Program
9.00–9.05
The grand and solemn opening! Åsa Lindhagen (Vice Mayor for Environment and Climate)
We’re open! Ribbon-cutting! Trumpets! Very fancy!
9.05–9.10
Welcome. The moderators. The chefs. The team. The sponsors. The day!
Meet the heroes behind the scene!
9.10–9.20
We know what you did last summer: Felim Meade, Charles McJilton
At the Big Meet last year guys from Ireland connected with an American in Japan to bring Swedish tech to help with food scarcity in one of the world’s richest countries. Isn’t that a weird and amazing thing that can only happen at the Big Meet?
9.20–9.30
Loc Troi – how a listed cooperative of 20 000 farmers became the most sustainable food producer in Asia and why that matters for us all: Dr. Philipp Rösler (investor and board professional)
Philipp Rösler has a resume the size of a continent. Medical doctor, party leader of the FDP, vice-chancellor of Germany, board member of the World Economic Forum, investor and sought-after board member. But what he speaks most happily about is his role in Vietnamese Loc Troi, a wildly successful cooperative in rice and coffee taking sustainability and support of the farmers producing our food to a new level. Without the smallholders farmers onboard we cannot fix food! Or the climate! Sit up and listen!
9.30–10.15
Eating ourselves to extinction: Dan Saladino (BBC)
If we continue to reduce biodiversity and streamline our food systems we lose so many things. Not the least taste experiences that we could have had. And if you, like us, realize that taste is one of the few completely circular enjoyments we can have, this issue is massive! Meet the award-winning BBC journalist, author and activist.
10.15–10.30
FoodTech investing – resilience during uncertainty: Nadav Berger (Peakbridge)
Is food having its Tesla moment during these uncertain times? Peakbridge is one of our leading food tech investors and Nadav its illustrious founder. Be sure not to miss this session!
10.30–10.40
Sorrow and food: Petter Nilsson (Restaurant Petri)
Taste and products lost are not just a reduced product range, but a source of profound sorrow. Sorrow is a mighty feeling. Do you feel the depth of taste yet?
10.40–10.50
Agriculinary SWAT pros – the coolest profession no one told you existed: Sasu Laukkonen (Restaurant Ora, Helsinki)
By combining the professions of chef and farmer we can achieve not just a higher understanding of food, but amazing development and new structures.
10.50–11.05
Enhancing sins by adding and subtracting taste (Confusing? Everything will be clear at the end): Cecilia Tolone (Pastry Star Chef and TikTok sensation), Gali Fried (Vanilla Vida), Gitit Lahav (Sweet Victory)
Cecilia Tolone is a former 3 Michelin Star pastry chef turned recipe developer and TikTok superstar. Understanding BOTH this level of taste and digital media is a rare combination. What’s the value of taste in the digital realms? Gali Fried of Vanilla Vida represents the next generation of vanilla, unleashing the amazing taste through tech. Sweet Victory is the gum that that ruins all fun (by turning sweet taste disgusting). This panel will be about the joys and traps of joy. It is probably the most contradictory panel we’ve ever set up!
11.05–11.25
The state of the food tech world: Forward Fooding
Our esteemed partner Forward Fooding runs knowledge events and co-working spaces all over Europe. And they’re the folks behind the legendary FoodTech 500 list; where everyone wants to appear. So they’re well-informed. Now they will share what they know with us.
11.25–11.40
Forward Fooding Pitching Galore
A great parade of companies from the Forward Fooding realms
11.40–12.05
Urban food; How can food be used as a strategic instrument for sustainable city planning and development? Annika Jacobson (Special Coordinator for Climate Action, Stockholm), Rebecka Milestad (KTH Food), Olle Zetterberg (Värtahamnen)
Stockholm is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe. This is a gigantic opportunity to inject the next level of thinking into the physical fabric of the city. How can we make city planners and property companies alike realize the amazing opportunities in green field development centered around food? Which happens to be one of the key issues for a rapidly urbanizing planet that needs to build health and sustainability into the very fabric of urban infrastructure.
12.05–12.10
Are you a super taster? Dr. Johan Swahn
Taste is key not just to success for the new entrepreneurs, but for our overall enjoyment of food. So let’s do a little experiment with all of you in the audience.
12.10–12.25
Over to the test kitchen
The test kitchen is all about understanding these new products. How do they behave, what are their properties, how and who could best use them? And in which context? Listen up you entrepreneurs and investors and big corps. You might learn a thing or two…
12.25–13.00
Break! Lunch. Tastings.
Meet the others. Taste stuff!
13.00–13.15
Tomorrow we will eat entirely new things and dishes. But what? And how does your new food reach wide-spread market adoption? Sonia Huppert (IFF)
Sonia is Global Innovation Marketing Leader, RE-IMAGINE PROTEIN® at IFF. And since IFF is one of the world’s industry leaders in food and beverages she knows a thing or two about how to formulate the food successes of tomorrow. Hint; meat analogues will become better and better, but it is the entirely novel concepts – the greenfield development – that her mind circulates around. If you’re an entrepreneur, this is a session you don’t want to miss. If you’re a Big Corp or one of Sonia’s competitors you don’t want to miss this either!
13.15–13.25
The Sea Squirt is the new cow: Karl Thorbjörnson (Marine Taste)
The humble filter feeder is delicious, nutritious, improves memory, learning, and even hair quality. It grows like crazy. And if you could put a mid size land farm into the ocean (approx 1000 Ha) you could replace all the meat in Sweden. Sea squirts will be on everyone’s table in the future. Mark our words!
13.25–13.55
Co-Location: The future of Food and Energy: Christoph Henkel (Henkel), Dail St Claire (Aurivos), Steve Meheen (Element Resources), William Doll (Syneidesis Group)
Many Big Questions can be tackled by industrial integration. Nowhere is this more true than between food and energy. We’re proud to present an outstanding panel of the topic by the US-based Syneidesis group of leading family offices and sovereign wealth funds that systematically attack some of this world’s most important issues – and investment opportunities. The panel members are all part of the Syneidesis Group and the moderator, William Doll, is its founder!
13.55–14.10
Over to the test kitchen
The test kitchen is all about understanding these new products. How do they behave, what are their properties, how and who could best use them? And in which context? Listen up you entrepreneurs and investors and big corps. You might learn a thing or two…
14.10–14.40
Break! Tastings. Mingle.
Meet the others. Taste stuff!
14.40–14.50
Connect with the local angels: Christopher Kingdon (Connect), Esben Bistrup Halvorsen (Smallbrooks)
Christopher is the CEO of Connect, the amazing network of angels that increasingly invest in food tech companies. They’re interested for real in what you entrepreneurs are doing to the world of food! Esben is the CEO of Smallbrooks, the company behind the Danish platform Coop Crowdfunding where small food producers can get funding by selling their products before they have been produced. Crowdfunding is about much more than just the money!
14.50–15.00
So, you have the next big thing. How do you grow it? Stories from the inside with Cora Taylor (Volta Greentech) and Lykke Westgren (Nicoya)
Volta Greentech is one of the “next big things” from Sweden, providing feed supplements to ruminators so that they don’t exhale methane (Cora knows all about that). Now it is all about growth! And Lykke is the bioengineer turned growth guru at Nicoya, Sweden’s pre-eminent investment house of food novelties; such as Nicks, El Taco Truck, Oatlaws, Vertical Harvest (US) and Julienne Bruno (UK)! How do we make change happen amongst consumers? Big scale!
15.00–15.25
Building a Sustainable Protein Future: how to address challenges for Diversified Protein Innovations: Marja-Liisa Meurice (EIT Food), Mirva Lampinen (VTT), Ebba Fröling (Mycorena), Jacob Schaldemose (Re:meat)
Our good friends at EIT Food have gathered the leading European big food companies and help coordinate the innovation activities. On top of the agenda we find the need for protein diversification. How do we fix that?
15.25–15.40
Let’s showcase what happens in the EIT circuits! EIT-Food entrepreneur parade!
EIT Food of course doesn’t only engage with protein diversification as per the previous section. A high-energy pitch session of some of the coolest EIT companies around.
15.40–15.55
Into the void, food and nature and food in nature: Renata Chlumska
Renata is one of the world’s leading female adventurers. When we commute to work, she climbs one of the seven summits. When we rent a rowing boat at a London lake, she paddles around Scandinavia. How do you sustain yourself on such endeavours and how can that knowledge be turned into the next gen outdoor products?
15.55–16.10
When we go from engineering to discovery – what happens then? Friederike Grosse-Holz (Blue Horizon)
Friedrike is Scientific Director at the Swiss impact investor Blue Horizon. This is important since food is fast going from recipes to biotech. Unless you command deep science it will be hard to understand the future of food and how it can deliver outstanding returns for investors and the planet. But we’re not just talking labs here. By understanding nature (which we don’t understand) we can embark on a new journey of taste, experiences and relationships between man and nature. And thereby achieve sustainability, health and taste in a warm embrace.
16.10–16.35
From cradle to listing – the financial journey of a food tech company: Alex Gunz (Heptagon Capital), Niclas Holmberg (Vator Securities), Gustaf Brandberg (Gullspång Re:food), Marika King (Pinc), Oliver Oram (moderator)
There has been a discussion about food tech as an asset class (you could argue for that). But there have been few public listings of food tech companies, we’ve seen some spectacular failures, SPACs retracted, etc. Who will own the food tech companies of the future? What does the investment journey look like?
16.35–16.50
A brutalist food manifesto – a new way of eating: Carsten Höller (artist)
World-renowned artist Carsten Höller’s restaurant “Brutalisten” has made waves all across the world. But what is the thinking behind the minimalist menu and how does that connect to what we can achieve through food? This discussion between Carsten and Sweden Foodtech’s Johan Jorgensen will be one for the history books. And if you think that the discussion was too short, Brutalisten will be open for Big Meet participants for an 8 o’clock dinner on June 1 where Carsten will continue the conversation with the lucky ones who get to score one of the 29 seats. Or if you want to meet the head chef, Stefan Eriksson, you opt for the same time on June 2. (booking is done through bookings@brutalisten.com, stating that you come from the Big Meet).
16.50–17.00
Sweden’s Best Alternative Burger! Dr. Johan Swahn (The Taste Lab)
Through a scientific process Sweden Foodtech and The Taste Lab have investigated which are the tastiest alt burgers in Sweden. As a grand finale we release the results!
17.00–17.15
Over to the test kitchen
The test kitchen is all about understanding these new products. How do they behave, what are their properties, how and who could best use them? And in which context? Listen up you entrepreneurs and investors and big corps. You might learn a thing or two…
17.15 –
Tastings. Mingle.
Meet the others. Taste stuff!
10.00–10.05
Welcome. The moderators. The chefs. The team. The sponsors. The day!
Meet the heroes behind the scene!
10.05–10.10
How to lay your hands on EUR7 billion: Diana Rucinschi (European Innovation Council)
Food is a key part of the European green transition. To the tunes of EUR 70 billion in funding… You can actually have Europe as an investor in your project. They invest Big Cash, can follow on, some of the funds are grants and they also come with other goodies – such as free coaches, connections to investors, corporates, procurers etc. Any drawbacks? Let’s ask Diana!
10.10–10.20
Is food solvable? Lena Horvath (Gullspång Re:food)
There is a totally bone-chilling question; what if food isn’t solvable? What if we cannot transform the sector? Then climate havoc is guaranteed and millions will starve to death. Fortunately there are those out there who have taken a deep look and actually have a positive feeling about the future. Let’s ask Lena why she’s in such a good mood.
10.20–10.35
From sugar syrup to sunshine in a can; the rapid transformation of one of the world’s iconic food brands: Barbara Guerpillon (Global Head of Dole Ventures, Transformation & Sustainability)
Dole is one of the world’s most iconic food brands, 170 years in the making. Now it’s time for another step, turning themselves, their growers and the communities around Dole into sustainability-warriors. And not the least becoming leading purveyors of health from fruit and vegetables.
10.35–10.50
The beautiful micro algae food and new tastes of the future: Malu Lücking (conceptual artist)
Our future food will come from the oceans, but not just food – experiences! Micro algae can give us entirely new taste experiences. If we dare look for them. Malu does.
10.50–11.00
The Gastronomy mindset: Estefania Simon-Sasyk (founder of Mycelium Gastronomy Network)
Estefania is a chef, developer of new tastes, and explorer of the connection between food and culture. She currently runs a global network of “hidden gem” experts in food. Maybe it’s because as a kid she fell into the cauldron of taste and has ever since had taste super powers?
11.00–11.15
If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist: Carolin Solskär (Nuverica), Kim Ten Wolde (Stenon), Christoffer Connée (Klimato)
When we have data we can take action. It is not just about knowing things, but to connect that knowledge to real world, instant improvements, savings and product-market fit.
11.15–11.35
The food of the future in the professional kitchen: Gustav Johansson (Jävligt Gott/ChouChou), Martin Berg (Arket), Frida Nilsson (MJ’s)
The service sector is where most of the new food products first will be launched, but how do you reach it and how can you make the best of it? Meet the chefs and food service professionals that move the needle!
11.35–11.50
In it to win it!: Mahbir Thukral (IFF)
How can you make digital transformation a team sport in your food and beverage company Whether you’re a restaurant or a brand owner, the same rules apply. Let’s be honest, not all of us will have a championship-winning TikTok post that takes over the internet, so how can you make digital tools work for you and your business? Here’s a hint – ChatGPT ain’t it but join this session with Mahbir to find out what you can do!
11.50–12.00
Era of We – how one of the largest coffe players have taken an interest in digital: Niklas Löfberg (Era of We)
In order to get the coffee value chain more sustainable, data needs to be present and shared. Era of We aims at solving it through an industry-wide joint effort. And, yes, the founder does have a certain affiliation with Sweden’s leading coffee brand. He knows what he’s talking about!
12.00–12.15
Over to the test kitchen
The test kitchen is all about understanding these new products. How do they behave, what are their properties, how and who could best use them? And in which context? Listen up you entrepreneurs and investors and big corps. You might learn a thing or two…
12.15–13.00
Lunch, food, test stuff!
Meet the others. Taste stuff.
13.00–13.15
Meet the illustrious founder of the zero cacao chocolate: WNWN with Dr. Johnny Drain
Chocolate is one of our great delights, but also a deeply distressing system. It doesn’t have to be that way if we rethink. Meet the founder of the chocolate company not using cocoa. What? Yes, right!
13.15–13.30
How Stockholm could become self-sufficient: Rebecka Milestad and Michael Martin (KTH Food)
The Stockholm region has a self-sufficiency degree of 0.5% (zero point five). But it doesn’t have to be like that. A city contains most of the resources needed to produce massive amounts of food. Let’s have a chat with the leading food super brains of the Royal Institute of Technology!
13.30–13.50
Upcycling Galore! Alejandro Franco (Kaffe Bueno), Kaisa Karhunen (Nordic Umami), Sandra Owe (No Bond Beauty), Ulrica Björnhag (Hagshult), BZ Goldberg and Yair Yosefi (Mediterranean Food Lab)
Through smart upcycling we can’t just make use of everything. We can find immense value where there was none! Makes you wonder how smart (or not) man is. Meet the new breed who clearly is way smarter.
13.50–14.15
The polar opposites use case: Polarbröd and Med Food Lab, feat. Arket: Cindy Kite (Polarbröd), BZ Goldberg and Yair Yosefi (Med Food Lab), Martin Berg (Arket)
We just spoke about upcycling, let’s go deeper into a use case spanning a continent; going from the arid deserts of Israel to the dark forests of Northern Sweden.
14.15–14.30
The journey into sustainbility; The next generation convenience store: Anna Wallenberg (CEO Reitan Convenience Sweden), Lennart Schultz (CMO & CCO Reitan Convenience Sweden)
Can a market leader be a disruptor? Reitan Convenience is the franchise owner for convenience brands Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven in Sweden. As a market leader in its industry, Reitan Convenience has embarked on an ambitious sustainability journey to redefine its segment with the goal of making convenience sustainable and sustainability convenient. An important piece of that puzzle is the company’s living-lab PBX.
14.30–14.45
Over to the test kitchen
The test kitchen is all about understanding these new products. How do they behave, what are their properties, how and who could best use them? And in which context? Listen up you entrepreneurs and investors and big corps. You might learn a thing or two…
14.45–15.15
Break! Tastings. Mingle.
Meet the others. Taste stuff!
15.15–15.30
Forward Fooding Pitching Galore
A great parade of companies from the Forward Fooding realms!
15.30–15.40
How the world’s largest salad farmer will change how you eat: Erik Lundgren (Ljusgårda)
Factory-grown salad from Ljusgårda has a far lower climate imprint than salad grown on freeland. Scientific fact nowadays. Which means you can export sustainability in the form of a factory. But not to everywhere – to places with a specific infastructure and energy set-up. We’ve said it for years, now meet the entrepreneurs that prove it. Oh, and they can grow superior products with the power of flipping the grain diet we sit on. Will you listen now?
15.40-16.00
Plastic fantastic! How we move away from single-use: Charlotta Hedvik (Stockholm), Clara Lidberg (Panter), Suwar Mert (Bower)
It probably hasn’t escaped your attention: single use everything is getting banned. But how do we go about replacing single-use with re-useable cups, plates, utensils etc.?
16.00–16.25
Cooking Up a Better Future: Technology, Tradition and an Israeli Recipe for Our Food System: Shirel Berger (Restaurant OPA), Raz Rahav (Restaurant OCD), Michal Levit (Asif), Shalom Simcha Elbert (TSIRU), Moderated by Mitchell Davis (US Food Legend!)
We know that loads of great food tech companies come from Israel, but also a lot of amazing chefs. And they’e starting to take place and push the agenda towards sustainability, amazing food experiences and societal transformation.
16.25–16.45
The sustainability financing panel. How to recycle money to where it makes most sense: Gary Lin (Purple Organge), Fanny Nachemson (Axel Johnson), Peter Odemark (Gullspång Re:food), Thomas van den Boezem (Peakbridge)
Without changing finance, we cannot change food. So, how is financing changing? Meet some of the investors thinking the hardest on the problem.
16.45–17.05
What could Stockholm become? Nicolas Deswaef (CIAGO), Olga Grönvall-Lund (Reformaten), Laura Forsman (Helsinki University), Sharon Cittone (Edible Planet Ventures)
Cities of the world are the new battle grounds for healthy and sustainable food systems. That’s also where we will start to see the value of food beyond the plate; as a strategic tool for societal transformation, integration and better lives. How can we speed up the transformation? And how can we start to relate better to the world around us?
17.05–
Over to the test kitchen
The test kitchen is all about understanding these new products. How do they behave, what are their properties, how and who could best use them? And in which context? Listen up you entrepreneurs and investors and big corps. You might learn a thing or two…
It’s over! Taste the last stuff from the test kitchen. Mingle. Fill yourself with joy ahead of the weekend!
Meet the others. Taste stuff. Reflect!