, it's fun. I can't see myself ever doing anything else on it. So
Speaker:it's, you know, it gets in your blood and it's a lot of fun producing
Speaker:events. And the team that I work with, you know, we mentioned Suzanne,
Speaker:Suzanne Pruitt. There's another person, a woman who just called me while we were on,
Speaker:you know, Dawn Jeffrey. She's an expert in there. Nancy, I've known for
Speaker:many years. Nancy Hallberg, yeah, I think has been great.
Speaker:I've met a lot of people. Jim Pantaleo, who has helped us
Speaker:tremendously. And, you know, folks like that have just been, you know, Kyle
Speaker:Barnett is taking his, you know, taking over the reins to helping us
Speaker:develop content and things. So these folks, you know, without this path, I
Speaker:wouldn't know. And all along the path, there's so many people I've met. It's been
Speaker:a tremendous sector. So talk to me a little bit about your relationship
Speaker:with Indoor Icon. When did that start? Like, how did it get on your radar
Speaker:even? I'm just curious. I'm curious, you know, how that happens. Well, we purchased Indoor
Speaker:AgCon in December of 2018. And, you know, I
Speaker:mentioned earlier the SATCON event that we did. And, you know,
Speaker:it— when I'm kind of half kidding when I say it actually was rocket science,
Speaker:it was a lot of folks that were building, you know, satellites and
Speaker:sending them up to the sky. So we worked with a lot of engineering folks
Speaker:and they were building something new. You know, the satellites, you know, had been in
Speaker:place, you know, for communications, with the US government and things
Speaker:along that lines. But then it was getting more into broadcasting. And what happened
Speaker:with indoor ag is I saw almost a parallel there because
Speaker:it's a growing sector of something new that's developing and, you know,
Speaker:farms producing, you know, agriculture things, you know, indoors
Speaker:and everything. So, wow, this looks a little similar to what I was doing before
Speaker:because there's a lot of there, a lot of things that have to happen to
Speaker:make it work. Yeah. And so that was the relationship for me. And I saw
Speaker:it in the satellite sector where things have to go in the right direction and
Speaker:things. And I'm seeing the same thing here. As indoor farms
Speaker:develop, you know, there's a lot that goes into them. You know, a budget has
Speaker:to be created. You know, and you— it's— I almost look at it as train
Speaker:cars. You know, they have to be lined up correctly and all going in the
Speaker:same direction, because if one is off-kilter, well, you know, that's going to be
Speaker:a problem on here. You know, everything from, you know, the building itself, you know,
Speaker:whether it's a greenhouse or, you know, an old warehouse that you're converting,
Speaker:you know, from substrates to seeds to watering to,
Speaker:you know, what product are you going to produce, who are you going to sell
Speaker:it to. On And so all of that has to be developed into a
Speaker:plan, including pricing and cost and everything. So all of those
Speaker:items have to be developed into a plan before you go. Well, you might be
Speaker:able to jump in somewhere in between. But, you know, entrepreneurship is really
Speaker:evaluating the risk or taking an opportunity. But
Speaker:things have to line up and all happen in the right direction for success.
Speaker:How much has this been a learning experience for you about the vertical farming
Speaker:industry? A lot. When I was a kid, I
Speaker:never remember a time of not having a garden in my backyard. You know,
Speaker:my dad, God rest his soul and everything, I could remember when before I could
Speaker:walk, there was a garden in the backyard. We grow tomatoes and different products and
Speaker:peppers and things my father would do. And I still have one today.
Speaker:And, you know, my father taught me how to garden and things. So as far
Speaker:as specifically to indoor ag, it's a whole new
Speaker:renaissance, looking at what can be done. You know, I'm seeing
Speaker:some of the things that go on, you know, when I mentioned indoor ag,
Speaker:Most times people who aren't aware of what's going on, oh, you're into
Speaker:marijuana, growing marijuana. Well, that's kind
Speaker:of the small end of it. Not everybody is
Speaker:into marijuana, but everybody's into eating. So that's why we kind of watch it. So
Speaker:to see what's happening and the trays and the rows
Speaker:and just thinking of a warehouse filled with farms
Speaker:and farming things and the way it can grow indoors.
Speaker:And, you know, sustainability and the cheer
Speaker:of local and fresh that folks want. This is— the indoor
Speaker:ag is answering awful lot of questions, you know, and help a
Speaker:lot of folks. You know, those are just some of it, but also, you know,
Speaker:climate change and fires and wind and
Speaker:drought areas, things that are happening, you know, this helps
Speaker:answer a lot of questions. Yeah. So 2018,
Speaker:you you purchased Indoor AgCon. So talk about that journey building that up, and,
Speaker:and I'm curious about what you look for in an event when you decide
Speaker:to either, you know, purchase it or partner with it. You know what, I'm sure
Speaker:there's financials and opportunities that you look at as well, but you probably have a
Speaker:vision for where you can take it. I mentioned the satellite event that we did.
Speaker:It was an exciting time. You know, that was in the, the way—
Speaker:the actual first thing that put me onto, onto the satellite industry is I saw
Speaker:an article in USA Today that said Bill Gates invests $13
Speaker:billion in Teledesic. Well, no one even knows what Teledesic was anymore, and it
Speaker:frankly didn't work. And we believe that we actually made more money on, on satellites
Speaker:than Bill Gates did. So, so, you know, it was the same
Speaker:kind of opportunity here where I— where we saw something that we feel, you know,
Speaker:was helping, helping folks. At that time was communication, and now
Speaker:it's, you know, agriculture and growing. And I think so, so we saw it, and
Speaker:So, you know, we did purchase it in December of 2018,
Speaker:and 5 weeks later, you know, that was early— 5 weeks later in January,
Speaker:so even through the holidays, we found ourselves in Singapore on the other
Speaker:side of the planet working on it. And so it was rush, rush,
Speaker:rush. And then we came back and we realized that we had to have an
Speaker:event in May because we were there, but we didn't have a venue or anything
Speaker:to do. So again, we were rush, rush, rush, you know, to— we signed agreements
Speaker:in to do an event in May to do. So we were really rush, rush,
Speaker:rushing on it. So as soon as we concluded that event, I
Speaker:kind of said to our team, all right, timeout. All right, we have to take
Speaker:a breath here because we wanted to really look at it. And one of the
Speaker:first things I looked at was I thought to myself and our team and I
Speaker:said, how can we do Singapore when we don't have under control what we are
Speaker:here in the United States and everything? So why don't we forego Singapore for now?
Speaker:You know, you know, as part of the purchase and things and everything, so we
Speaker:decided not to do that. And we— what we decided to do
Speaker:is, okay, we're gonna reset everything because it was a different event in
Speaker:2018 and 2019 when we first got it. There was a lot of
Speaker:manufacturers and, you know, talking to manufacturers, which is
Speaker:great on it, but I felt that it needed something more than that.
Speaker:You know, talking to manufacturers is great, but there's no real commerce going on. You
Speaker:know, we needed to bring in, you know, the in events. It's a
Speaker:buying and selling arena and a networking area, and that's what they're looking to do.
Speaker:So we got everything ready, and, you know, through the
Speaker:summer of 2019 into the fall into
Speaker:January of 2020, and we're all ready to go in 2020
Speaker:when the great pandemic stepped up and pushed us right out the window again.
Speaker:So, you know, there's no sense in going over that. Everybody knows, you know, what
Speaker:was happening. with the pandemic and things. So we, we had to postpone.
Speaker:And, you know, when we postponed, it was very tough that, you know, a
Speaker:little, you know, everybody got a little deflated feeling with the pandemic
Speaker:no matter what they did. And so, you know, when we were all excited about
Speaker:having the new environment and some of the new relationships that we created was
Speaker:great. But so we had to postpone 2020. And in the
Speaker:meantime, I have a relationship with a number of other event
Speaker:producers, and I know the folks that I'm friends with, a lot folks in a
Speaker:lot of different sectors and know the folks that were producing the National
Speaker:Grocer Show. So one morning when I was having coffee and
Speaker:things, I called my friend and I said, hey, I think
Speaker:there might be an opportunity for us to co-locate and things. And just then I
Speaker:spilled my coffee a little bit. And, you know, right behind that, I
Speaker:spoke to my friend and she— and I said, would you— what would you think
Speaker:of us co-locating together? And then she spilled her coffee.
Speaker:And then she said, oh my God, Brian, that's
Speaker:exactly what we're looking for. So the short story is, okay, here
Speaker:we go, we're going off in my mind and in their mind, we're
Speaker:not competitors, we should be allies. You know, what does— Yeah. You know,
Speaker:the indoor agriculture, you know, the end of agriculture is
Speaker:harvest and sale. You have to sell it to it. So
Speaker:grocers are a big consumer and they have their thumb on the pulse of
Speaker:what the consumer wants. I think so it was an opportunity for us
Speaker:to kind of get together and build a relationship. With the National Grocers
Speaker:Association. So we're all set to do it in the spring of '21.
Speaker:And we actually got pushed out again a little bit because of
Speaker:COVID And the National Grocers had to move into another venue,
Speaker:we couldn't fit alongside. So we said, okay, let's go. Let's just take another timeout
Speaker:and everything where they went their way. And we went into Orlando in
Speaker:October of '21. And then we decided to come back together. We said, we're getting
Speaker:back together again. And that's what we did, you know, this just a few months
Speaker:ago at Caesars Forum. And along the way, what we've
Speaker:done is we've created relationships and we've
Speaker:created a board. Like, Greg Ferrara is the executive
Speaker:director of the National Grocers Association. He's on our board and a
Speaker:great consultant on it. So that's what we're looking to do. Part of the
Speaker:story is that we were— it was a show where manufacturers were
Speaker:speaking to manufacturers, and what we've morphed it into is this to really an
Speaker:event where commerce can happen. It's an important arena for
Speaker:manufacturers to talk to folks, and we deliver
Speaker:what we believe is the best content on there. And, you know, that brings in
Speaker:the farmers and grocers and things and people who actually use the equipment and things.
Speaker:So, you know, it's worked. You know, we were
Speaker:talking earlier about my dad and farming and that
Speaker:kind of thing, but what I am here is I'm not, you know, someone
Speaker:who's in agriculture deeply and things. I'm an event
Speaker:person who could understand understands it and does things. And our charge is to
Speaker:bring the buyers and sellers together to network and find out what went right.
Speaker:But most of the time, finding out what went wrong is more important than what
Speaker:went right. Yeah. So, you know, and where's the money? You know,
Speaker:Department of Agriculture, are they giving out money? Is it going to the indoor farms
Speaker:or is it going to the traditional farmers and things? So there's a lot of
Speaker:these questions and answers and folks coming in and whether they own a
Speaker:farm or they're they're looking to start one or things, they need the
Speaker:answers. And we believe we're the de facto arena right now to come in
Speaker:and learn and see and put everything together to make it happen. Yeah.
Speaker:You mentioned the bringing people onto the board. Is that one aspect of,
Speaker:in your prior experience with events, that's important in terms of having those
Speaker:subject matter experts, those leaders of the industry to provide that
Speaker:sounding board for you when you create these types of events? 100%. They, you know,
Speaker:I mentioned Greg Ferrara. There's other folks from other sectors that
Speaker:we've been working with on it, but they have their finger
Speaker:on the pulse of what's going to happen, not only today, but in 5 years
Speaker:from now. You know, what are they hearing from, you know, the other growers or
Speaker:grocers or the cannabis sector or
Speaker:any of these sectors, the buildings? We were actually at one point going to
Speaker:co-locate with the International Shopping Center Council that is
Speaker:all about shopping centers. What are you doing with shopping centers? Well, shopping— there's one
Speaker:facility, and, you know, caution memory in use here, that I believe
Speaker:it's in Culver City or just outside of Chicago. There's a Target store
Speaker:that's been redeveloped into an indoor farm. Well, doesn't that make sense?
Speaker:If you're going to a facility like that where you can get local and fresh
Speaker:produce, why not use the products that way? What's interesting is that there
Speaker:are— when you get these people from different industries, there is that
Speaker:overlap because you know, the Grocers Association that was
Speaker:present at, you know, where you did the co-location to your, you know, exactly what
Speaker:you just said, the fact that in vertical farming, you're creating
Speaker:the produce, you're going to have to market it, you're gonna have to sell it.
Speaker:And there's going to be an overlap of some of the same challenges that people
Speaker:face. And there's learnings that can be helpful on both sides. Harry, that
Speaker:gets to what I mentioned earlier. It's like a train and a bunch of cars,
Speaker:they have to be loaded and set correctly. You know, you can't have the
Speaker:caboose out front, or it's going off the tracks. So, you know, when— if you're
Speaker:building a farm, in my mind is, you know, where do you start? Do you
Speaker:start at building it, or do you start on who your customer is going
Speaker:to be? Are you selling it to a restaurant? Are you going direct-to-consumer? Are
Speaker:you going to, you know, grocers, or who's your thing? So, and then you have
Speaker:to line up the trains a long time, and you might have to put one
Speaker:in front of the other to make it happen. Packaging and every other portion or
Speaker:segment of the, of the business has to be evaluated. It has to
Speaker:be— There's cost to everything. So even before you grow
Speaker:anything or sell anything, is there going to be profit at the end? Maybe not
Speaker:if you're just starting in things and you want to get investors in and everything,
Speaker:but eventually, you know, a profit has to be seen, you know,
Speaker:somewhere through the process on it. So, so when I imagine for these
Speaker:types of events, and this is similar to myself because I own an
Speaker:agency, so podcast productions agency, and I'm big on procedures,
Speaker:checklists, standard operating procedures, And also I come from
Speaker:the project management world. I worked in marketing at JPMorgan Chase and
Speaker:E-Trade. So bigger corporations that had teams and this
Speaker:concept of the postmortem was always really helpful when we had big projects. And
Speaker:I imagine for events, you know, getting the group together and saying what
Speaker:worked, what didn't, what can we change, what was helpful for each time one of
Speaker:these is run is probably a critical, important phase in everything you
Speaker:do. Critical. And we like to talk to folks as well and get their input.
Speaker:You know, we love hearing, boy, you guys did a great job and everything, and
Speaker:we love hearing that. But more important is, is tell me what went wrong. Tell
Speaker:me what you didn't like. Because if you tell me everything was great and everything,
Speaker:great, we'll do it again. But, you know, we are always looking for, you know,
Speaker:input on how to grow, how to change, how to make it better. Because,
Speaker:you know, even our tagline here was, you know, growing your business and things. So
Speaker:this is a business, and we look at it not just the event as a
Speaker:business, business, but how do we make this business work better?
Speaker:You know, we've been working with the folks from Plenty, AeroFarms, and, you know,
Speaker:the usual suspects there, you know, those types, you know, AppHarvest, you
Speaker:know, all those types of folks who are, you know, deep into the sector and
Speaker:things, you know, they have great stories, some of them good, some of them
Speaker:bad, and they're, you know, well, you know, or learning experience. I shouldn't even
Speaker:say bad, I should say they're learning experiences because, you know, okay, we
Speaker:pick up the flag and keep moving it forward. Yeah. And so what were some
Speaker:of the takeaways from the recent event in Vegas? You know what, here was
Speaker:a complete fumble on my part is we had lunch for folks.
Speaker:We didn't have a vegan option that, you know, that was kind of
Speaker:like a pie in the face kind of scenario and things and embarrassing that we
Speaker:didn't have that. But, you know, that's one of the things that, you know, we're
Speaker:at an agriculture event where people there, when you don't have a vegan option, you
Speaker:know, that's, you know, from the facility and things. And, you know, you know,
Speaker:that's, you know, we're so concentrated on the experience and
Speaker:folks having a good time or they're having whatever the
Speaker:experience is and everything. But that one little thing was like, what do we— that
Speaker:was not good and everything. So, the content was great,
Speaker:the relationships, the event is growing. When we were in Orlando,
Speaker:we had 50 booths on the event. Usually, you want a full year
Speaker:run on it, but we didn't. We had to go again in February/March.
Speaker:March there, we had 80 booths on.
Speaker:And right now, you know, for next year, we're always hoping
Speaker:to get like 70% and things. Well, we're gone from 80, we already have
Speaker:120 sold for next year and more folks coming on. We're gonna
Speaker:top out at about 150 booths or more of it. Wow. But it's—
Speaker:and you know, that's a testament to, you know, Suzanne and Dawn and
Speaker:Nancy and the team and Jim Pantaleo and Kyle. You know, all
Speaker:helping us, you know, grow the event because it's like the engine of a car.
Speaker:You know, all the pistons have to fire in the right order to make it
Speaker:work. Or, you know, I always try to say, well, you know, when we're alone
Speaker:and we're playing a violin and everything, it's all squeaky. But, you know, when we
Speaker:get there, it has to sound like a symphony. So that's, that's what our goal
Speaker:is. So I asked you for some of the not-so-memorable moments.
Speaker:So on the flip side of that, you know, I imagine the beauty of events,
Speaker:and I've experienced it from my my corporate days, I would attend the, you know,
Speaker:the business intelligence conferences. So really corporate stuff. And then in
Speaker:the podcasting world, I've attended multiple podcasting conferences. I'm
Speaker:friends with some of the organizers of Podcast Movement. So, and I've made
Speaker:friends, friends that are, you know, lifetime friends. And it's, it's, it's a very
Speaker:interesting dynamic for me. I call it like a high school reunion because
Speaker:sometimes you go and you'll see them once a year and you won't see them
Speaker:anywhere any other time. And as you start to build, it starts to become like
Speaker:a family. We're headed to Podfest in Orlando run by my friend
Speaker:Chris Kramitsos. And the reason we go every year, and we missed it the past
Speaker:2, is because it's very community. We go and then
Speaker:they do a great job. They do a gratitude ceremony. It gets
Speaker:harder and harder to do the bigger it gets, but everyone gets 30 seconds to
Speaker:come up and say what are they most grateful for the past 2 or 3
Speaker:days. And then when you start hearing people in their own voices like, oh, I
Speaker:met this person, or I had a great conversation, it really like a nice
Speaker:kumbaya feeling, which is hard to do in a big event. So
Speaker:I'm really, you know, I'm all for like the magic that can happen at conferences.
Speaker:And I'm wondering if there's some like highlights of all the ones you've been to
Speaker:where you've had some like fond memories. You know, it's pretty much right in line
Speaker:with what you've mentioned. It's friends, it's shaking hands, it's
Speaker:putting together. And actually, I get a thrill out of watching
Speaker:business grow, things that, you know, were, you know, one thing one year and then
Speaker:the next year you go, holy cow, look at that thing and how it's grown.
Speaker:You know, I met with, you know, we were putting together some of the CEOs
Speaker:of indoor agriculture together with, you know, some of the folks over
Speaker:at National Growers and things, and we want to be doing more of those types
Speaker:of things. So, you know, it's— and if that particular sector,
Speaker:not as many people came, but even the folks just in indoor
Speaker:agriculture that met, you know, they were saying, wow, it's great to see you. Even
Speaker:though we're competitors, we're on the same field here and we're shaking
Speaker:hands. And, you know, I noticed that you're targeting this area and that
Speaker:area and why. And I think so, folks who don't get the
Speaker:opportunity to meet and talk Just standing
Speaker:around with a beer in their hand chatting for, for a few minutes. It
Speaker:was great. You know, we did a pre-event for our speakers and some VIPs
Speaker:at Topgolf, and I had never been to Topgolf in Vegas before, but— I was
Speaker:there. Oh, right. Correct. Correct. And so what did you think
Speaker:of Topgolf? I mean, I thought it was great. So— Yeah, it was
Speaker:fun. I mean, I'm not a golfer, so I, but honestly, what's funny about it
Speaker:is if you get a good conversation, it's a win. And I got to
Speaker:speak to, I forget the gentleman's name, but from the gentleman from Walmart. Yes. Who
Speaker:is, you know, coordinating all the events happening and what Walmart
Speaker:is doing, which was totally random because he wasn't playing, he wasn't assigned to a
Speaker:group, and we just happened to strike up a conversation. My partner Natalie was there
Speaker:and the 3 of us were just chatting. And, you know, now I've reached
Speaker:out to him and, you know, he's not ready to tell their story yet, but
Speaker:he's going to come on the show. And that wouldn't have happened had it not
Speaker:been for— Yeah, baby. Yeah, that's what it's about. And
Speaker:that's really what That's what it's about, is putting folks together. And it's, you
Speaker:know, I'll mention the Fancy Food Show again. You know, there was so many people
Speaker:used to come to us and go, well, why don't you put the cheese in
Speaker:one aisle, the chocolate aisle in, you know, in another aisle, and the mustard and
Speaker:everything in an aisle so people can get it easily? We're not doing that and
Speaker:everything, because people who go to the cheese, they go to cheese and turn around
Speaker:and forget. They forgot that they needed to pick up pasta and they needed mustard
Speaker:and things to go with it. So you mix it together for the exact reason
Speaker:you just mentioned. Another thing I wanted to mention
Speaker:too is, you know, during the pandemic, we did our Indoor Ag
Speaker:Conversations on it. And what that was about is we
Speaker:wanted to make sure that we were in touch with the community and just not
Speaker:go away. And a lot of event producers were producing these things
Speaker:that were going all day long and everything. And, you know, and they were
Speaker:days long and they were trying to reproduce a trade show, you know, through the
Speaker:magic of Zoom and everything. and the computers and things. Oh yeah. And we thought,
Speaker:well, oh, you know, what are we going to do? And our Indoor
Speaker:AgCon, we wanted to keep the name out there and deliver good content
Speaker:because that's what we're known for. So that's where Indoor
Speaker:AgConversations, you know, came up and things. So they were
Speaker:an hour long. We typically started at 2:00 in the afternoon
Speaker:and we started at 2:00. When we said 2:00, bam, off we go. And
:45, we were messaging folks that are speaking Saying, okay, it is
:now time for questions for 15 minutes. 15 minutes at 3 o'clock, we're gone,
:because people's time is valuable on it. And it worked great.
:We're getting all kinds of accolades. That's starting up again. I think we're gonna have
:one on June 1st, it's coming up. So our conversations, 'cause people
:enjoyed it, 1 hour of in-depth
:concentrated information delivered in an hour and things
:so that you can get on, get off. It's not gonna take your whole day.
:Yeah. And just block the time for that particular hour and go. And then
:you have the rest of the day day to yourself. So, you know, folks loved
:it. You know, we did them at no charge and everything during— at that time,
:just to, you know, say, you know, here we are, Indoor Ag Conversations, you know,
:and get ready to come see us when we're live. Yeah, that's— yeah, it's a
:great way because I think part of the challenge with the events, especially ones
:that only run once a year, is you want to keep that enthusiasm. Your team
:is obviously working feverishly behind the scenes to make sure, like, what else needs to
:be done, and it is a full-time job to make sure you can replicate and
:improve improve the experience, but also the attendees, you know,
:you do have that community feel and you don't want to lose it within those
:11 months, you know, for the next one. So that's a great idea. Absolutely.
:We don't have the full schedule out, but I know Suzanne has— we're locked and
:loaded for June 1st. There's another one coming behind it, and there'll be
:more, more coming. You know, we were trying to do 2 to 3 a month,
:you know, during the pandemic and things, but now we're going to be strategic about
:it and things, you know. And a lot of it is You know, starter information,
:and then the balance of the information is delivered at the event.
:And, you know, we're going to be at Caesars Forum February 27th to
:28th and 29th, again co-locating with the National Grocers. Again,
:so we're confident that our content— we always want to, you know, we're going to
:be talking to our board, telling us what we should be talking about, things for
:the future, converting that into a program, then getting folks
:to speak against the program and things in multiple rooms and things. So
:there's a lot of exciting things that we're getting ready and, you know, a lot
:of new things that we don't— I like to do things that I call
:them head-turners. You know, I think that going with national grocers was a
:head-turner. People like, you know, okay, people do events within their own sector
:and it's about this and everything. Well, what does that mean? How does that work?
:It sounds really good. So, and it worked really well. So that's why we're going
:to do it again, you know, this year and then we'll look beyond. I'll reach
:out to Suzanne for my other passion, which started way before podcasting,
:is DJing. So, well, maybe we can do a few. There you go. Yeah, we're
:in for that. That would be fun. So,
:Brian, I do want to just— I'd be remiss, I think, if I didn't
:ask you about the pandemic, especially since you're in the event space.
:And when you think about industries that were the hardest hit, hospitality,
:you know, and live events is literally right up there. So, you know,
:without going too far down the rabbit hole, I'm just curious what,
:you know, when you look back at it, because it's easier to do that now,
:2020, you know, hindsight is 20/20. What did that experience teach
:you or What did you learn in terms of like resilience? And, you
:know, it's probably not something that anyone was prepared for by any means. But, you
:know, how did you as a leader, you know, work through that? What'd you pull
:from? And, you know, what are your takeaways now that it's been like 2 years
:past? I wasn't a Boy Scout, but their motto is be prepared
:for things. And it's very difficult to be prepared for something like a
:pandemic on it. And, you know, I feel for restaurants and
:airlines and hotels, you feel feel a lot, you know, for what they all went
:through and things. But frankly, our industry was even more than
:that. We were not allowed to meet at all. Zero. So, it was a full
:brake stop on it. I was actually— I remember on
:Friday, March 13th, Friday the 13th, I was on the phone with the
:mayor's office of San Diego because we had an event coming up
:the 23rd to the 27th. So, in 2 weeks. And, you know, the mayor's
:office said to me boldly and frankly at that point, Brothers, no more
:conversation. You're not getting the building, and everything. So, now we had
:all kinds of things already on the way, so we had to stop trucks
:and turn trucks around, things. So, full stop.
:No business. Yeah. Complete stop to zero. The thought process
:was, well, maybe in April we can pick this back up, and June, July,
:August, September, and the clock just kept on ticking and
:things. So, you have to be nimble. There's 2 things I say to
:our team at times. It's, you know, if we run into a problem, it's not
:the problem, it's how you resolve it and things and get on the other side.
:And that would— that was conversations. And I also told them that, you know, the
:road to success is not a superhighway. It's— you're not going there. It's a goat
:path. And if you can traverse the mountain and go up the
:mountain the way the goat does and everything, from pillar to post and things,
:you can make it to the top and things. And that's— And that's what we're
:looking at. So, you know, how do we, you know, It's like bumper cars. You
:know, you hit with a bumper car and it's fun and all that kind of—
:you bounce off. Well, you turn the wheel and then you go again and you
:bounce again. So if you're willing to do that, especially
:in a small organization or a growing arena, you can get there. But
:you have to be prepared and you have to really
:turn your brain a bit at times and everything, because if you keep on doing
:the same old thing and everything, folks might get a little tired of it or
:it just might not work. So be prepared. prepared and try to
:think outside of the box. When you hit something, you know,
:it might be an opportunity, not just, you know, a problem. And frankly,
:that's what happened with Conversations. I don't even, you know, I'm not even sure. I
:think one day we were just thinking, well, Conversations. Well, wait a minute, we're into
:our ad con. How about Conversations?
:And we were saying it to people, some people, and they're going,
:how did you think of that? Well, you know, you know, it was just maybe
:we were on the barstool one I don't know. But yeah, it was just something
:that, that just popped for us and worked very well. And we were getting
:hundreds of people, you know, coming on, on it and staying
:on the hour. And they were happy that they could come on, learn something
:quick. The only ones— we did do investment at one time for
:Conversations, and that was in 6 segments over 2
:half days. So we did them in the afternoon on 2 half days because it's
:impossible to cover finance In one session because, you know, are you an
:entrepreneur? Do you need A-level, B-level? Are you— want
:crowdfunding? Do you, you know, do you need $1 million or do you need $100
:million? Because it's a different arena. And that was the one that went a little
:bit longer. But again, folks, Rob, we were encouraging people, whether you were
:small, you better listen to all of these to listen to what the big guys
:are doing. And at the same time, what we were telling the big guys is,
:you know what, big guys and everything, you better keep an eye and be on
:all these from the beginning. Because all these smaller guys, their goal is to
:eat your lunch. So it's easier
:if it's plainly stated that this is the arena and how it— and
:how business in the world happens. And it's the same thing in indoor
:agriculture, you know, that there's going to be folks that invest and make it.
:There's going to be some though, and that might be, you know, acquired or not
:make it so well. And again, I believe that some of the best learning
:moments are when things go wrong. Yeah, well said. And I mentioned it
:to Suzanne, but I'll have a follow-up because if you're not doing it already, make
:sure you get those out in public in a podcast format as well because you've
:already created the content. And the beauty of podcasts is you can listen to them
:on the go. You don't have to be in front of a screen. You know,
:you can listen to them, pause whenever you want to. So
:repurpose that content. Make sure, you know, you've created it once, it's adding value, and
:just make sure you get it out there far and wide. Let's find a way
:for work together here, Harry. Yeah. So where did you
:learn the— this resilience, Brian? I think
:it was from my older brother. No,
:because I come from a very close family. And
:there's, you know, a lot of things that happens in everyone's life. I'm no, you
:know, I have, you know, success and tragedy in my life, just like, like
:everybody. So I think part of it is, is, you know,
:understanding, you know, things and shouldering things, you know, from a big
:supportive family, and we kind of work together. If somebody
:needs assistance, you know, if we think of it as like lifting a table, if
:it starts to slip on one side, we kind of roll over and help each
:other, you know. Yeah. Again, I have a family that's unbelievable that have helped me
:in times of trouble and things. So, it's really, you know,
:finding a way to get to the other side and trying to think
:outside of the box, you know. When you hit the wall, you know, back up
:a little bit, take another look at it, and maybe Maybe you have to go
:a little bit to the right or the left and then move forward, you know,
:because there's, you know, a lot of T's in the road and everything. Do you
:go left or you go right and things? Sounds like the jet story from the
:beginning. At
:2 o'clock in the morning when the jet won't go through the door,
:the show must go on. But the other thing that
:comes to mind is this idea of having the support of family. And I
:think inherently what you've done through your your
:organizations and through your businesses, and you create a family yourself, you know.
:And Intericon is its own family, and I think that it must permeate— like, your
:experiences with your family are translating into the relationship you
:have with your team. It's 100%. It is a family, you know. I
:mentioned Jim and Suzanne and Dawn and Kyle
:and Nancy and me, and Terry is another person who's helping
:as well. I rely on, you know, earlier today I was speaking
:with a friend of mine for 30 years. He is in the event
:industry and we're just calling each other, you know, for, you know, frank
:consultations or what would you do here, how would you do here, and can we
:work together, or, you know, what's new. So, um, there's— I
:have, you know, my own family, I have the indoor ag family, I have industry
:families and things. So it's one of my— I mean, you could probably tell
:in my tone that this is a sector that I fell into and And I
:love it's lights, camera, action. There's success, there's
:failure, and trying to do it right. And I can tell you
:that next year we will have vegan lunches at
:San Diego,
:Vegas. Yeah, it's all a function of like being able to recognize your
:mistakes and then moving on from them and then just getting better next time. It's
:not the problem, it's how you handle it. It really, there was an event a
:couple of weeks ago and the catering, you know, we were gonna
:have, you know, I think it was a lunch for Oh no, it was a
:reception, and suddenly we realized that the catering
:company put on the wrong date, and they said, no, no, no, this event is
:tomorrow. No, it's not. It starts in half an hour. So how do you
:fix it? Well, first thing you do is you get a couple of cases of
:soft drinks and you wheel them in on ice while they fire up the ovens,
:and you put in a couple things, some bags of chips and everything, and the
:audience never even knew what happened on it because we were able to kind of
:do it. Yeah. It's not the situation, it's how do you handle
:it. And there used to be a commercial that said, never let them see you
:sweat. Never let them see you sweat. That's right. Yeah, I remember that. And
:that's it. Test the mics before they get up there.
:Yes, exactly. Have that checklist, you know, that flight checklist when flights— when
:pilots take off. I mean, there's, there's a book called The Checklist Manifesto that talks
:about the 150 things they have to literally make sure are, you
:know, are checked off before that plane leaves the ground. It's absolutely the
:same. We— the conference will start at
:9:00. We're there at least by 7:00, and some of the staff is
:usually there, yeah, by 6:00, 6:15, because the folks are registering, those
:types of things. We want to make sure that when they walk in, that here—
:that it's right. People don't want to wait in lines, so you make sure that
:the badges— well, here we go. Do you print them out ahead of time? My
:name is spelled wrong. How do we correct it? Okay, you come over here. You
:know, all the processes. of things, and it's experience. And
:we have a wonderful experienced team. Yeah. Well,
:Brian, I really enjoyed this conversation. Like, you know, just, I love your backstory. I
:love your energy and your enthusiasm. It's clear you're doing what you were meant to
:do. Ta-da! And it's, and I'm glad to hear that it
:lights you up every day and it feels like it's something you'll be doing for
:the rest of your life. Absolutely. I don't know that I could ever do anything,
:anything else. And it truly is, is the team. You know, Suzanne,
:Dawn, Nancy, Kyle, and Jim, and
:Terry, and the extended teams too, because we work closely with, you know,
:Caesars Forum. There's a lot of folks that work there, the national grocers, you know,
:our board members and things, and, you know, and morphing it into
:indirect conversations. So there's a lot of things that we do that we really
:enjoy. We enjoy the industry, the sector, you know, just meeting, you know,
:all the folks in the industry. Everybody's so nice. I think
:it's— Yeah. It's really good. Where there's some sectors
:that are cutthroat, you know, on it where people don't want to do things. But
:this industry is really lighting up, and it's, uh, you know, not only
:the industry but their faces as well. Yeah. So given that
:you know who the audience is for this podcast, is there a specific
:ask you have for the listeners of the show? Listen to Indoor Ag
:Conversations. I think you're, you're going to like that. You know, watch for our
:registration. We're going to open up our registration pretty soon, usually, and it's It's pretty
:early, probably, you know, I'm going to say June 1st, but it might be like
:June 15th that we have things registered. So, and it's always best to
:register early because you save more and everything. We know we can count on things
:and everything. So, but yeah, we'd love to see you stop by, say
:hello to us and everything. We love to shake hands. And now that we can
:shake hands again, and then—
:Fist bump. Exactly. You know, wear masks or elbow bump.
:We are so open. things. Wear a mask, don't wear a mask, or anything, you
:know, where, you know, you know, we do encourage folks to get along. And, you
:know, hopefully the pandemic is close to being in the back
:window. So we want to do that. But, you know, share, meet people. And
:when you go to events, the core thing to do is to meet people, go
:and shake hands and introduce yourself. Yeah, get out of your comfort zone. Exactly.
:And network. This business is— most
:business is done by networking. So come on in,
:come on by and network. That's— it's doing a service to We
:love it because people actually take time out of their business to work on their
:business when they come to Indoor Icon. Yeah, and I think we can chat
:offline about some ideas that I've seen that have worked at other conferences. Podcast Movement
:had red, yellow, and green buttons that you could wear prominently to indicate
:whether you wanted no contact, a fist bump, or you're a hugger. So
:you could kind of, you know, visually communicate that to people as well, which I
:thought was cool. We were looking into wristbands to accomplish the same thing on it.
:So absolutely, but bottom line is it's a
:shower of of information and things. So the best thing to do is
:kind of get out a bucket and collect as much as you can and everything.
:So, you know, good information is great. Bad information is
:great too, to at least know what you don't want to do. Yeah.
:So the website is indoor.ag. We'll coordinate with Suzanne to make sure there's a
:special offer for listeners of the show as well, because we did that last time
:and we had some, some, we, I had someone who was a regular listener to
:the show and attended Indoor Ag because of my recommending it. And then he
:wrote me this long email and he said, thank you for mentioning the conference. I
:hadn't heard about it. I went, I had a good time. So that made me
:feel really good as well. Absolutely. Open arms. Let us know
:and let us know what we're doing right. Let us know what we're doing wrong.
:If you have a suggestion on content and everything, we're always— because we want to
:deliver what everyone would like to hear. Perfect. So indoor.ag is the
:site. Anywhere else you want to direct folks to or have them connect with you
:at all? No, that's it. Everything will be there for, you know, conversations. You know,
:we do content too. So you watch for our information. You know,
:Suzanne sends out a newsletter, so we're doing newsletters, we're doing
:indoor ad conversations, and the live event. And you know, you never know,
:some other things might be popping up one of these days soon. So yeah, and
:so you get— you have time in between now and the next event to work
:on your poker skills as well, which I— I mentioned I've
:been to Vegas more than I can count. I don't gamble at all,
:actually. You know, I'm a— oh, there you go, there
:you go. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I buy a lottery ticket when it's $300 million, so.
:Well, thanks again, Brian. I really enjoyed our
:conversation and you spending time with us. Great, great. You too. Thanks, Harry. Thanks.
:Have a good day. Thanks to Brian for coming on the show. Always appreciate the
:hour my guests share with me and with you
:and opening up themselves and sharing a bit of their personal story
:and their business journey, which is very inspiring. And it's a
:testament to all the hard work that they've put in to get to this point
:in their careers. So I just love having these conversations. Special
:thanks to our season 5 title sponsor, Cultivated. If you are looking into a vertical
:farm or don't know where to start or which technology would suit your needs, reach
:out to them today. Best of all, their service is free because they work on
:behalf of their partners. Learn more at cultivated.com, and that's spelled
:C-U-L-T-I-V-A-T-E-D.com. Just leave out that
:last E, and don't forget to tell them Harry sent you.
:Podcast production and marketing provided by Fullcast. Learn more at fullcast.com.
:And as a reminder, if you're enjoying this show, leave us a rating and a
:review at ratethispodcast.com/vfv, and
:we'll be sure to read that out on a future episode. Nothing would
:make my day more. Tune in next week for my conversation with yet another
:fascinating leader from the world of vertical farming, Jamie Burrows, CEO of
:Vertical Future. Until we meet again, here's to your health.
:Thanks for listening. To read the full show notes for this episode, Which
:includes any links mentioned in the episode, as well as a full show
:transcription, visit verticalfarmingpodcast.com.
:There, you can sign up for our email list to be notified when new
:episodes are published.
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