Keynote speakers —
2026 Mariculture Conference of Alaska
Keynote Speaker: Julie Qiu
Julie Qiu (pronounced "chew") operates at the intersection of oyster expertise and brand strategy. As the creator of In A Half Shell and co-founder of Oyster Master Guild—recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025—she helps producers translate technical nuance into premium market value. With over 18 years' experience shaping narratives and identities for iconic food, hospitality, and luxury brands, Julie is an internationally recognized oyster sommelier and educator. Her industry insights have been featured in The New York Times, Food & Wine, and Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil. Based in New York City and Madrid, she drives Oyster Master Guild’s global initiative to codify industry knowledge and elevate the caliber of oyster service.
Keynote Speaker: Vincent Doumeizel
Vincent Doumeizel is Senior Adviser on Oceans for the United Nations Global Compact. Following 20 years working in the food industry and for Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Vincent led efforts to produce The Seaweed Manifesto in 2020 and The Plankton Manifesto in 2024; both are calls to study and utilize their titular organisms to address global challenges. In 2021, Doumeizel founded the Global Seaweed Coalition. In 2023, he released The Seaweed Revolution, an award-winning reference book that has been translated into many languages. In 2025, he released a comic and a children’s book on seaweed, as well as a second book, The Power of Plankton. Promoting algae at international conferences, he also led the creation of the first United Nations project on seaweed, the UN Global Seaweed Initiative, involving many member states and UN agencies.
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