Meet the voices shaping mushroom cultivation
From cutting-edge research to hands-on growing wisdom, our speakers bring decades of combined experience to share with Georgia’s mushroom community.
Our Tracks
🌱 Producer Track
For growers building businesses
🔬 Innovation Track
For those pushing boundaries
🍄 Enthusiast Track
For the fungi-fascinated
Featured Speakers
📅 DAY 1 MORNING · ALL TRACKS
Connor Youngerman
Specialty Mushroom Project Lead · Cornell Small Farms Program
Connor coordinates mushroom research and extension across the Northeast, pursuing his PhD in horticulture focused on mushroom production. His work on novel substrates and circularizing spent mushroom blocks offers practical insights for growers at any scale.
Session: Specialty Mushroom Production
What you’ll learn: Novel substrate approaches · Optimizing growing conditions · Turning spent substrates into agricultural assets
🔬 DAY 1, 3:00 PM · INNOVATION TRACK
Christopher Maurer
Founder · redhouse studio
What if we could grow buildings instead of constructing them? Chris is an architect pioneering regenerative mycotecture—from community projects using demolition debris to NASA-funded research on living habitats for the Moon and Mars. Yes, really.
Session: Regenerative Mycotecture
What you’ll learn: Growing architecture · Demolition debris to structural materials · What NASA wants with mycelium
📅 DAY 2 MORNING · ALL TRACKS + PANEL
Dr. John Pecchia 🔄
Former Director, Penn State Mushroom Research Center · Pennsylvania College of Technology
Twenty years managing one of North America’s premier mushroom research facilities. John knows what kills crops—and how to stop it. His session on integrated pest management could save your harvest.
Session: Defending the Crop—Smart Strategies for Managing Mushroom Diseases
What you’ll learn: Identifying common diseases · Implementing IPM programs · Minimizing crop loss
🔄 Returning speaker — Keynote in 2025
🔬 DAY 1, 2:15 PM · INNOVATION TRACK
Gavin McIntyre
Co-founder & CCO · Ecovative Design
Nearly two decades bringing the biomaterials revolution to global markets at scale. Gavin holds numerous patents and has proven that mushroom technology isn’t just possible—it’s commercially viable across food, fashion, textiles, and beyond.
Session: Mycelium: A New Industrial Crop for the 21st Century
What you’ll learn: Scaling mycelium technology · Industry adoption · 20 years of biomaterials lessons
Learn from the people who’ve done it
Twenty-plus speakers. Three tracks. Two days. From Cornell to NASA, from 50-year veterans to next-generation innovators.
March 5-6, 2026 · UGA Griffin Campus