EDUCATION AND COLLABORATION
Hundreds of cannabis industry insiders expected to gather in Niagara Falls
“The Canadian cannabis industry could be worth more than $21.6 billion, and this is the chance to share information and grow the industry.
With the legalization of recreational marijuana less than a year away, cannabis is becoming a hot topic of conversation across the country and i nterest in one of the biggest cannabis events of the year is intensifying.
Thousands of cannabis industry professionals and others are heading to Niagara Falls for the Grow Up Conference and Expo, to be held at Scotiabank Convention Centre on October 6-7.
The conference will include 40 sessions led by industry experts from both sides of the border and will feature more than a hundred notable speakers. Among them is Ed Rosenthal, a leading authority on marijuana who has written or edited more than a dozen world- renowned books about cannabis cultivation and social policy, marijuana activist Jodie Emery and John Prentice. He’s president and CEO at Ample Organics, a widely adopted seed- to- sale solution among Canada’s licensed producers. There will be more than a hundred booths at the expo and organizers expect about 3,000 people to attend Grow Up overall.
“The Canadian cannabis industry could be worth more than $ 21.6 billion, and this is the chance to share information and grow the industry,” says Neill Dixon, co- founder of the event.
The aim of the conference is to develop the cannabis industry through education and collaboration — so attendees will see licensed producers connecting with companies that could pro- vide them with many crucial goods and services from hydroponics and security systems to accounting and legal counsel.
“We made an early decision to embrace the cannabis industry when many of the law firms would not for various reasons,” said Richard Kimel a partner at Aird & Berlis and leader of its cannabis group practice. “We’re active in the cannabis space with our ear to the ground, so we wouldn’t miss the chance to be a leading sponsor of the inaugural Grow Up. Our lawyers chose to get involved with the conference because of its focus on education and collaboration.”
Kimel, whose firm helps clients in the cannabis space by drawing on its expertise in all principal areas of business law, acknowledges that the landscape of the nascent cannabis industry is shifting and that there is “regulatory ambiguity.” However, he anticipates the sector “reaching a new legitimacy’ in the next few years. “It’s an exciting time for the Canadian cannabis sector and we’re thrilled to be involved,” he says.
“Businesses that are considering getting into the cannabis i ndustry have questions about it,” adds Danya Dixon, vice president of programming. “The Grow Up Conference and Expo will be a great place to get answers.”