I hope everyone’s week went really well. Oh, how was my week? Well, thanks for asking! This week I got to attend the Texas Hemp Convention on Tuesday, Jan 28th at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center in Dallas. I only went the first day out of 3 days and did not have any access to listen to speakers. I am writing this piece to share with ya’ll my experience from Texas Hemp Convention this week and also to give some perspective around what the industry is looking forward to in the near future. If there is one key takeaway from the week, it’s that there is a lot of eccentric energy in the air of the farmland here in Texas.
So first and foremost, this statement is narrow-minded, I was absolutely not looking forward to driving out to the Kay Bailey Hutchison center in Dallas. The location was a big turn off for me because of the sheer size of the KBH Center. There is just so much space everywhere at this venue and that results in lots of walking and there was not a lot of event signage until you got to the 2nd floor of the event center. It is easy to get lost there or confused if you are from out of town. Not just that but then being in the middle of downtown Dallas, with all that traffic, with the day ending at 5pm on a week day… Just one day for me was draining, I couldn’t imagine 3! I arrived at the 2nd floor around 10:30 and quickly noticed a jam packed lobby area with 4 or more long lines that were all leading to tables that said “registration”. The wait took about 30 minutes and weirdly enough, all of the information I gave up when I bought my ticket, never made it to my entry badge. Usually at expos/conferences you can be identified by your expo badge but I guess the hosts did not choose to follow suit. Some people were really upset with the wait for check in which is understandable because I have been to a conference with around 10k people in attendance the first day and the check in process was nowhere near as time consuming as the Texas Hemp Convention.
After making it through the check in process I proceeded into the expo floor. At first, I noticed the humungous showcasing of extraction equipment in the middle of the floor room. After a few immediate conversations with familiar faces, I then went to knock out all of the booths that were there. I walked the entire floor and I have to say that there was good diversity and inclusion of the supply chain but there was a ton of CBD companies. There were companies that helped soil plotting, tilling the dirt, companies with seeds, hemp crop insurance, harvesting equipment companies, extraction, drying, testing, attorneys and ancillary companies that helped with the growth of your business. I can appreciate the fact that there was a good mix of Texas based companies represented, but to me, it was very clear that there was an oversupply of CBD companies present. I saw few, if any, companies that were specializing in the industrial side of hemp, very little innovative companies working with hemp fuel, hemp wood or hempcrete. I felt that there was a few missed opportunities in regards to the types of businesses that were present, especially when there was about 300 slots to fill but on the brighter side of things 50% of the companies were product companies and about 50% of those companies were giving out samples! And that is one of my favorite things about these conventions!
Another thing that was in poor taste was the 90% off coupon days leading into the event making tickets dirt cheap compared to what they were for the months leading into the convention. A few associates of mine were a little upset that they paid $100 in advance for the same ticket I had paid $10 for the day of the event, because usually early purchasers are rewarded with discounted prices and not day-of ticket purchasers. Moving from that, the organizers were able to round up quite a crowd of people. I am fortunate to have reconnected with a lot of Texas players and a friends from out of State. The marketing/advertising efforts evidently paid off in reaching quality attendees and I didn’t feel that it was a really heavy consumer focused event. I saw a lot of individuals with business cards, notebooks and a pep in their step, which I can certainly respect a good balance of attendees at such a large expo. As far as the speakers go, I wish I had time to go in and sit in on a few. Just from the outside observation I have, it seemed that there was a good balance of speaker selection. I am glad they included some Texas based speakers but that did come with the cost of having a few unseasoned speakers. Which in the grand scheme of things, is fine to match this new industry, as long as there was quality content that came from all speakers.
From following other event goers on social media, I have gathered that the 2nd day was just as filled but the 3rd day was extra innings and the crowd thinned out a bit. There was an after party the 2nd day featuring Tone Loc and quite a bit of other little gatherings that groups and organizations were putting on in the area. Overall, I think there was a lot to offer at the expo and I am sure everyone got a lot out of it, I know I did. There were of course a ton of conversations around the clearance of Texas’ hemp rules and concerns around a few things Sid Miller had to say when he addressed the community in Waco just days before the convention. With things expected to kick off in just a couple of months, farmers are applying for licenses while getting all of the criteria met. Ancillary businesses are positioning themselves, distributors are making deals with others in the Texas hemp supply chain, outside consultants are finding work with large land owners looking to cash in on the hemp crop and people are tying up the last bits of their operation together before we all embark on the 2020 planting season. I am eager to see how farmers wrestle with keeping THC levels down and look to see what the data tells us in the future about the different micro climates that Texas has and how it serves for hemp production. Especially, hemp production with the intent for cannabinoid distribution. My prediction is that Texas might just turn out to be the state with tons of hemp plants in the ground geared for industrial use and not medicinal use. Either way, this hemp movement is not just only good for consumers, it is good for the planet. We should all be planting more hemp and I look forward to seeing it happen in the years to come.