This half-day event, presented by NSF International and CIRANO, in collaboration with CTAQ, on September 26 at DoubleTree by Hilton Montreal, featured an outstanding line-up of industry experts who shared examples of how leading edge agro-food companies are using advanced technology to outpace their competitors and drive their businesses forward.

Nathalie de Marcellis-Warin, President and Chief Executive Officer of CIRANO and Full Professor at Polytechnique Montréal, introduced the event. She was also the moderator of the event's program.

Renata McGuire, Associate Director, Operations, Consulting and Technical Services at NSF International, spoke with an interactive presentation illustrating the latest technological trends in food safety. She presented the progress made in smart eyeglass applications by providing examples of how the food and beverage industry is adopting this technology. Guy Latreille, Director of Compliance and Risk Management at Agropur, who was present alongside Ms. McGuire, spoke about Agropur's approach to IT investment.

JoAnne Labrecque, CIRANO Fellow and Associate Professor at HEC Montréal, then took the floor. In this research project presentation, she shared the emerging models of digital commercialization in the bio-food sector.

The presentation by Bassem Zachary, Expert Advisor - IdO (IoT) & Industry 4.0/Strategy and Innovation, and Pierre Poliquin, Director of Automation, at SNC-Lavalin, focused on consumer behaviour in the digital age. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) has created an unprecedented platform for technological innovation. Attendees at the NSF Technologies conference heard from SNC-Lavalin about the value of better data leading to better visibility which leads to better decisions.

The day finished with keynote speaker Marc Aust, Director Operations Innovation at Domino's Pizza. He took the group through how Domino’s uses technology and innovation to drive their digital strategy and now consider themselves an e-commerce company that sells pizza!