Editors’ Picks: The CBT Team Selects Their Favorite Conference Sessions From 2023

It’s basically a Cannabis Business Times’ conference tradition: talking about how to source and raise much-needed capital for your newly minted business. I tend to moderate the annual iterations of this panel because I find the topic so compelling. Money is critical to getting a licensed business off the ground, but money is hard to find based, in part, on the fragmented nature of the licensed marketplace. What’s a business owner to do? Well, this year, we tried to pin down an answer. I stood onstage and held court with David Kram, Founder and Principal of Spring Leaf Capital; Michael Mitgang, Managing Director at WGD Capital; and Wendell Orphe, CEO of Eastcoasterdam Gardens. We offered a series of action items for the audience: namely, specialize and build a distinct audience within your market. The jacks of all trades aren’t cutting it in cannabis these days. 

-Eric Sandy

Management Boot Camp: Helping You Become A Cultivation Leader

I left this session at Cannabis Business Times’ conference wanting to work for Kevin Kuethe and the cultivation team at Lume Cannabis Co. in Michigan, where the single-state operator has 250,000 square feet of indoor cultivation, 100 acres of outdoor cultivation (and growing) and a processing lab that helps supply the company’s 38 dispensaries. This session was so much more than just a presentation on developing effective strategies for managing your teams, ensuring goals are being met, and that your valuable employees remain motivated and successful. As Lume’s chief cultivation officer, Kuethe’s ability to connect with conference attendees on business, personal and comical levels unintentionally showcased a key ingredient of great leadership: being able to relate with people (in this case an audience from all walks of life). Kuethe also shared a story of one of his best company purchases: a $1,000 ice cream machine that allows his employees to enjoy free soft-serve 24 hours a day and feel appreciated. The ice cream machine also helps solve conflicts between employees during resolution chats. “It’s really difficult to complain or be upset or get irritable with people when you’ve got a cup of ice cream right there,” Kuethe said. Furthermore, when it comes to leadership in cannabis, it’s essential to create a culture that prioritizes constant communication and respect as well as having fun, he said. So, what’s the first thing Kuethe does when he shows up for work that helps him lead a company of 1,000 employees? Simply put, he smiles and goes to say hi to his workers. “That’s what’s most important to me. I’m going to go see how they’re doing. I’m going to check in with them,” Kuethe said. The company’s no-jerks hiring policy also makes leadership come easier. 

-Tony Lange

Growing Pains: The Most Valuable Cultivation Lessons I’ve Learned, Expert Panel

On the third and final day of Cannabis Business Times’ 2023 conference, Revolution Enterprises President and COO Dustin Shroyer and Veritas Fine Cannabis President and CEO Jonathan Spadafora took the stage with CBT Editor-in-Chief Michelle Simakis for a session titled “Growing Pains: The Most Valuable Cultivation Lessons I’ve Learned, Expert Panel.” In a candid discussion, the seasoned cultivators shared their favorite lessons learned during their careers to help attendees plan for the unexpected and avoid common pitfalls. The can’t-miss session for growers provided critical and honest insight into sourcing genetics, implementing an integrated pest management system, dialing in environmental controls, managing water and nutrient levels, and harvesting schedules and practices to ensure a thriving cannabis crop. 

- Melissa Schiller

Cultivators’ Profit Killer: HpLVd And The Next Viruses Coming To Cannabis

Year after year, leaders at cultivation companies respond to Cannabis Business Times surveys and share in interviews that one of the biggest challenges facing growers is pest and disease control and management. One of the most pernicious pathogens is hop latent viroid, as symptoms often don’t appear until flower and testing can sometimes yield inaccurate results depending on the timing and portion of the plant tested. For a long time, growers weren’t sure what exactly was causing stunted plants, poor bud and trichome development and lower yields, and referred to it as “dudders.” That’s why the team at CBT was thrilled to have experts Dr. Zamir Punja of Simon Fraser University and Dr. Shouhua Wang, plant pathologist with the Nevada Department of Agriculture, share their latest research and insights on preventing and mitigating HpLVd and other problematic plant diseases at the 2023 Cannabis Conference in August. The team at CBT will continue to gather information and resources on how to spot and stop HpLVd. In the meantime, here are highlights from Punja’s presentation, “Cultivators’ Profit Killer: HpLVd And The Next Viruses Coming To Cannabis,” and a roundup of research and reports CBT has published since 2019, when cultivators were increasingly reporting symptoms of HpLVd before the cause was known.  

https://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/news/prevent-mitigate-hop-latent-viroid-cannabis-hplvd/ 

- Michelle Simakis

Renowned Photos

VIP Cultivation Roundtable

2023 marked the first year for the VIP Cultivation Roundtable, an event held during Cannabis Business Times’ conference in August that was as unique as it was inspirational.  

The team at Cannabis Business Times planned the roundtable after hearing many cultivators express the desire to talk with their peers and build larger networks they could tap for insights into dealing with everything from diseases and pests to cutting productions costs to avoiding burnout themselves or among their teams.  

Watching cultivators from all sizes and stripes of businesses come together that day to speak candidly with each other to collectively solve problems was truly a sight to see. Learning that growers walked away with new strategies to help their businesses increase profit margins and dramatically improve cultivation practices made the extensive planning for the event even more worthwhile. (And no shortage of thanks goes to Rare Dankness’ Scott Reach and Clade9’s David Holmes for their efforts in co-chairing the roundtable.)  

Plus, seeing some truly heartwarming interactions—such as one cultivator getting to meet the original breeder behind one of his company’s best-selling cultivars—brought a very personal touch to this first-time happening. The second-annual Cultivation Roundtable at Cannabis Business Times Conference in August seems so far off right now, but it will truly be worth the wait.  

- Noelle Skodzinski