The Scene: Flower Expo 2024

The rolling green hills of Western Massachusetts welcomed the cannabis community in June for what has quickly come to be a favorite event for operators across the state. In only its second year, the Flower Expo was held on June 5-6 at the idyllic Franklin County Fairgrounds in Greenfield, MA.

The event focuses on connecting Massachusetts cannabis buyers to saleable product, and allowing organic space and time for deals to happen. CEO Jason Bello says they are focused on making it a “high-value sales opportunity that is a lot of fun”, and he and his team delivered for vendors and buyers alike.

Flower Expo draws in cultivators, processors, and manufacturers from across the state to show off their very best, newest, and most exciting for wholesale and dispensaries alike. For all in attendance, it is an opportunity to learn about the most innovative products coming to the local market and get a taste of what may be the next best-selling shelf favorite. The Flower Expo does this without a ton of ancillary presence generally; there’s not a single light rig in sight, a pretty unique feat for any cannabis conference.

Flower Expo Vibes

Day 1 of the event, exclusive to retail decision-makers and the brands looking to sell to them, was a warm, sunshine-filled day, and the opportunity for networking in the regional market was second to none; a terrific chance for operators to have meaningful connections with their existing partners and form new collaborations.

But let’s be real… these are the goals that any B2B convention in the cannabis industry promises to its vendors and attendees. So many fall short of the experience that Flower Expo seems to be delivering for its vendors. There is an unmistakable vibe to all of it, and for anyone who has attended a number of similar events there is only one variable that is truly different; it’s the consumption, of course.

The meetings happen, business moves forward, and plenty of deals get closed; the special thing is that at Flower Expo, it is all interwoven with the seshes, with sharing fatties, between dab rig rounds, or over sips of a newly discovered beverage. Deals about cannabis happen, with cannabis everywhere. It’s organic, productive, and much more enjoyable. There are no shuffles to the convention center sidewalk, no disruptions to the discussion flow, or hyper-focus on afterparties to get deals closed. Just a more natural pace of cannabis + business for the day.

It's a great chance for brands to put on engaging, interactive booth experiences that allow potential partners to really understand ethos, and lounge couches and bar tables abound. A couple of teams stood out for their activations, with one, in particular, hitting the giveaway goals on the head: Strane Cannabis offered instant customization of one of four cool strain-specific tees, turning your basic shirt into a crop or muscle tank, something that had folks authentically excited to wear their new gear.

The Vibes

Consumption is at the heart of Flower Expo, and the coordinators clearly strive to work with vendors and attendees to create an event that celebrates the work-hard-puff-hard ethos of cannabis operators, and a nuanced, sesh-based approach to closing deals.

This allows for organic dealmaking that includes consumption, during the show hours, versus at the afterparties and over dinner. There is ample space and opportunity for local brands to show up and show out, and to give attendees the chance to fully immerse themselves in their brand’s energy, through their brand’s actual product experience. It is a fun, laid-back couple of work days that often result in huge deals over shared fatties and clouds of smoke.

The Flower Expo is only in its second year in Massachusetts, and it is a very fresh feeling to all in attendance, especially with the early-summer timing. For winter-worn New Englanders, the Flower Expo offers a much-appreciated early June chance to get out and get some business done in the sunshine, and perhaps that’s what makes it so special to operators in the region. It’s a nice close-to-home glimpse of the California lifestyle, if only for two short, expensive, busy work days.

Without question, the vibes are on point, but the event is not yet realized in its maturity, Lots of cool space to sesh and hang could be seen, with funky outdoor furniture abounding. But without activations, marketing, or any real draw to the Lounge or Picnic areas, they were nearly always empty spaces. With better planning, those spaces (along with endcaps and indoor lounge options) would be better utilized by attendees, and potentially further monetized. That said, the organizers did a better job this year preparing for fickle New England weather conditions (following the monsoon-style-storm that blew through the inaugural event in 2023) but attendees were still struggling for some relief from the heat; many a vendor were overheard hoping that the tent sides could be rolled up to offer some relief; in the heat of the day outside booths offered a cooler space than the newly erected tent.

Cannabis Trends as Predicted by Flower Expo

The first of two panel discussions Day 1 was focused on “Evolving Trends in the Cannabis Industry.” Brimming with insight and no-BS advice from leaders across varied parts of the industry, this panel was a highlight of the day for anyone who was smart enough to attend it.

Sale Trends in Grassachusettes

The first takeaways were about recent 4/20 sales numbers and recent trends in the state and region. These insights were echoed across the floor as well: live rosin and resin disposables are an exploding category locally, and beverages flew off the shelves on 4/20, along with continued growth this year of the trim and shake categories seen nearly everywhere.

Along with focusing on fire products to win competitively, teams across the event. and on this panel specifically, said that their strategies are shifting to include a more pharma-like mindset and preparing more GMP/GLP (Good Manufacturing/Lab Practices) will be key to success in the next 18-36 months as the Federal cannabis industry continues to take shape.

Disparity Between State-Run Markets

Judson Hill, Georgia Market President at Fine Fettle, acknowledged that the continued disparity between markets is one of his company’s greatest challenges to cross-state growth, noting differences in testing, labeling, and production requirements between the three states Fine Fettle operates in currently (MA, CT, and GA). It makes it difficult to foresee how states will align regulatory and compliance requirements in a new federalized cannabis economy.

Randy Reed, VP of Scientific Solutions at Active, shared his optimism for the removal of 280E and other financially restrictive barriers that would very likely go along with cannabis rescheduling.

Shifting Attitudes in Mass Regulators

Megan Dobro, CEO at SafeTiva Labs, discussed the shift in Massachusetts’ regulator's attitudes toward lab shopping, and the accuracy of labeled products on dispensary shelves. She specifically highlighted the recent shift in Massachusetts CCC flower potency testing protocol to harmonize labs to utilize mandated moisture calculation processes, and noted that “labs following the new protocols when they weren't previously are going to be reporting lower numbers across the board."

Medical versus Rec

More insightful thoughts came from Matt Davidson, Vice President of Retail at Native Sun, on the topic of medical cannabis markets and their common trend of shrinking with the onset of legal recreational availability.

“Medical patients become the high-end recreational patients”, Matt astutely noted, and “they can be served by both markets”.

This should be a truly meaningful takeaway for any regulator listening and something for every hash maker to consider in their selections and process; cleanliness and quality matters more than ever.

The final, and probably most important takeaway from this panel for any non-Massholes is that there is something unexpectedly beneficial about the oft-demonized vertical business model, upon which the Massachusetts cannabis industry was launched. Here, verticalization was credited as the seed for numerous successful local brand collaborations and fruitful partnerships.

Unpaid Cannabis Invoices & Getting Regulator’s Attention

Discussions with attendees and vendors nearly always circled around a common national pressure point for their businesses: unpaid invoices.

The national issue of cannabis/hemp companies neglecting payment is a complex one, that many outside the industry would say also could be blamed on its own immaturity and a failure to change business patterns. From payment terms, to license stacking and collusion between bad actors and more, the contributing factors are almost innumerable. A common, and singular agreement, however, is that the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has a responsibility to help solve these issues.

The issue is on their radar, thanks to the ongoing feedback of local industry members. Acting Chair Ava Callender Concepcion recently shared that “During my roundtables and panels, it’s becoming an issue that is being raised frequently” and the CCC has taken the first steps in addressing the matter by opening a general question set to the public (available at Commission@cccmass.com), along with consider public-forum style solutions for exposing delinquent accounts.

There is no time to waste, and opportunity to lead, for the CCC. Fletcher Sievers from HAVN Extracts vented his frustration about a myriad of bad actors, but generally shared that “we have had a lot of people wrack up large amounts of unpaid invoices and they’re opening up another store, building out their facility…we essentially become like a lending institution.”

This is familiar to the issues described by the California producers when their state shifted the tax burden to the dispensaries, which caused a domino effect of invoice shuffling that pinched the wholesalers and cultivators into a similar “forced lender” role.

“We want to also make sure that our staff has a healthy life and doesn’t work themselves to death…I love what I do…but it disheartens me when we have to absorb more work…just so we can help them pay their bills”. Right on, Fletcher.

Flower Expo 2024: Afterparty Dealmaking During Daylight Hours