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constructed the profiles of two cannabis consumers, fleshing out the data-driven insights derived from legal cannabis purchases in Canada and the United States. Their presentation highlighted some of the most germane problems facing everyone in the space, setting the stage for our expectations of the weekend’s events, but perhaps even more so what to expect in the next few years.
Big ideas were flying all around from Thursday to Sunday. Speakers were willing to share a surprising amount of their strategy but kept their best ideas close to their chest. Darren Karasiuk from San Rafael joked about not giving away their entire development plan when he shared valuable insight on cannabis in the European market. On the same panel, Amanda de Freita, Director and Senior Vice President of International Markets for Redfund Capital Corp., shared lessons learned from research and developments in Israel and how CBD is being regulated in Europe. The entire panel spoke expertly on all issues related to the globalization of cannabis.
The panelists at Lift made themselves accessible. They hung around and spoke to attendees, happy to strike up conversations with the next generation of professionals joining the industry. One of those people is Stacy Bobak, an educator in the Dental Hygiene program at Durham College. She’s starting to make a transition from her work in dentistry after attending the Cannabis Industry Specialization Program at Durham. She was eager to connect with industry professionals at the expo. Stacy told me, “[The panelists] really took the time to have meaningful conversations,” and “They were also interested in my journey and desire to enter this space, which was nice to see. The panels and presentations were both informative and inspirational.” She’s especially excited about the potential new research on cannabis in the coming years, which will give educators solid, evidence-based information to work with.
Networking is an essential part of any industry. But an entire field of study could be done about networking in the cannabis industry, examining all the threads that tie us together. The Lift Expo has always been a nexus of cannabis industry personalities. Many people say that some of the best networking happens between talks, in the halls, at the cafés and restaurants nearby and among the mass of people consuming cannabis outside. Information was flying in every direction; not just at panels but at lunch tables, in lounge chairs, on cellphones and in person. The whole area around the Metro Convention Centre was electric for those 4 days and was not entirely due to the clouds of different kinds of cannabis smoke wafting around the downtown core.
Mallory Bodnar, an educator from Seneca College, was a Lift Expo attendee and very recently secured a position as the Toronto-based office manager of a top Canadian licence holder. When I asked about her Lift expo-rience, she told me that, “This was [her] second year at Lift, so…it was incredible to see how much the industry has grown over the past year. Companies that were in their infancy in 2018 are not only still going but thriving.” We chatted a bit about the next generation of cannabis companies and industry professionals and she mentioned that, “With Legalization 2.0, [her] hope is that there is more of an emphasis on partnerships between small businesses and licence holders to bring new, exciting and quality products to the shelf.”