Programme & Speakers

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Some of our fantastic speakers…..

 

Andrew McHardy, Agricultural manager, Tesco

Agricultural Sustainability Manager at Tesco working within the produce sector.

 

Charles Banks, Partner & Managing Director, The Food People Ltd

Charles is partner and Managing Director at thefoodpeople, a fourth generation foodie, an expert in food futures and a ‘champion of change’. Cooking at his mother’s side in the kitchen is where Charles’ obsession for food began! He and his business, thefoodpeople, are known for shifting the future of food and drink by harnessing the power of trends. Charles has spent the past 35+ years in the food industry working across all sectors including food service, fine dining, hotels, food brands and food retailing. Thefoodpeople, established for over 20 years, are a global trends business, specialising in future foresight in the food and beverage sector. A united group of trend spotters and innovators, they’re a team of psychologists, chefs, marketeers, product developers, academics, flavourists, historians and anthropologists. But more than that, TFP are ‘champions of change’ that bring their inherent experience and human intelligence to foresight, as well as an obsession for food and drink, natural curiosity, intuition and tenacity. This is underpinned by their vision ‘to shift the future of food and drink’. What drives us is our desire to shape a better future across society by harnessing the power of trends. Thefoodpeople are owned 100% by its employees and operate globally supporting brands, retailers, manufacturers, hospitality operators and even governments and not-for-profit organisations, to identify the trends of today and yesterday, build the foresight for tomorrow and the future so that they can act now, to
make transformational impact to their business and the wider industry.
In addition, Charles co-founded thefoodpeople Foundation in 2020, partnering with affiliated charities and their community, to shift food, health and education in schools, to impact future generations. Charles adds “The reason that “thefoodpeople” exists is because we’ve been in your shoes. We know what it’s like; we know it’s not easy identifying and activating trends. It’s a fact that consumers are moving faster than industry, so decoding your businesses place on the future horizon and designing brilliant but nimble business models, strategies, and developing deep, value-based connections with consumers are essential traits of innovators both today and tomorrow. So do the most powerful thing a business can do – champion & harness change, don’t let it harness you”.

 

Mark Betson, Water Resources Specialist, NFU

Mark has been part of the water unit in the Environment Team since joining the NFU at the start of 2024. He leads on issues relating to water resources including drought, abstraction licencing and business water use, liaising with the EA and water companies in support of agriculture. Mark sits on the Leadership Board for the National Framework for Water Resources and jointly chairs the agriculture subgroup of the National Drought Group. He has a background as a National Public Policy Adviser working on environment and land use for the Church of England and as an environmental consultant with ADAS.

 

Veryan Bliss, Chair of Fresh Produce Board, Red Tractor

Veryan Bliss is a food and farming advisor and non-executive director with over 30 years’ experience working across fresh produce supply chains. She specialises in helping businesses bridge the gap between innovation, commercial reality, and technical delivery—focusing on how new tools and ideas translate into something that actually works on farm and through the supply chain.
She is the founder of Food Intelligence Ltd, where she works directly with growers, packers, and supply chain businesses to improve performance, strengthen systems, and adopt new approaches to data, traceability, and assurance. Alongside this, she works with agritech businesses to shape and challenge their propositions—advising on real-world use cases, commercial fit, and operational delivery, drawing on her experience across the full supply chain.
Veryan began her career as a technical assistant in field vegetables before progressing to Technical and Commercial Director at Suncrop Produce, where she developed particular expertise in protected glasshouse horticulture. This gives her a rare combination of deep technical grounding and strong commercial instinct. That experience now underpins a broader advisory and governance portfolio, where she works across the full supply chain—from primary production through to retail—rather than from a single functional perspective.
Alongside her consultancy work, she holds a number of senior governance roles. She is Chair of the Fresh Produce Sector Board at Red Tractor and a Non-Executive Director of Assured Food Standards. She is also a Trustee of the East of England Agricultural Society and a Non-Executive Director at The Andersons Centre. She previously served for over a decade as a Non-Executive Director at the Fresh Produce Consortium, contributing to key industry issues including regulation, food safety, and supply chain resilience.
Veryan is known for her pragmatic, straight-talking approach and her ability to challenge where innovation doesn’t align with commercial or operational reality. She is particularly interested in why some technologies scale quickly while others stall—and how agritech, from field-level data through to supply chain traceability, can be better integrated to deliver real gains in productivity, resilience, and trust.