Sponsored by:

Complimentary ON DEMAND RECORDING

RECORDED ON: November 29, 2022

Cannabis Supply Chain Virtual Conference

Welcome to the Cannabis Supply Chain Virtual Conference! This collection of webinars will explore a variety of topics throughout the cannabis product supply chain. We will take a deep dive into the traceability, sourcing, vetting suppliers, vendors, quality controls, labeling from seed to sale, working to achieve client goals, logistical issues, automation and much more.

Attendees registering for this complimentary series of webinars will get access to veterans of the cannabis market, who are all available for Q&A after each presentation. In addition to getting the opportunity to chat with these subject matter experts on November 29, a recording of the presentations will be made available to all who register. Practical and educational information from experts in the cannabis industry, all on the same day and all from the comfort of your home or office. Want real inside knowledge on the cannabis supply chain? Sign up today!

Who Should Attend:

Cultivators, Extractors, Processors
Edibles Manufacturers
Dispensary Owners and Managers
Distributors, and those seeking to learn more about cannabis packaging and supply chain issues.

Agenda

12:00 PM - Welcome & Introductions
Aaron Biros, Editor, CannabisIndustryJournal.com - Host and Moderator

12:05 PM - A Smarter Cannabis Beverage Distribution Model
Jason Vegotsky, Chief Executive Officer, Petalfast

Current cannabis distribution models make it hard for emerging cannabis beverage brands to launch and scale their businesses successfully. Instead, the wine & beverage sector could provide a model that would allow these brands to build relationships with retailers, foster competition, and improve brand diversity for consumers. In this presentation, Jason Vegotsky will delve into the cannabis sales and distribution model, examine how current models hurt emerging brands and products, and analyze how other CPG models, specifically in food & beverage industries, can be applied to cannabis to build relationships and improve sales.

12:55 PM - The Cannabis Packaging and Supply Chain Realities - Berlin Packaging Sponsored TechTalk
Julie Saltzman, Director of Cannabis Business Development, Berlin Packaging

Global versus Domestic – what is the best sourcing solution?
The advantages/disadvantages of different substrates (glass, plastic, metal)
Trends in Cannabis Packaging

1:10 PM - Track-and-Trace Technology: Building Resilience in the Cannabis Supply Chain
Michael Johnson, CEO, Metrc

Building resilience in supply chains is a goal for all parties involved in a given market. Governments have an interest in protecting the health of consumers while safeguarding the flow of goods; businesses want to stay compliant while efficiently moving products; and consumers want and should expect that the products they buy are safe and effective. With heightened awareness around transparency and consumer safety in the cannabis industry, track-and-trace technologies have been central to building broad trust by ensuring more secure supply chains. In this presentation, Michael Johnson will discuss how these tools will continue to be deeply transformational in the sector.

2:00 pm - Improve Your Operations through Cannabis Industry Analytics - CannaSpyGlass Sponsored Tech Talk
Adam Hutchinson, Co-Founder, CannaSupplyGlass

As new markets legalize and additional business licenses are distributed, competition between cannabis operators is intensifying in every stage of the supply chain from seed-to-sale. It is now tougher than ever to carve out a piece of this increasingly saturated market and cannabis operators aiming to succeed must incorporate industry analytics into their decision-making process. With data analytics, cannabis is no longer an industry of trial and error, and in this session, cannabis operators will learn how to obtain and utilize data analytics to improve their businesses and sustain long-term growth.

2:15 PM - Quality and Safety and the Edibles Supply Chain
Steven Gendel, Ph.D., Principal, Gendel Food Safety

As the number and variety of cannabis and hemp-containing edibles continues to increase, the supply chains for these products have become complex and diverse. This means that manufacturers must understand how to develop and apply supply chain controls that protect consumers and ensure product quality and safety. For example, a simple cannabis-infused baked product might contain more than 20 non-cannabis ingredients sourced from multiple suppliers. The manufacturer of this product must ensure that each of these ingredients meets specifications every time a new batch or lot is received and used. Unfortunately, there is little guidance available to the cannabis industry (especially those who are not familiar with food manufacturing) on how to identify and evaluate supply chain risks or on what controls will be most effective in mitigating these risks. This talk will look at the steps that cannabis manufacturers can take to evaluate their supply chain, monitor and control identified risks, and respond to changes in the industry landscape.

3:00 PM - Managing Cash Flow in the Cannabis Supply Chain
Nohtal Partansky, Co-Founder & CEO, Sorting Robotics

The cannabis supply chain has pitfalls and landmines that can severely hurt a business if navigated improperly. The balance between branding, packaging, growing, distribution, testing, and quality is difficult to achieve. If one of aforementioned topics fails to deliver, it can mean huge financial losses or the death of a brand. In this presentation, we will cover how managing cash flow throughout the supply chain is critical to running a successful operation. There will be several case studies in improperly managed supply chains and their consequences on the balance sheet. There will also be an exploration of what the ideal supply chain would look like in the California market, how that correlates to other adjacent industries, and how it manifests into liquidity.

3:45 PM - Wrap up

SPEAKERS

Jason Vegotsky
Chief Executive Officer
Petalfast

Jason Vegotsky is the Chief Executive Officer of Petalfast, the first-of-its-kind route-through-market platform for the cannabis industry. Petalfast helps cannabis brands thrive via its go-to-market accelerator program in select states and through its full spectrum of agency services available to brands nationally. Notable cannabis brands already engaged in the Petalfast platform include Space Coyote, Emerald Sky, Bloom Brands, and Yada Yada. The Company, through its incubator program Pilot by Petalfast, also provides new and recently launched brands with direct access to leading retailers and opportunities to gain first-hand market analysis while also offering select retailers the opportunity to see future brands before they formally hit the market. Petalfast is taking its business model and expanding into newer, competitive markets.

Michael Johnson
Chief Executive Officer
Metrc

Michael Johnson is the CEO of Metrc, the most trusted and experienced provider of cannabis regulatory systems in the United States. The company's solution combines advanced software, radio-frequency identification (RFID), a dedicated customer-support team, and a secure database to track cannabis from growth, harvest, and processing to testing, transport, and sale. Metrc is engaged in 23 government contracts and serves more than 300,000 users, including growers, testing facilities, dispensaries, state regulators, and law enforcement officials.

Johnson’s experience managing highly effective teams, integrating business units, and building out enterprise-wide processes has consistently led to the harmonization of customer experience and profitability. During his time as Metrc’s president and CFO, he transformed its organizational infrastructure, hired top leadership across all phases, and led year-over-year growth of nearly 50%. Prior to joining Metrc, Johnson spent his career scaling hyper-growth tech businesses, working with investors and overseeing financial operations. Most recently, he served as the CFO of InformedDNA, the largest provider of genetics services, where he led the company to consecutive years of high growth, eventually selling the company to private equity investors. Prior to InformedDNA, Johnson served as the CFO of CM Group, a family of global marketing technology brands, where he drove cost efficiencies and increased margins through corporate acquisitions, financing, and restructuring. He is also a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Steve Gendel, Ph.D.
Principal
Gendel Food Safety

Dr. Steven Gendel is an independent expert with over 30 years of experience helping industry and regulators protect food safety, respond to the evolution of the international food system, and adapt to changes in technology. He works with innovators to succesfully navigate the regulatory and scientific process of developing and using new food ingredients such as those derived from hemp and cannabis. His experience includes over two decades as a scientist, risk assessor, and policy coordinator in the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; in academic positions at Harvard University, the University of Toronto, and Iowa State University; and as the Senior Director for Food Science at the Food Chemicals Codex.

Nohtal Partansky
Co-Founder & CEO
Sorting Robotics

Nohtal Partansky, Co-Founder and CEO of Sorting Robotics, an industrial cannabis-focused AI and computer vision technologies company, is a serial entrepreneur and former NASA-JPL engineer. During his time at NASA-JPL, Nohtal was assigned to a project called the Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), and the mission to develop a device that can take in the atmosphere of Mars and produce oxygen for people to breathe was successfully accomplished. After leaving NASA-JPL, Nohtal immediately founded Sorting Robotics with his two co-founders, Cassio Dos Santos Jr. and Sean Lawlor.

In 4 short years, Nohtal has led Sorting Robotics in building new innovative equipment for cannabis manufacturers and vertically integrated brands. While building Sorting Robotics, Nohtal witnessed first hand how the lack of automation in the cannabis industry creates inefficiencies that degrade the smooth operation of the value chain and diminish profit margins. Today, Sorting Robotics is solving those problems with AI-driven machines deployed across multiple states and in Canada.

Nohtal is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Rise Co-Packing, the premier automation-first co-packer for trimming, pre-rolls, & turn-key cannabis brand needs, and Inventor of Jiko Joints, the first robotically infused badder cannabis pre-rolls currently available in 15 dispensaries across California.

Julie Saltzman
Director of Cannabis Business Development
Berlin Packaging

Julie Saltzman is the Director of Cannabis Business Development at Berlin Packaging, the world’s largest Hybrid Packaging Supplier. Combining her 25+ years of marketing and business development experience and her leadership in the cannabis industry, Julie helps companies of all sizes, from MSOs to small operators, grow their businesses through Berlin’s robust packaging offering and full suite of value added services including custom structural and brand design, a dedicated quality service division, supply chain and warehousing, regulatory guidance and more. Her favorite method of consumption is beverages, but will also go old school and roll her own joints.

Adam Hutchinson
Co-Founder
CannaSpyGlass

Prior to co-founding CannaSpyglass, Adam Hutchinson was President of Stonebridge Consulting, a business advisory and technology service for the energy industry. As President, Hutchinson led their business transformation which included multiple company spinoffs. Before this role, Hutchinson held positions in engineering and technology at Petrohawk Energy and Chesapeake Energy respectfully. Hutchinson started his career with global consulting giant Accenture where he served clientele in their resources market unit after earning a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Oklahoma. Since entering the cannabis industry, Hutchinson has utilized his expertise to develop CannaSpyglass’ information databases and has expanded the company’s reach to include partnerships with multiple major companies in the cannabis industry. He currently lives in Oklahoma and enjoys spending his free time with his wife, two sons, daughter, and pets at the lake.

Aaron Biros
Editor
CannabisIndustryJournal.com

Aaron Biros is the Editor-in-Chief of Cannabis Industry Journal.com (CIJ), an online business-to-business trade journal focused on the legal cannabis industry. Biros started CIJ in 2015 when he officially joined Innovative Publishing full time. Through editorial coverage of the cannabis markets, Biros has developed a familiarity with regulatory compliance, quality and safety issues as they relate to the burgeoning cannabis industry. Biros covers science and technology updates, breaking news, regulations and emerging markets from his office based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

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