Contraction speeds up in '23

Crystal Balling Canna Conventions Part I

With 2023 winding down, we've now had 2 full calendar years of live events since the end of covid shutdowns. By now most event companies have publicized their 2024 event schedules, and the results are eye-opening. When 2022 began, everyone knew that the cannabis B2B industry was over-served, meaning many events wouldn't produce enough ROI to survive long-term. That being said, the number of major events from 2022-23 that are not currently scheduled for 2024 is eye-opening, and a lot higher than most people I've talked to expected (at least 30, list below) .

2022-23 B2B cannabis expos currently not scheduled for 2024

Note: While no shows on the list are currently scheduled yet, It's of course possible that a few of them will be back in 2024.

Cannacon: Michigan, Illinois, Virginia, New York, Colorado, California, Mississippi

MJ UnPacked: Las Vegas, New York, Michigan

Lucky Leaf Expos: New Jersey, Missouri (KC), Missouri (St. L), New York, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Mississippi

EIP Expos: New Jersey, Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri, Florida, Ohio, Mississippi

Indo Expo: Colorado

NECANN: Maine

Canna Science Conf: Rhode Island

Lift Expos: California

Imperious Expo: Oklahoma

Hmmmm.... that's an awful lot of discontinued live events in just 2 years - wait! Does this mean that people have seen the light and virtual trade shows are fianally taking over?

So what happened? In some cases, it was a matter of shows being too early to a new market (Virginia and Ohio come to mind) or markets maturing past the need for a show (Colorado, Maine, maybe California?), and in other cases it was a matter of too many shows in a single market (like in Illinois, Oklahoma, Missouri). As with any crowded business vertical, some fail every year simply because they are poorly planned and/or executed compared to their competition, and others just fall victim to bad luck.

Surprisingly non-negative note: While 2024 will still see a net reduction in shows, it bears mentioning that quite a few new ones are being launched in 2024. We are adding two new conventions: NECANN Maryland May 3rd-4th in Baltimore and NECANN Michigan Sept 20th-21st in Grand Rapids which has us doing EIGHT conventions in a single year for the first time (pretty sure future me will want to kick current me in the face when he sees what the Fall of 2024 rolls around around). There are also at least two new events scheduled in Minnesota, and I expect we'll see a least a couple more new shows announced for Ohio in 2024 in the coming months as well.

Anyway, that's the basic lay of the land for the coming year in regards to event attrition and what's not coming back in 2024 - in part II we can talk about the growing (and kinda funny) trend of rebranding/repositioning in the events space.