Daily Inspiration: The Future of Agriculture – “Excitement should be your destination, and innovation your mode of transport!”

“Excitement should be your destination, and innovation your mode of transport!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Some of the events at which I speak feature a ‘graphic recorder‘ – an individual who creates a digital image-based overview of the key points in my keynote, doing this in real-time while standing next to my stage, This is the one that was created while I spoke at CattleCon 2024 in Orlando.

Moments before I took the stage, the graphic recorder from Ink Factory was ready to go with a blank slate – and by the end of my talk, had created the moments of magic captured above.

Visit their Website – I love the tagline: “You talk. We draw. It’s awesome”

And it is true – their work is awesome!

Over the years, there have been many events where these graphic recorders have worked to capture the essence of the insight I shared from the stage – this is one created when I spoke at an insurance vent several years ago.

And here is another one from a keynote I gave for Whirlpool in Chicago on some of the trends around the connected home of the future.

These artistic creations are a fantastic way of capturing insight at conferences and events and are often distributed to attendees post-event. I’ve always been fascinated to watch these people working, sometimes keeping a close eye from the stage on their progress and effort. I’m mesmerized by the speed of their creative process, particularly as I offer up my insight at a relentless pace of velocity.

The recent CattleCon 2024 event took things one step further.  Post keynote, attendees were invited to share their ideas on what excited them about the future of ranching, agriculture, and farming – and so a second ‘idea board‘ was created.

What captured my attention was that the theme was specifically created to capture the excitement for what tomorrow might bring: “In 10 years, I’m excited about.…” The trends of which I spoke resonated with the crowd – with a few key themes emerging:

• the idea of 24-hour farming – “being able to farm from anywhere, anytime.”
• the arrival of the next generation farmer – the hyperconnected child of today – “The next generation of meat producers & the technologies they will be working with” to “‘ I’m excited to see where my children will end up in agriculture” and “digital native mindsets will be innovators”
• the impact of hyperconnectivity, with the ability to have “autonomous feed crop monitoring”
• how that technology might provide for better herd health – “biometrics allows for better tracking and quality control” and “faster and more accurate info for cattle health”
• the potential role for AI – “becoming smarter with AI” and “seamless partnering with AI automation“
• pursuing direct consumer relationships, as in “the consumer is king… and so is the rancher and farmer” and  “real-time track and trace beef cattle from farm to table”

One item in particular grabbed my attention, having to do with the transition of the family farm from one generation to another: “I’m excited to transition my ranch to my son.” That one resonated with me since it has long been my belief that the arrival of the next wired digital native into the family farm will provide many opportunities for innovation.

It also puts into perspective that something magical often happens when people think about the future – people can become excited about the opportunities for tomorrow, rather than suffering from the dread of what it might bring. This particular graphic recording showed that it happened here!

And that’s the key point – everyone should be excited about their future – excitement should be the destination of your future voyage. Innovation! The ability to try new ideas, understand new concepts, and develop new strategies – should be the method of getting to that destination of excitement for tomorrow.

In other words – “excitement should be your destination, and innovation your mode of transport!“