March 8, 9, 10 2021

Digital Live Stream +

9 am - 4 pm CT Daily

GROWING Summit

Evolving cultivation in

Canadian Cannabis

Collaborate. Evolve. Grow.

The Growing Summit will bring the leaders of the Global Cannabis industry together, exploring traditional cultivation methods or legacy growing methods as we forge through this exciting time in Canadian history. Together we will establish the Canadian Cannabis industry growers as world leaders in cultivation innovation.

Digital features designed to maximize your value.

Reduced pricing from our in-person events
Digital exhibitors with dedicated networking rooms
Themed Summit hang out rooms for networking
Virtual networking kick off night
Round table chat rooms with Summit experts
Interactive Q&A in real-time
App technology that allows you to start a conversation with other guests
Watch live streamed or view later at your own convenience
Content available to all attendees after the event with professional notes taken for you
All slides and powerpoints available to guest in the event wrap up package

ACMLA content support.

This year the ACMLA has taken on the awesome opportunity to spearhead the agenda for the Growing Summit, March 8, 9, 10 2021. In partnership with Hempfest Canada the summit tackles issues and knowledge to help Growers succeed in this challenging, frustrating, and rewarding industry.

The Summit aims to be created by the growers for the growers.

The Summit

Join us in POWERFUL Conversation

About the Summit

Learn from other growers and share your knowledge with others as we examine challenges and triumphs that growers face every day.

From the MMAR in 2001 to C-45 in 2018, the Canadian Cannabis industry has captured the attention of the world. Canada has emerged as the global leader in cannabis cultivation. The eyes of the world are watching Canada, however other nations are soon to be hot on our heels. How do we maintain our excellence as an industry while continually improving skills, methods, and scientific understanding of the cultivation of cannabis?

The Summit aims to unite Canada's greatest growers and industry-related professionals in order to find the answers that will help growers face daily challenges together.

Inspire a new and innovative vision and share practical skills from a diverse panel of industry speakers

Network with growers and growing-related professionals, provincial and regulatory agencies, and service providers

20+

100+

Speakers

Experts

100+

Companies

150+

Participants

2020 Speakers

The Growing Summit is proud to bring together the following inspirational speakers from across the 'Growing' Cannabis industry.

Mary Horvatincic

Mary Horvatincic Co-Founder, CEO
BlueSky Organics

It is often said someone is “ahead of their time” when they have new ideas long before many
other people start to think in the same way. That would be a fitting description of Mary
Horvatincic and the company she has co-founded in BlueSky Organics.

David Brown

As a former policy advisor with Health Canada's cannabis branch and a co-founder of Lift & Co, David Brown brings an extensive and unique body of knowledge and experience to the table within Canada's regulated cannabis market. He is passionate about seeing the cannabis sector grow and mature into a robust and respected industry. David will be tapping into his experience helping formulate Health Canada's micro and nursery regulations to give a fresh take on scalable, streamlined approaches to entering the legal cannabis production market in Canada without spending millions.

Sasha Okyere

As a lifelong cannabis champion and enthusiast, Sasha Okyere is a leading expert in cannabis extraction with a deep appreciation for sustainability and innovative solutions. Formerly the Vice President of Processing at Sundial Growers, Sasha has perceptively led cross-functional teams for over 20 years to design world-class processing facilities across numerous organizations.

Sandra Colasanti, Remo

Sandra’s involvement in the cannabis industry began in the 90s, when her husband, Remo “Urban Remo” Colasanti, was involved in a car accident that left him with a debilitating back injury. After trying many types of prescription drugs that just made him unable to function, he and Sandra looked into cannabis as a way of treating his symptoms and found that it not only helped with his back pain but also allowed him to function daily with a clear head. In 2001, when cannabis became legal in Canada for medical use, Remo (with the help and extensive research done by Sandra) became one of the first people in Canada to be granted a license to grow his medicine at home, possess it, and consume it. Sandra is now the president of REMO Brands Inc, which produces and sells their nutrient line, Remo Nutrients.

Andrew Freedman is the first real " Cannabis Sommelier & quot; his focus on pairing cannabis, beer, cocktail, wine and gastronomy are completely unique and original.

The Growing Summit's Dinner Sommelier.

Anoo Solomon is the owner of CannaProtect IPM Solutions which offers customized IPM consulting
services across North America for cannabis companies.

Anoo is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for Cannabis.

Rudi is the co-founder and CEO of Habitat Craft Cannabis, leading strategy, vision and business
development. Rudi has a deep passion and a long history of building regenerative agriculture and sustainable protein businesses.

Brittny Anderson, M.Sc.

Brittny, a co-founder and Director of Operations of The Cannabis Conservancy, grew up in Canada’s cannabis capital, Nelson BC. In 2018, she was elected to serve as a Councillor for the City of Nelson and is the Alternate Director for the Regional District of Central Kootenay.

Jennifer Caldwell

Jennifer Caldwell
Local Cannabinoid Company
Jennifer has indulged her love of science in many different roles – as a biology and chemistry teacher, as a scientific consultant for a plaintiff pharmaceutical law firm and most recently in quality assurance, compliance, licensing and regulatory affairs in the cannabis industry.

Goncalves da Silva

Dr. Anders Goncalves da Silva, Chief Bioinformatics Officer of Lighthouse Genomics, is passionate about finding ways to use genetic data to inform better decision making. Since receiving his Ph.D. from Columbia University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 2007, Dr. Goncalves da Silva has used his skills to help inform decision making in conservation biology, fisheries management, wildlife disease monitoring and public health. He is currently applying his expertise in genetic analysis to Cannabis sativa.

Laura Doell, B. Sc

Director, ICM

Grow Summit Speaker Laura Doell is Director, ICM (Integrated Crop Management) at Sundial Cannabis, an indoor Alberta cannabis cultivator. Laura has over 20 years of experience with greenhouses and IPM including indoor cannabis ICM. Doell has taught the fundamentals of IPM to everyone from Growers to crop workers and played an essential role in crop protection in cannabis including a past consultant role
with Tilray (Nanaimo) cannabis and various Sundial Cannabis facilities including:

Kayla Mann CA, CPA.

Currently, CFO at Habitat, a company revolutionizing agriculture with an innovative approach to vertical growing and aquaponics. Formerly, Kayla held many diverse roles across various aspects of the industry at The Valens Company including cannabis education, marketing, branding, finance, business strategy, investor relations, product development, business development and more. She was also a 2020 AdCann Marketer of the Year Nominee and was also recognized by AdCann as a 2020 Trail Blazer.

Alison McMahon

Alison McMahon is the Founder & CEO of Cannabis At Work. Founded in 2015, Cannabis At Work is the leading source in Canada for cannabis jobs, recruitment services, online industry training, and HR consulting services. Alison’s work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Globe & Mail, Huffington Post, Financial Post, CBC, Business News Network (BNN), Leafly and by many other media outlets.

Ryan Wankel

Cannabis Grower Liaison, Heliospectra

A second-generation cannabis grower recognized with several cannabis cup awards, Ryan has led commercial cultivation teams at large scale facilities in Denver, Colorado. Having taken multiple facilities from HPS to LED lighting solutions, he now assists Heliospectra customers in North America and Europe to develop strain-specific lighting strategies and understand the benefits and environmental conditions of growing with LEDs.

Thamy Sriskandakumar

Thamy Sriskandakumar, PhD
Formulation Scientist and Scientific Advisor of CoTerra Labs

Thamy Sriskandakumar received her Ph.D. in Bioinorganic Chemistry from the University of British Columbia, Canada and M.Sc. in material chemistry from the University of Connecticut, CT, USA. Her diverse background in complex inorganic materials, metal-based nutrients and
metal interactions with biomolecules is the core strength. She is passionate about green chemistry approaches to solving critical pharmaceutical, environmental and agricultural issues.

Andrew Lauchlan

Andrew Lauchlan is the owner/operator of “Free Bird Organics or FBO”, an organic craft legacy cultivation company located in Nelson, BC.

Integrity is a primary and fundamental core value in Andrew’s company and way of life. His aim is to pursue quality while always seeking to raise standards to produce a beautiful, efficacious and truly honest product.

FBO is passionately focused on the artistry of Cannabis Cultivation and being a leading supplier of Cannabis, both to the medical patients seeking medical and therapeutic benefits, and to the recreational connoisseur clients, looking for the taste and smoothness of high end organic flower and extracts.

Remo

Remo is a grower and a medical cannabis patient, based in Maple Ridge, BC, Canada. Back in 2001, he became one of the first people in Canada to be allowed to grow cannabis at home and carry it on himself legally, for medicinal purposes. Since then, he has been teaching people to grow safely and legally and has been producing cannabis content on Youtube channel since 2006 (). Remo had been involved with testifying in the constitutional court case that protected the patients legal right to grow their own cannabis.

An impassioned believer that the processes of our agriculture will dictate the quality of our nutrition and the sustainability of our future, Tanner has long been an advocate for, and entrepreneur in, Canada’s vertical farming and aquaponics industry.

Kirk Tousaw is the CEO of Great Gardener Farms, Ltd., a cannabis company based on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. He has been a cannabis policy consultant, lawyer and legalization advocate for decades. As a lawyer, Kirk won several ground-breaking cannabis cases, including a unanimous victory at the Supreme Court of Canada in R v. Smith, establishing patient’s Charter rights to non-smoked forms of medical cannabis and as co-counsel in Allard v Canada, confirming a medical patient’s constitutional right to produce cannabis for their own use.

Jodi McDonald is the President & Founder of Keystone Labs Inc. Keystone Labs was incorporated in 2005 and in August 2015, acquired a Health Canada controlled substance license to conduct cannabis testing. Jodi has a background in clinical and microbiology sciences and her passion is bridging the gap between analytical and microbial sciences and the medical cannabis industry to help improve the quality of medicinal cannabis products being used by patients.

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Av Singh, PhD, PAg
Cannabis Cultivation Advisor
Av Singh is one of the leading authorities on organic cannabis production. After completing his post-doc at the University of Minnesota on pasture-based livestock production, Singh worked at the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada and served as the Organic and Small-Scale Farming Specialist in Nova Scotia, for over 15 years, and recently held the Just Us! Chair in Small Farm Sustainability.

Av Singh
av @ fs-cannabis.com

Micheline Gravelle is a partner with Bereskin & Parr LLP. She is also the co-leader of the Cannabis practice group and leader of the Life Sciences and Plant Breeders’ Rights practice groups. Her practice focuses on assessing new technologies, preparing and prosecuting patent applications worldwide, and conducting due diligence analyses and providing strategic advice on patent portfolios.

Travis has been cultivating cannabis for 20-plus years in British Columbia and has been a strong advocate for pesticide-free, sun-grown, living soil production. He has been involved in the founding of numerous small cannabis businesses over the past decade, and teaches courses on cannabis cultivation and operations at Camosun College on Vancouver Island.

Andrea Keddy, Koppert

Andrea Keddy has worked in the greenhouse industry for over 15 years, with 9 years specializing in biological control in crops. Raised in the East coast, she has lived and worked in the industry across Canada. She is passionate about helping growers develop IPM programs and teaching the fundamentals of pest management.

Shannon Ross

Shannon Ross is a cannabis advisor at Community Futures Central Kootenay, in the heart of Canada’s legacy cannabis culture in Nelson, BC. She has twenty years’ experience in the cannabis industry and managing commercial organic farms. She is particularly passionate about sustainable agricultural practices, helping cannabis facilities improve production, reduce input costs and increasing profits while caring for the long term health of people and the planet.

Traci Woodward

Traci Woodward is a Quality Assurance consultant in the Cannabis Industry.
Traci has worked in the Cannabis industry for more than 3 years, and previously in the regulated GMP Pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years, working around the world, including several years
internationally in both England and Switzerland.
Traci has worked with both Aurora Cannabis and Flowr Corporation as the Senior Director of Quality.

Dr Steven Newmaster

Professor Genomics/Metabolomics; Director, NHP Research Alliance, University of Guelph, Canada

Abstract: Cannabis strains are not defined scientifically, nor have they been characterized and classified using scientifically validated methods. This presents a challenge for distributors, manufactures and retailers who seek to develop a system for measuring quality assurance and control for consistent brands with Cannabis ingredients. The risk of brand damage is considerable if you do not know how to characterize your ingredient...

Jeff Ord

Jeff Ord is Cannabis At Work’s entrepreneurially spirited VP of Accounts & Relationships. Jeff has leveraged his unique ability to forge meaningful connections and built the cannabis community from coast-to-coast. With a decade of experience helping small organizations grow, Jeff is passionate about creating space & place for people to become the best versions of themselves. Jeff has been hosting The Roll Call - a series of in-person and online events designed to connect cannabis colleagues through conversations about gratitude.

Stephanie Karasick

Stephanie was born and raised in Montreal, and left shortly after getting her degree in Graphic Design. She moved to Toronto, and worked as a copywriter at Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT, Taxi, and MacLaren McCann over a span of 15 years. She started using cannabis as treatment for chronic depression and anxiety at age 42. She kept a detailed journal of her experiences with different strains, which eventually turned into the idea for the app Strainprint. The app today is used by tens of thousands of patients and collects anonymized experiences in real-time. Stephanie is driven by a passion to better understand and validate the use of cannabis as a medicine.

Jon Bent

Jon is an MMAR Grower & Hobby Farmer from rural Manitoba. He started cultivating cannabis & making concentrates in 1996.

In 2001, he opened his first retail hydroponic store followed by an online hydroponic wholesale store in 2003 selling growing supplies all across North America. This created an extensive network of growers and knowledge.

Kieley Beaudry

Kieley Beaudry is a 25 year cannabis consumer and has been a cannabis educator and entrepreneur for the past 4 years. She co-founded Parkland Flower Inc in 2018 to start a micro-cultivation in Edmonton, Alberta. As she started going through the process of applying for a licence, she realized there were no organizations to support small operators in the space, thus founded The Alberta Cannabis Micro Licence Association to help fill that gap. With an incredible board of industry professionals from across Alberta, they work with the AGLC to help small operators navigate this confusing and ever changing landscape.

Che LeBlanc

Founder and CEO of Rosebud Cannabis Farms, Che’ LeBlanc brings nearly 3 decades of experience in the cannabis industry as a second generation expert grower. He blends this experience with a background in construction and management. As a certified permaculturist, Che has grown and developed hundreds of strains of cannabis for indoor and outdoor production, while incorporating sustainable growing techniques. He specializes in combining environmental ethics with high yield output by blending technology with regenerative growing techniques.