The Aquaculture Roundtable Series (TARS) held their tenth annual, first virtual conference after a 2020 hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic

The 10th edition of the Aquaculture Roundtable Series® (TARS) returned with a virtual edition in 2021, following its postponement last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Organised by Aqua Culture Asia Pacific and Corporate Media Services, under the theme ‘Shrimp Aquaculture: Margins • Markets • Productivity’, TARS assembled key stakeholders from the government, academic, public and private sectors, to seek solutions for pressing issues in Asia’s shrimp aquaculture industry and for its future growth.

Established in 2011, TARS provides a neutral platform to share new knowledge, deliberate on critical issues, and identify strategies for improvement – to ensure a sustainable aquaculture industry in Asia. TARS is designed as a series of roundtable sessions to focus on specific sectors of the industry. In the past nine years, TARS covered the following: Aquafeeds in 2011, 2015 & 2019; Shrimp Aquaculture in 2012, 2014, 2016 & 2018; and Finfish Aquaculture in 2013 & 2017.

Initially a pandemic by-product, the event’s virtual format enhanced instead of compromised its aims, drawing close to 400 attendees from their chosen environments internationally. The content was as cutting-edge as its web platform in responding to current challenges that include changes in markets and consumer preferences during these pandemic years; strategies for market-led production; disease mitigation with nutritional; and for the future, sustainability along the supply chain and improving predictability in production with digitalisation and data analyses.

All In The Loop’s custom branded web platform and branded mobile app allowed the conference to proceed with high levels of quality. TARS’ platform utilised: a networking lounge for attendees; Q&A panel, breakout rooms for discussion; and a feature enabling attendees to easily request and facilitate meetings with each-other, which are all available in-app. The custom ‘Matchmaking’ zone created a space where exhibitors, attendees and sponsors could connect according to their interests (e.g. ‘Sustainability’, ‘Farming’, or ‘Nutritional Solutions’).

Breakout room discourse included ‘Building alliances to improve the supply chain and traceability’ and an exploration of Asian shrimp farmers’ distrust of functional feed, with a platform given to environmentalism and bottlenecks to create a sustainable shrimp industry to meet consumer demands – a concern exacerbated by the 2021 documentary ‘Seaspiracy’.