Panelists at media agency RNMKR's 4/20 breakfast event shared their thoughts on the evolution of cannabis as a product and as a sector.

With panel discussions on the evolution of cannabis, both as a product and as a sector, RNMKR, a media agency, hosted several prominent cannabis personalities to discuss the future of the market.

A breakfast event last Friday (April 20) featured two different panels, one honing in on how Canada is poised to raise large amounts of capital in the cannabis space, and the other focusing on the impact of marijuana finding its way to retailers.

In a conversation with the Investing News Network (INN), Matei Olaru, CEO of Lift & Co., formerly branded as Lift, predicted that the cannabis market will see another big surge just before legalization happens in Canada, but gave a word of caution to investors for afterwards.

“I would expect [a surge] right before it happens, people pricing in anticipation, and then I would anticipate a couple quarters of medium [lulls] and then actually quite a bit of a correction,” Olaru told INN.

“When you see a lot of these producers with very high valuations not being able to make the revenue that supports the valuations, [it’s] because [they’re] not big enough to sell enough product, or they just couldn’t lock up supply,” he added.

The first panel discussion touched on how the different regulations cannabis will see upon legalization will affect factors like stock prices, the sector as a whole and the way companies operate moving forward.

Lending investor guidance was John Prentice, CEO of Ample Organics, who described his experience trying to raise capital in the market years earlier. He also touched on what current startups and hopeful investors need in order to obtain it.

“Capital will be easier if you have a good plan, an addressable market, you have somewhere to go and you have revenue potential,” Prentice said during the first panel. “If that’s not there, it’s going to be just as difficult as it was [four years ago].”

The second panel of the day focused more closely on cannabis as part of the retail space and mainstream market, including the introduction of the Ontario Cannabis Store, the province’s soon-to-be official regulated cannabis store.

Irie Selkirk, Emblem Cannabis’ (TSXV:EMC) market actuator, was part of this panel and spoke on the importance of educating consumers to help eliminate the stigma attached to cannabis consumption.

“I think as long as that brand and experience is steeped with authenticity and education, that it’s going to gain [the] trust of the consumer,” Selkirk told INN.