TechTuesday – August 2026

Verifying the Food System: High-Leverage AI for Low-Trust Markets

Global markets no longer run on trust; they run on verifiable proof. For agricultural exporters, proving their sustainability and origin credentials has become a heavy technical bottleneck. The required data is incredibly messy, siloed, and scattered across completely different systems.

As Fractional CTO at Backstory, Mark Dunlop is using an AI-first approach to approach this data crisis. In this talk, Mark will share how they are building AI agents anchored by a permanent “semantic memory” – a system that deeply understands the long-term relationships, rules, and history of a farm’s ecosystem. Discover how capturing this deep domain knowledge allows a lean engineering team to safely delegate complex data mapping to AI, freeing up their attention to focus on high-value decisions and turning raw farm data into a major competitive advantage.

Register now

Event Outline:

5.00pm – Member registration opens, networking, drinks and nibbles
5.30pm – Non-member registration opens
6.00pm – Canterbury Tech updates
6.10pm – Quick Pitch
6.15pm – Guest speaker
7.00pm – More networking
7.30pm – Close of event

Things to note:  

• Each attendee will receive 2 drinks tickets for the event. Alcoholic beverages may not leave the function space.
• Members must have a valid membership at the time of booking and on the day of the event. This will be validated at each point and we reserve the right to invoice the event at the full, non-member rate in the event that membership has lapsed.
• Please note that registering for this event will be taken as acceptance that your image, name, or voice may be included in a recording or photos of proceedings that will be published after the event. 
• By registering for a Canterbury Tech event, you are agreeing to abide by our Code of Conduct.