b'BUSINESS GROWTHYou Cant Automate Authenticity, and People Know ItSHAWN BROOK President, Seed World Groupsbrook@seedworldgroup.comseedworldgroup.com@SeedWorldGroupITS NEVER BEENeasier to connect with people, and yet, genuinetor. The quality of those interactions is. People want to feel seen, connection feels harder than ever. safe, and energized. I recently read that dating apps are a good example. TheyThis is why authenticity matters so much, and why it cant removed friction, made connection fast and abundant, and still,be automated. You can say the things caring people would say, many are bleeding users. Why? Because what people thoughtbut if its fabricated, people feel it immediately. You cant fake they wantedmore options, more accesswasnt what theyauthenticity. You cant fake caring.were actually looking for. But the real constraint isnt caring. Its time. Most people They didnt want more connection. They wanted better con- dont have a limited capacity to care. They have a limited capac-nection. That same tension shows up in business every day. ity to show that caring. Caring takes time to listen, to think, I dont just want another option. and to choose words intentionally. I dont want more noise. So how do you create better connections? First, choose I want something that actually resonates. DEPTH over reach. Being louder doesnt make you more At the centre of all of this is a simple question: are we trulyinfluential. Relevance does. Second, measure feelings and not connecting, or just creating the appearance of it? just metrics. Did someone leave feeling understood or energized? For years, weve measured connection the same way weThats data.measured yield: volume. More impressions, more emails, moreThird, use language intentionally. If smart stays in your head conversations. But just like farming taught us, yield aloneand caring stays in your heart, nothing changes. Language is the doesnt win. PROFITABILITY does. valve that lets connection happen.Connection works the same way. The future doesnt belong to those who connect the most.The number of touchpoints isnt the key performance indica- It belongs to those who connect best.COLOUR SORTERSThe Wisdom of the Third Plant: What Processors Always Wish Theyd Known SoonerROD COCKERLINE VP Sales, Nexeedrcockerline@nexeed.canexeed.ca @NexeedIncMOST PEOPLE DONTstart with their third seed plant. They startchangeovers. Seed companies want to get back up and running, with their first. If theyre lucky (or stubborn enough), they getsafely and efficiently.to build a second. By the time theyre thinking about number three, something shifts. The question is no longer, What do weNo Two Seed Plants Are the Sameneed today? It becomes, What do we wish we had known theTheres a myth out there about cookie-cutter designs. Weve first two times? never built two seed plants the same. Even when we sell the After 25 years in this business, Ive learned this: seed plantssame equipment, its never installed the same way twice.dont fail because equipment wears out. Seed processing equip- Years ago, I sketched a third plant concept on a napkin in ment lasts a long time. What fails is flexibility. an airport with a colleague from Cimbria. Those rough ideas turned into 3D renderings that still hang behind our trade Things Will Change, Whether You Plan for It or Not show booth today. What surprises me is how many people One of the biggest lessons of the third plant is knowing thatpoint to those drawings and say, How do I build that?and change is inevitable. Crops change. Volumes change. Markets,then go home and do exactly that.regulations, and technology all change too. What makes lifeModern 3D modeling lets us identify access, sanitation, difficult is when early design decisions box you in. We see it alland future expansion challenges before a plant is built. Thats the timeequipment pinned into a corner because thats howthe wisdom of the third plant: learning from past mistakes in it was laid out 30 years ago. Now someone is trying to integrateadvance. modern technology into a space that was never designed for it.Experience shows that good ideas transfer across crops, Operationally, from a service standpoint and from a sanitationand training is just as critical as equipment. Even the best-standpoint, thats a challenge. designed plant wont perform if people dont know how to run Thats why todays builds focus far more on access, service- it. Hands-on training builds confidence and long-term value, ability and sanitation. Its no longer just about throughput. Itshelping a first plant operate with the insight and foresight of a about dust control, operator comfort, fast cleanouts, and quickthird.MARCH 2026SEEDWORLD.COM/CANADA 21'