{"id":1601,"date":"2023-08-08T12:42:39","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T12:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/?page_id=1601"},"modified":"2025-08-20T09:58:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T09:58:25","slug":"kenneth-irons","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/standards4dt\/kenneth-irons\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenneth Irons"},"content":{"rendered":"    <div class=\"ituContainer grid\">\n        <div data-span=\"12\">\n                            <div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns has-white-background-color has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">    <section>\n        <div class=\"ituContainer grid\">\n                                                <div data-span=\"3\">\n                    <div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"508\" height=\"508\" src=\"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Kenneth20Irons-e1690816140141.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-437\" style=\"width:200px;height:200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Kenneth20Irons-e1690816140141.jpg 508w, https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Kenneth20Irons-e1690816140141-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Kenneth20Irons-e1690816140141-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 508px) 100vw, 508px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Kenneth Irons<br><\/strong>Chairman, AgriTech New Zealand<br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>            <\/div>\n                                                <div data-span=\"6\">\n                    <div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-plain is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">Kenneth Irons is a New Zealander, a company owner and director who has lived in five countries working for five decades in five industry sectors \u2013 firstly, in the health sector (he graduated as a pharmacist), then the media sector, the aviation sector, the corporate and commercial banking sector, and for the last decade, the agritech sector. While the sectors themselves are disparate, Kenneth followed a unifying theme \u2013 namely, how governments, and especially how large corporates, work with businesses in the medium enterprise segment, those firms generally with 20-100 employees \u2013 too big to think small and too small to think big. The relevance Kenneth\u2019s perspective has to agritech in general and to standards and data interoperability in particular, is that governments and global ag and agtech corporations often overlook the importance of growing or growable businesses that have valuable IP, technologies, products and services, solid balance sheets, and the agile capacity to bring new products to market, even if only locally or regionally rather than globally.\u200b In presenting to this forum, therefore, Kenneth will apply the lens of commerce to the conversation, emphasising the importance of AI, IoT, and like technologies to be accessible to businesses who have products that can be more valuable globally in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>            <\/div>\n                                                <div data-span=\"3\">\n                    <div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100px\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"96\" src=\"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/organization-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1460\" style=\"width:74px;height:74px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Affiliation<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><strong>AgriTech New Zealand<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>                    <div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100px\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"96\" src=\"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Affliation-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1459\" style=\"width:72px;height:72px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Profession<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><strong>Chairman<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>            <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/section>\n\n\n<div class=\"ituContainer\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/?page_id=1462\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"standards4dt\"><strong>See all speakers &gt;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>                    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"parent":234,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1601","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1601\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itu.int\/cities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}