Zürich, 11-12. September 2021
Just two weeks after the ICBC in Berlin, the cornerstone of European cannabis business conferences, Cannavigia was at the CB Expo in Zurich. Organiser Ben Arn, who has already built up a status as an organiser of great cannabis fairs with the twenty-year-old Cannatrade, more than succeeded in launching his first cannabis business conference. And this despite Covid-19, the pandemic that has been throwing a spanner in the works of cannabis fairs from Mary Jane to Spannabis for the past 1.5 years.
Not only did Ben Arn successfully carry out his consumer-oriented Cannatrade in a slimmed-down version in 2021, but also attracted visitors to the CB Expo 2000. A complete success if you take into account that each of these visitors represents an important cog in the global cannabis value chain. Filtered by the not insignificant ticket prices, cannabis giants from all continents met at the CB Expo. A colorful mix of market participants from existing and newly emerging markets met with an exchange about the production, distribution, quality, and global symbioses of cannabis.
Cannavigia at the CB Expo in Zurich: A complete success for all participants
The expo was a complete success for Cannavigia, as we, as a cannabis compliance software company with customers in Europe, South America, and Africa, have an insight into the global cannabis market and the various regulations. Therefore, the organizers of the CB Expo invited numerous team members and consultants from Cannavigia to the panel discussions. As part of these panels, interesting discussions took place with the largest companies in Switzerland and globally, where interesting insights into a branch that is currently becoming more professional were given.
In addition to all the interesting conversations at our booth, the highlight for us were the panel discussions.
- Upcoming Swiss Pilot Projects for cannabis> 1% THC for recreational use with our CEO Luc Richner,
- Novel food status of CBD, moderated by our legal advisor Daniel Haymann,
- The discussion about the Market development in Europe and Switzerland,, moderated by our Co-Founder and Head of ConsultingElias Galantay
- Investment Forum with our Chief Revenue Officer Marius Schulze and the Cannavigia consultant Daniel Haymann under the moderation of Markus Hoffmann.
Our team member Marius Schulze, for example, shared interesting thoughts from the perspective of the non-cannabis start-up market, based on his many years of experience in building successful start-ups and his consulting work at Deloitte. Thoughts on how the incubator environment in the cannabis industry can be made more effective and which opportunities and risks should be given more consideration in order not to repeat the same mistakes of other industries.
Meeting of the industry bigwigs: Insights into regulatory changes and Swiss and European market development around cannabis
Cannavigia co-founder Elias Galantay had the honor of moderating the panel discussion with the largest Swiss cannabis producers. Interesting experiences were shared by Pure Holding, Marry Jane CBD, Alplant, Grünkraft and the GreenBrothers. Conclusion: Switzerland will be able to assert itself globally with quality, close customer loyalty, and the occupation of market niches, even if a consolidation process stirs up the domestic market in the short term.
The panel on the current status of CBD in the European novel food catalog was also interesting since CBD is still banned for use in food in 2021. Dr. Miguel Guttentag from our partner laboratory CBD-Test presented the current hurdles and challenges, with our legal advisor Daniel Haymann as the moderator.
Groundbreaking lectures from research on cannabis
On an informal and scientific level, Pure Holding has set standards and presented its results of the 2020 THC Field Reports Subsidiary Puregene sets the bar in the field of decoding the genome of cannabis to accelerate the breeding speed of new, resistant, and adapted cannabis varieties and to be able to offer tailor-made genetics around the world. We are proud that this Swiss company with such a globally radical idea is also one of the first companies to include the Cannavigia Cannabis Compliance Suite in their production activities.
The University of Hohenheim also gave four lectures in the field of science from several studies, e.g. the effects of different light spectra on quality and yield, the degree of decarboxylation of cannabinoids during drying, or the use of pruning techniques on harvest yield and cannabinoid content.
Interview with Ben Arn, organizer of the CB Expo
To conclude our review of the CB Expo, we asked Ben Arn, the Organizer of CB Expo a few questions.
What is your impression of the first edition of the CB Expo?
“The impression or feedback from our customers is more important than my impression. And this feedback has exceeded all my expectations. I think we hit the nail on the head with the CB Expo 2021 and offered the industry the event that was necessary for the next development step.”
What were the 3 highlights of the Expo for you?
That the CB Expo took place effectively despite the pandemic.
That we have attracted over 70% customers from abroad.
The extremely positive feedback from our customers.
How did Switzerland fare as a venue compared to other countries with cannabis business events?
Compared to many other countries, Switzerland is expensive as an event location: Keyword hotels, food, etc. but it is clean, reliable, and punctual. I hear all of this again and again from customers, and the joy of the latter mentioned often outweighs the higher prices for everything.”
What surprises can we expect for next year?
There wouldn’t be any surprises if I gave them away 🙂 So far it is clear that we will keep the same size for next year and play in the same hall in the same size again. Everything else will happen in the next few months.
Thank you Ben for your answers to our questions. We at Cannavigia are definitely looking forward to the next edition of the CB Expo!
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