Headliners Announced for Southern Hemp Expo
Organizers of the Southern Hemp Expo have shared the line-up of both veteran and new industry leaders, including cannabis medical expert Dr. Uma Dhanabalan, who will speak during the three-day event starting on Thursday Sept. 2, at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Dhanabalan is a Harvard-trained, Massachusetts-based physician skilled in family medicine and occupational & environmental medicine. She is a medicinal cannabis advocate, activist and educator, and speaks globally about cannabis as a plant medicine. She will present the opening Keynote – Cannabis the Global Solution – on Thursday, Sept. 2 and also speak on Friday, Sept. 3 during a roundtable discussion on cannabis/marijuana expungement.
The third-annual Southern Hemp Expo (SHE3) will gather entrepreneurs and experts across the supply chain with exhibitors in the fields of farming and agronomy, equipment, fiber, food, cannabinoids, nutrition, textiles, building materials, bioplastics, health and wellness, technology, and more.
Keynote speakers include business leaders in the hemp space; investors, legal and policy experts, and celebrity athletes, including superbowl champion and ESPN football analyst Matt Wilhelm and women’s soccer star Rachel Rapinoe.
The three-day expo will feature a Thursday, Sept. 2 Business Conference where highly qualified investment professionals and business owners will discuss legal updates, banking and payments, hemp trends and the evolving industry landscape, building/marketing and funding your business, and investment opportunities and strategies. Speakers will include Morgan Paxhia of cannabis and hemp investors Poseidon Asset Management. Learn the latest in hemp’s legal and regulatory environment, including Delta 8, with cannabis and hemp attorney Scheril Murray Powell, Esq. and U.S Hemp Authority president Dr. Marielle Weintraub.
A Farm Symposium on Friday, Sept. 3, will include talks on the current state of hemp farming, future opportunities, regenerative agriculture, coops, government grants and tax credits, the new carbon economy, and more. Speakers will include Ben Dobson, CEO of Hudson Hemp; Dr. Arnab Bhowmik, soil scientist from North Carolina A & T University; and New Mexico hemp farmer and bestselling author Doug Fine.
A 3-Day Industry Pass, Sept. 2-4, will allow participants to meet with exhibitors and sponsors on the trade show floor, have access to the Expo Hall Education Stage, and to network and do business with owners, entrepreneurs and leaders in the emerging hemp industry.
Experience Hemp Day, will be held Saturday, Sept. ,4 and is open to the general public who can mingle with vendors, buy and try hemp products, watch speakers and panel discussions on multiple stages, and explore the many uses of industrial hemp in food, supplements, fiber, textiles, building materials, paper, medicine and more.
Other speakers will include:
- Ben Wiliams of Houston-based hemp-infused Highway Vodka, will discuss distilled spirits and hemp.
- Hemp textiles and the non-woven fiber industry will be discussed over many sessions and include Barbara Fillipone of EnviroTextiles and Taimour Azhar of The Hempville, Inc.
- CBD marketer Franny Tacy of Asheville, NC-based Franny’s Farmacy will discuss vertical integration from seed to shelf.
Find out more at SouthernHempExpo.com.
