Zoltan Szelyes CFA, CAIA

The Portfolio Group's Agricultural Sector Conference is already the largest agribusiness event and summit in Hungary in terms of content. The aim of the conference is to summarize and analyze the year's outstanding domestic and international agribusiness events and to provide a forecast for the coming years to help agribusiness players make successful business and investment decisions. The conference offers a three-day professional programme: the event will start with a festive professional evening, followed by two further days of highly complex and exhaustively detailed professional content. The conference will feature top leaders from the national government, banking, corporate and advocacy sectors who will provide first-hand, relevant information that will be useful for all players in the agricultural economy - producers, food manufacturers and traders. It will also provide a wide range of showcasing and market-building opportunities for businesses serving the agricultural sector - input manufacturers, integrators, machinery distributors, finance and other service providers. In addition to a rich programme of events, the conference will provide an opportunity for professional networking, networking and business meetings, with high-quality technical presentations and round-table discussions, and an entertainment programme to keep participants energised and relaxed. The Portfolio Group will present the annual awards in eleven categories at the Agribusiness Conference, which recognize the most outstanding professional achievements and accomplishments in the agribusiness sector. The prizes are awarded by a jury of leading figures in the agricultural sector on the basis of applications submitted by the operators in the sector.

Our lives—and with them, the way companies operate—are becoming digitized at an astonishing pace; paper-based processes are disappearing, and we only visit branch offices for in-person transactions when dealing with the most complex matters; and we communicate and handle matters via digital channels 24/7. But now, the  AI revolution and the agentic AI trend are turning the digital world, internal operations, and customer-facing front-ends upside down. AI agents capable of acting autonomously, as well as AI tools and enterprise solutions that support specific business, compliance, and administrative processes, offer companies previously unimaginable speed and extraordinary potential for efficiency gains. What do we do with the hours of work we’ve gained and the labor we’ve saved? Is artificial intelligence disrupting core business as well? What is vibe coding good for? At our event for both large corporations and SMEs, we’ll be seeking and providing answers to these questions and more!  

The technological race of the coming decades will not be decided by who makes the best use of off-the-shelf solutions. Rather, it will be decided by who is able to create, manufacture, and own the technologies without which others will not be able to function. A new battery that stores energy longer. A material that is lighter, stronger, or cheaper to produce than its predecessors. A drug or diagnostic procedure that provides a solution to previously untreatable diseases. A robotic system, defense technology, a new manufacturing process, or a space industry advancement. None of these are created overnight: they require in-depth research, complex expertise, significant capital, and persistent development. This is what we call deep tech. Deep tech does more than just create new products or services. It can reshape the balance of power across entire industries and build knowledge, manufacturing capacity, and intellectual property that are difficult to replicate or replace after the fact. At Portfolio’s first Deep Tech conference, we will examine how a scientific or engineering breakthrough becomes a marketable company and then an exportable industrial capability. Where do Europe and Hungary stand in the technological competition between the United States and China? In which areas do we have genuine expertise and room to maneuver, where do we depend on others, and how can we move beyond the role of mere users or assembly plants? We’ll also discuss how breakthroughs actually come about. What kind of research environment, infrastructure, funding, and institutional collaboration are needed to ensure that a promising result does not get lost in a sea of publications or prototypes, but instead becomes usable knowledge, a company, and industrial capability. Researchers, university and corporate R&D leaders, founders, investors, banks, decision-makers, and international technology players discuss AI, robotics, biotech and medtech solutions, energy storage, new materials, as well as developments in the aerospace, defense, and dual-use sectors. Through specific case studies, we’ll show where the next major technological opportunities are emerging and what role Hungary and the region can play in them. Deep Tech 2026. A forum for decision-makers who want to get involved early in the most important technological stories of the coming decades.