Lift & Co. Cannabis & Psychedelics Expo

events

Nov. 23

*November 18th - 21st 2021 @ Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada*

Where do I even begin?! The past week at the Lift & Co. Expo in Toronto was absolutely crazy (in a good way). It was my first ever cannabis and psychedelics conference and my first time back at such a huge event post-pandemic. It was exhilarating to be back with people in-person, socializing, catching up, meeting for the first time. For some moments, I forgot we had all been in lockdown for over a year. It was almost like life was back to normal.

Day 1: Cannabis Business Conference

The craziness all started for me on the Thursday morning. I woke up early and took the train down to the city. I made sure to add an extra espresso shot into my coffee, and an extra squeeze of CBD oil to calm my anxieties. I didn’t know what to expect after all - I hadn’t met many people IRL from the cannabis community and I was heading to the event alone. CBD helped calm my nerves, and keep me cool and collected.

When I arrived to the venue, I showed my ID and proof of vaccination, and hurried on to pick up my media badge for the week. It was a quick and harmless process and very well organized. I scurried over to the media room to meet the Marigold team. It was the first time I met people in real life who I had been talking to online for some time. The ladies from the team were amazing and showed me around. I had two interviews scheduled for the Friday, so it was important for me to get acquainted with the setup! (More on the interviews later…) I then made my way upstairs to the exhibition floor to do some sneak peeking at the booth setups. The last time I was at the convention centre was for a business conference before the pandemic. It felt so surreal to be standing in such a huge room. People hadn’t flooded onto the floors yet as set up was still happening, but I was anticipating there to be alot of stoners people.

After doing some exploring, I made by way down to the John Bassett Theatre to sit in on my first panel, “Regulatory 360: Has Canada Established the SOP for a Legal & Propserous Cannabis Industry?”. The panel was very interesting. The speakers included Nathaniel Erskine-Smith - member of Parliament, Deepak Anand - CEO of Materia Ventures, Mark Ware - Chief Medical Officer of Canopy Growth, and Jenn Larry - Chief Commercial Officer at MTL Cannabis. The panelists discussed the current regulations in Canada provided their perspective on what they thought needed to be changed or improved in order to continue to advance the industry and ultimately make access to cannabis easier and safer for consumers.

My stomach was starting to growl so I knew I had to quickly get some lunch before sitting through the panels for the rest of the afternoon. I met up with my friend Kait and we grabbed lunch at Figo. After lunch, we hurried back to the venue to catch the next panel on “Retail Realities: Approaches Achieving the Greatest Outcomes for Consumers, LPs & Public Safety”. This was one of my favourite panels because it was very authentic and one that I could relate to the most. I’ve never worked in cannabis retail but I know many folks who do, and I am intrigued by this particular segment of the industry. The panelists included Ross Lipson CEO/Co-founder of Dutchie, Chris Jones - Founder of Cannabis XPress, Marcie Kiziak - Nova Cannabis, and Steven Fry - President/Co-Founder of Sessions Cannabis. The panel went into depth about how to win customers with the best in-store and online experience, how to determine the best location to open a cannabis store in the current state of over supply, and what are the challenges they face as a retailer. My favourite part of this panel was when Steven mentioned how he leverages his million dollar marketing budget, and Chris cheekily said “well, when you don’t have a million dollar marketing budget…”. It was amazing to see retailers on the stage together who are basically in neck in neck competition with each other. As we all know, there are way too many cannabis retailers and it’s going to be a race to the end to see which retailers survive at the end of it all. As much as I love seeing competition play out in real life, often times it’s the small businesses and mom-and-pop stores that get hurt the most. How is a family owned cannabis retailer supposed to compete with those like Tokyo Smoke who have a huge company and funding to back them up? Apologies for digressing… but this is a topic that is very important to me. But let’s save that discussion for another post. Now back to the conference!

After the panel, I did some networking and hopped on the train back home. I was extremely exhausted and knew I needed to get some rest before my two interviews the day after. I was going to be interviewing Shawn King - Marketing Director for Canada & International @ Pax Labs, and Cody Hicks - CEO @ Adcann. This was going to be my first time being an interviewer, so I was extremely nervous even though I was extremely prepared.

Day 2: Psychedelics Business Summit & Lift Industry Day

I woke up with crazy butterflies in my stomach. You know when you are anticipating something to happen in your day and you just can’t stop the butterflies until that something is completed? Well, that’s how I felt about my interviews. I was very excited to have the opportunity to interview two notable individuals in the industry, but I had never interviewed before. I spent many days thinking about the questions I was going to ask, and how I would set up the interview with the minimal equipment I had. I didn’t have any fancy podcasting gear or any crazy video cameras. All I had was my DSLR, tripod, and iPhone recorder. I was praying for the “less is more” concept to pay off in this situation.

I took the train down to the convention centre and immediately headed into the panel on “Health Outcomes: Psychedelic Therapies and Their Unique Game-Changing Benefits”. The conference was actually split into both Psychedelics and Cannabis. There were panels happening on both topics, and on top of that, the exhibition floor was fully open for the public! After the panel, I scurried down to the media room to set up for my interview with Shawn King. I picked Shawn’s brain about cannabis marketing, how Pax differentiates itself in an ever-growing competitive market, and got to know more about his favourite ways to consume cannabis. It went absolutely amazing - I don’t even know why I was nervous! My time and conversation with Shawn was so fun and I’m excited to see how the final video will turn out. After the interview, I was starving so I headed over to Burgers and Fries Forever for a mushroom smash burger and fries. It hit the spot perfectly.

After lunch, I walked the exhibition floors, chatted with different vendors, and met up IRL with all the online connections I had been building in the past year. What’s really funny about meeting online people IRL is that I’m always surprised at how tall people actually are in real life. You just can’t tell height with Instagram pics! I finished off the afternoon with my interview with Cody Hicks, where we talked about how he started AdCann, what levers are the best for marketing cannabis, and what are the best ways to get to consumers while complying with tech giant’s social media policies against cannabis.

After a long day of networking, I found my way to the Dutchie After Party and finally got to relax and hang out in a non-professional setting with everyone I met at Lift and Co. We smoked alot of good weed, and enjoyed each other’s company. It was refreshing to hang out with like-minded individuals in the industry, all with a common passion for the plant. We chatted about all things cannabis, but also about opportunities for the industry, while building connections for future partnerships and collaborations. I’m grateful for all the folks I met, and super excited to continue to grow my brand and platform in this ever-changing, fast-paced industry.