What Comes Next in Your Cannabis Retail Strategy?

Lara has spent almost 30 years in leadership roles in brand management, project management, digital strategy, e-commerce and operations. After starting her career at a university, a tech start-up, and Kodak Canada, she spent over a decade at Atlantic Lottery where she led marketing and product development with a focus on digital innovation. She spent the next 8 years as an executive at an advertising agency, leading digital strategy and brand development for clients across all sectors and worked with her first cannabis industry clients. Six years ago she joined a team to launch a cannabis lifestyle magazine, strengthening her connection to the cannabis industry. In 2018 Lara joined the leadership team at ANBL to lead the launch and operation of Cannabis NB, and now holds the role of VP Operations for Cannabis NB. More recently her role expanded to include accountability for Marketing, Communications and CSR at ANBL as well as CNB. Lara is an advocate for a safe, legal cannabis industry, and the benefits it can offer New Brunswick and Canada overall.

In addition to being a licensed real estate broker since 2006 in Ontario, Alberta & British Columbia specializing in retail shopping centre & cannabis leasing, Dave has been immersed in the Canadian cannabis industry since 2017 as an initial investor in Spiritleaf, whom he continues to represent nationally for all real estate related matters including continued growth in select markets across Canada. He is also a multi-unit franchise owner & President of Spirit Leaf Ontario Inc., a strategic retail partner to Spiritleaf’s parent company Sundial Growers, which recently acquired Alcanna (who operate the Value Buds banner) bringing their newly combined footprint to over 180 cannabis stores across Canada and 170 liquor stores in Alberta. In 2021, Dave was selected by the Ontario Cannabis Store as one of only 9 retailers to sit on the board for their Ontario Recreational Cannabis Advisory Panel (ORCAP), where he also acted as a municipal delegate to encourage cities choosing to opt-out of allowing cannabis retail stores within their jurisdiction to participate within the legal framework as a preferred alternative to the illicit market, which otherwise continues to thrive without lawful access points. Dave is also a member of the International Council of Shopping Centres and the Retail Council of Canada’s Cannabis Advisory Committee. He is based on Toronto where he resides with his wife & two young sons.

Gary Cohen is the CEO of Cova, the most trusted cannabis POS brand in North America. Having met with nearly 2000 dispensary operators from coast to coast, he leverages expert knowledge to offer cannabis retailers the support they need to get a license, pass inspection, launch a store, assess tech tools, and scale operations. Gary leads seminars on retail technology, compliance, business operations, and cannabis banking laws at the industry’s largest events including NCIA, CannaCon, and MJBizCon.