Lift & Co Cannabis Expo – Toronto 2018

The Lift Cannabis Expo is finally here! Per usual, I am on the case to get you the inside look. This event is a who’s who of the Canadian Cannabis sector. In attendance are LPs, grey market vendors, equipment and technology(extraction), local cannabis businesses and numerous cannabis “celebrities”. There is lots of networking, and business type activities going on, but there is also a palpable excitement and buzz in the air.

Friday was Industry Day. Saturday and Sunday were the consumer focused days and open to the public.

I wanted to mix and mingle with the general public and to get a pulse of the everyday man that is attending the expo. On Saturday morning I grabbed my media badge and waded into this grassy knoll of an expo.

The expo spanned the whole second floor of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre(Halls A-C). Walking around at an event like this, I really felt like the Canadian cannabis industry had arrived. The list of exhibitors was massive and can be found here.

As a medical patient, I am always excited to see what new products or innovations are on their way. As an investor and entrepreneur, I am very interested in the branding and marketing game that is currently unfolding in front of us. I will give you my thoughts on each of the LPs presence and thoughts on their brands.

This is your view once you arrive up the elevator into the expo area.

I made sure to walk the full expo floor, and I tried to talk and schmooze with most of the booths. There were quite a lot of booth babes on display, but I made my best effort to test them and make sure they are true stoners.

Toronto Vaporizers has a lounge area where medical patients are able to take their medicine, which was nice to see and the facilities were in use from what I saw. The conference was doing everything totally above board, so there were no dried flower products on display and the vendors couldn't get out "infused" samples, nooooooo!!! One DAY!!!!111!!!! There were a lot of CBD products for sale, as well as bongs, vaporizers and accessories.

Organigram

OGI had a nice full size booth. They were very excited to talk international and about Germany. They mentioned that their brands have been well received and there are no legal concerns surrounding using the Trailer Park Boys name. Personally, I really like the branding and think the Edison line is very cool. They had a draw at the booth where you could win a trip to Moncton and a tour of their factory.

Aphria

Aphria had an individual in their booth performing massages. The line-up was like 10 people deep, so I unfortunately did not get a massage. This booth was honestly very quiet and had a medical vibe. I did chit chat with the staff in the booth, but nothing exciting to report, classic APH.

Cronos/MedMen

These two had some serious real estate on the event floor. I can only imagine the cost to hang the massive signage/banners, plus the massive space they had. With that being said, Cronos owned the centre of the expo floor. The Peace Naturals booth was very open and inviting. Lots of people were interacting with the Peace Naturals experts where you could drink terp juice(terpene infused liquid). Medmen had a massive space as well, but very little on display. They were giving out hats and t shirts. I noticed that lots of attendees recognized the MedMen brand, whether from travelling or online new stories/buzz, possibly? As always, I was very impressed by Cronos, and they are delivering.

Supreme

I had the best overall experience at the Supreme booth. They have a great interactive experience where their expert walks you through the process of how to grade cannabis. You smell these different canisters, and analyze visually the quality of cannabis, then use their grading guide to determine the quality. I may be biased as I am a person who ONLY smoke AAAAs(all day!), and that messaging and approach really speaks and resonates with me. If they can deliver top quality product and really crush it with their branding then I see big things for Supreme. Also, the staff and "experts" in the booth for Supreme were very attractive. I am not sure what agency they used, but I see that as good marketing. The girl that was giving me the presentation messed up a few times when she said weed, instead of cannabis etc, but overall she really knew her stuff. She delivered the proper messaging and was compelling. I tested her a little bit to see if she was a true smoker and passed, so A+++(AAAA) performance by Sureme. They also were giving out these cool loot boxes, with a lighter and rolling papers.

Aurora Cannabis

Aurora was really playing up the outdoors and woodsy vibe with their booth. They were handing out wallet size metal grinder cards, which are very useful and legit. Aurora's booth was pretty busy and lots of people were asking questions and talking.

Hydropothecary

Hydropothecary actually had two booths, one for Hydropothecary and then an additional space for the HEXO brand. THCX unveiled their new HEXO line on Friday at the expo, so they were very excited and anxious to preach about the HEXO line. I think the marketing looks pretty good and I was impressed, not to mention the potential Weeknd crossover("If it ain't XO then it gotta go!").

Ross' Gold

Ross' Gold was doing the full court press including Ross rocking the Gold medal in the booth. There is a contact high joke in here somewhere.......

Noticeably Absent

Canopy Growth Corporation, TSX:WEED, was not present in the form of a displaying at the expo. I was really hoping to see them have a presence, but as an entrepreneur and cost focused guy, they saved a tone of money by not participating.

The Green Organic Dutchman was also not present. They are coming off a hugely successful IPO and probably wouldn't have too much to display. I hope too see them in the future.

Misc. Random Thoughts and Notes:

AltaVie

Their booth was very clean, bright and white. I love the wellness branding and their was a disproportionately large number of women loitering around their booth, so it appeared to draw them in. They had a station where you could test these cookie treats, that have a flavour profile of cannabis. They wanted to normalize the taste of cannabis and let people know that it is a tasty flavour. Another benefit is to help those who have negative experiences associated with the cannabis taste, from possibly a bad or traumatic edibles experience.

San Rafael '71

Their booth had a hippy van, a surfboard and a guy playing guitar. I really did not enjoy the experience of this booth and the general brand vibes. It seemed like poor execution of a California surf brand.

Choom

Choom had the branding and experience that San Rafael was hoping for. I really like what these guys are working towards.

WeedMD

WeedMD had a smaller but very nice looking booth. They had a lot of interest in their booth, see picture in the gallery. I liked what I saw from these guys.

Invictus

The GENE marketing was in full effect. I cannot support Gene Simmons after the way he has slandered cannabis and intentionally misled and influenced a generation of people. This is a definite stay away for me.

Maricann

Ben Ward was at the Maricann booth. I had a brief chat with him about the outlook of the company and the industry. I did not ask any hard questions lol, I considered it but decided otherwise.

Indiva

Lots of excitement at their booth and marketing related to their new brand unveiling. I think their branding actually looks pretty cool, it will be interesting to see how it will be received. Attendees seemed genuinely interested.

Phytoextracts

Kudos to the girls who were working this booth, they were very cute in their backwards caps. They had lots of product knowledge, I also tested them to see if they are legit smokers of concentrates and they passed with flying colors #710

Final Thoughts

The Lift Expo was a blast. I left with a massive bag full of swag, samples and marketing materials. I spent a couple hours on the floor talking to attendees and understanding their motivation to attend and their thoughts on the expo. The general sense I got was that a lot of people want to come out of hiding and have the mainstream accept cannabis. Numerous attendees told me they wanted to have a fun day out like they would for any other expo and normalize cannabis amongst their family, friends and social media contacts.

We are on a new frontier, exciting times ahead.