Numbers, and the future. Oh, and Prizes.

Installment #2 in the 2024 NECANN Boston recap will focus on some numbers of interest, and what they may say about the future. Also an update on our Lifetime VIP Pass and $5,000 booth credit giveaways.

In looking through the list of 300+ exhibitors from last week, one thing that really jumps out is the number of licensed brands. retailers, and cultivators. As was the case in 2023, NECANN Boston once again featured the largest showcase of national cannabis brands, retailers, and cultivators of any convention on the east coast. While there are some exhibitors who have two or three of the license types each, the growth in these categories since 2018 is still eye-opening:

2024 2018

Exhibitors with licensed cannabis brands 53 4

Exhibitors with cultivation licenses 47 3

Exhibitors with retailers licenses 33 5

So does this mean that NECANN is a CPG show now? In short, no. Despite this growing component of the exhibit hall, the majority of our exhibitors are still on the supply side, and that will probably continue to be the case for years to come. That's because between New York, New Jersey, and Maryland alone, there are literally THOUSANDS of retail, cultivation, and delivery licenses yet to awarded - probably more than ten thousand when you include the entire region. So "demand for supply" will be around for a while!

In the end though, we've never really concerned ourselves with labeling this event. Since day one our goal for every convention has been to present a full representation of the current market and opportunities, and leave the labeling to others.

Speaking of the future: for whatever reason, over the last few months more than a couple people have asked me about my "exit plan" for necann, or if I was talking to potential buyers. I've gotten a little bored answering that, so moving forward I'll just flash them my left forearm (the pic in the article title), which I had done in early March!

PRIZES: As I mentioned last month, as part of our 10th Anniversary celebration we are going to award five exhibitors a $5,000 future booth credit, and five attendees a lifetime VIP pass to all future necann events. The VIP winners will be announced on our social media tomorrow, and I'll be doing the drawings and announcing the booth credit winners on Linkedin over the next week or so!!!!!

A couple final notes: our 1st ever partnership with Green Market Report for a full day Finance Summit was a great addition to the convention, kudos to Mary Pemberton and rest of the GMR team for putting it together! Also a huge shout out to our presenting sponsor Futurola for their support and energy on the floor, our first ever official after-party partner Nova Farms for an amazing night, and Chris Faraone & the crew at Talking Joints Memo for putting out a kickass 10th anniversary mag!!

Third (and final, I promise) installment this Friday.