The Western Fair Association has partnered with CannabisWiki to organize a first-of-its-kind agricultural cannabis event in Southwestern Ontario.

Until the pandemic began, the annual Western Fair in London, Ont. had run uninterrupted since the Second World War.

Earlier this month, the WFA announced the annual yearling sale, which it has been hosting for nearly 20 years, is returning. As is the national poultry show, which has been featured for more than 60 years. And later this year the association will welcome something a little different, the CannabisWiki Conference and Expo.

The two-day event in June will showcase innovation in the Canadian cannabis industry, with a particular focus on the London and Middlesex region as a world leader in “agriculture, agribusiness and plant-derived medicines.”

“We’re doing an event with this agriculture-cannabis base to stop the stigma and bring cannabis more into the agriculture area, where it should be,” says Derrick Berney, the chief executive of CannabisWiki.

For an area of the province that is heavily involved in cannabis, Berney says the region is “severely underserviced” when it comes to industry conferences and events.

“Southwestern Ontario has kind of been left out but there’s a lot of cannabis business here,” he says, highlighting London-based A&L Canada Laboratories, which provides cannabis testing services for a number of Canadian producers, and the Leamington area, which is home to more than 15 licensed producers.

In fact, Southwestern Ontario has become known as Canada’s cannabis belt. Some of the country’s largest producers are located in the region, which is home to some of the country’s best farming conditions.

Berney isn’t looking to compete with large established conferences but instead wants to offer Canadian companies an opportunity to have a presence in a region of the country that is significantly involved in the sector. He says CannabisWiki has a partnership with the WFA for the next three years, which should provide plenty of chances to showcase the region’s canna-businesses and change some minds.

Ideally, Berney wants to see cannabis reach a point where it’s treated like tomatoes or cucumbers, rather than viewed through a lens of criminalization and propaganda. Both agriculture and cannabis are “siloed” sectors that could benefit from working together, he says.

“London is really an agricultural city,” he says.

“And us bringing cannabis into the fold is, I think, really going to demystify some stigma and benefit the area here.”

A serial entrepreneur

The CannabisWiki conference will host guest speakers both in-person and virtually, with support from Mien Tzu, a virtual event platform Berney founded in 2020. Mien Tzu allows guests to have face-to-face chats and enter breakout rooms without leaving the main event. Attendees are able to enter side rooms at any time, giving a more personal feel to virtual conferences, Berney says.

“When I go to a conference, I go at my own pace, and going to a conference is not just about seeing what the conference has to offer, it’s about meeting and networking with the people who attend the conference,” he says.

Mien Tzu has already been utilized by Hempfest Canada, the Growing and C45 Summits, a number of cooking conferences and the Black Entrepreneurship Virtual Summit, which was created and hosted by Berney last February.

The purpose of the summit was to empower BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of colour) entrepreneurs and connect them to resources, mentorship and future networking opportunities. Headlined by Wesley Williams, also known as Maestro Fresh Wes, the event also featured local members of Parliament and representatives from the Federal Economic Development Agency, as well as brother and sister duo Ashley and Michael Athill, co-founders of HRVSTR, Canada’s first Black-owned craft cannabis licensed producer.

The event was open to entrepreneurs in any field but Berney says it attracted a number of attendees from the cannabis sector.

He’s hoping to see a similar level of networking at the CannabisWiki conference and opportunities for both regional and national businesses to connect with cannabis entrepreneurs.

“We’re really just trying to destigmatize and push the industry forward,” he says.

“There’s still a stigma, like it’s a stoner conference, but no, there’s big business being done here and we should welcome that into the city.”

With cannabis revenues now on par with the Canadian dairy industry, legal cannabis has also provided a boost for some Canadian farmers.

Realized net income for Canadian farmers rose 84.2 per cent to $9.9 billion in 2020 and cannabis was responsible for more than 12 per cent of that growth. More than one-half of the 5.4 per cent rise in cash wages was also attributable to cannabis.

With the introduction of edibles, beverages and topicals in late 2019 and early 2020, cannabis farm receipts — revenues from the sale of agricultural commodities, program payments from government agencies and payments from private crop and livestock insurance programs — climbed 65 per cent in 2020.

The CannabisWiki expo also works towards the WFA’s focus on relationship-building and promotion of local agri-food producers and production. “An event for our region seemed a logical step in serving the strategy of diversifying our agricultural business base,” said Reg Ash, the chief executive of the WFA.

For Berney, he says Canada has an opportunity to be a world leader in cannabis and he hopes that further education, and the support of the agricultural sector, will lead to Canada revisiting some of its rules around the plant, particularly around advertising.