The Vancouver Convention Centre hosted a major cannabis community event earlier this month, bringing influential industry figures together in the city for the first time in years.
The Lift Vancouver 2023 cannabis conference and expo ran between Jan. 12-14 and brought thousands of cannabis industry leaders, consumers, budtenders, CEOs and various others to Vancouver to celebrate their shared passion for the plant.
Sponsors for the event included Mills Nutrients, CCELL Vapes and Kustom Kulture Canada and companies such as Remo Farms and Wildfire Productions Glass Studio had booths set up to educate attendees about their goods and services.
There was even a cotton candy stand set up in the Budtender Lounge for those seeking something sugary.
Lift Vancouver 2023 Exceeds Expectations!
From Indigenous cannabis sessions to new expo neighborhoods to a special screening of “Frenchy Dreams of Hashish,” Lift’s inclusive event wowed attendees and exhibitors alike.
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— Lift Events & Experiences (@lift_events) January 20, 2023
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Noteworthy speakers in attendance included Kala Sanmartin and Shan Mei Young Tai, the founder of The Cannabis Nurses and a nurse practitioner from Ontario who gave a presentation on cannabis and health; George Smitherman from the Cannabis Council of Canada, who gave a presentation on the impact of taxation and regulations in the industry; and Phillipe Lucas, President of the psychedelic therapy company SABI Mind.
“After a three-year hiatus, the Lift team was excited to convene the first cannabis industry event of the year with a high-energy expo floor, engaging speakers, lively networking, and a strong element of community,” Lindsay Roberts, Senior Vice President of Lift Vancouver 2023, said.
Mugglehead spoke with Lift’s Marketing Director, Lisa Petty. She discussed her role at the conference and what she enjoyed most about the event.
Video by Rowan Dunne
In addition to speaking with Petty, Mugglehead also attended a presentation entitled “Cannabis Data: Understanding the Data and Their Impact on Cannabis Businesses and Regulations,” along with a Processing and Extraction Panel discussing how to maximize the manufacturing and product development of various cannabis concentrates.
Presentation topics included prevailing market trends in the industry and the value of solventless extraction.
Ian Cameron, Nuno Salgado, Michael Colbourne, Andrew Leber and Kathryn Ambroze gave a presentation on cannabis data. Photo by Rowan Dunne
“We do research that includes not just your typical surveys, but also implicit association tests. So we’re able to look at how based on time reactions, what peoples’ priorities are, but then also what their associations are in the market,” Kathryn Ambroze, Director of Behavioural Insights & User Experience for HCD Research, said.
“And so what we’ve seen is that people want something to be safe and effective, and they want something premium,” Ambroze said at the cannabis data presentation. “That has consistently been been shown for the past couple of years.”
Ambroze also added that certain formats are able to accomplish the safe, effective and premium traits desired by consumers more easily, such as flower, due to it being accepted and understood as what people generally associate with cannabis.
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Those presenting at the Speakers Corner’s Processing and Extraction Panel spoke about a variety of topics including the value of solventless extraction.
CEO of Evolved Extraction Solutions Adam Temple speaks at the Processing and Extraction Panel, Lift Vancouver 2023. Photo by Rowan Dunne
“Another advantage of solventless extraction is essentially the profile you carry over from your flower all the way to your extract,” Brishna Kamal, President of Whistler Technologies, said. “You sort of tend to lose that with different processes on the solvent side.”
rowan@mugglehead.com
