Southeast Cannabis Conference & Expo 2017, Fort Lauderdale

meant to be a business to business conference targeting investors, entrepreneurs, and advocates from the south east who are exploring the industry and/or just entering via the state’s MMJ program. this is the SECC’s 1st event in Florida though MJBiz had their spring 2016 event in Orlando and was very well attended. definitely is a hungry market in Florida.

I plan to attend to see how the landscape changed from last year’s MJBiz conference which I went to.

can be turned into a blog post recap of the event

I did attend this and hung out in friends’ booth (Total Grow Control & BiotrackTHC) for a while on the 1st day. A HUGE draw was Montel Williams in the middle of the day in one of the breakout rooms who gave an inspirational speech on the industry moving forward and patient access etc.

The show was typical of an expo in a state whose program is still in its infancy, especially one whose focus at one point was on CBD-only. Comprising nearly half the total vendors were CBD infused products and hemp extraction & processing equipment. What’s interesting to point out tho is that if the show were 4-5 weeks later, after Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill officially expanding the MMJ program (http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article157958724.html) on 6/23 – the vendors and attendees likely would have been different. If I were the SECC, I’d consider having another show before June of next year to try to capture more of the new interest now that the laws are clearly defined.

the crowd was light and very novice. (this can be spun positively) there were quite a few booths, many locally focused (like locally produced honey or local glass blowers). and there were some well-intentioned advocate booths. The COOLEST booth was of the artist Kole Shane from Nugtopia.net (pictures in google) who is personifying cannabis strains in a way I’ve not seen before.