BizCann Expo, a must-attend event for anyone working in the cannabis space, will be held in the city of Medellín, Columbia, May 20-21, 2023, a beautiful location surrounded by the spectacular Andes mountains. Colombia’s location an1d promising regulatory environment make it a rich location for the cannabis industry, with Medellin and nearby regions guiding its growth.

BizCann is the leading event in South and Latin America driving education, entrepreneurship, and innovation in all facets of the cannabis industry. Whether you’re a recognized canna-entrepreneur, or you are looking to join this exhilaratingd industry, BizCann Expo has all the resources you’ll need to connect to potential capitalists, find products, and launch your venture into a successful business.

BizCann Expo integrates the verticality of the cannabis industry, from seed to sale, in a safe space for entrepreneurship and learning. The expo welcomes plant-touching and non-plant-touching companies as well as ancillary services within the cannabis industry. The event lets the attendees showcase their business services, including innovative technologies and advanced products, to their potential customers and instantly make substantial gains. This event is for ages 18+ only.

Geared to ignite new business relationships

With 400+ exhibitors and a massive audience, the BizCann Expo is a must-visit event for all businesses hailing from the related industry verticals. This expo will focus on the prospects of the cannabis industry, and it attracts a wide range of participants, including business professionals, buyers, retailers, and end-users. They can avail amazing deals on the most popular CBD brands in the market.

The BizCann Expo will bring together the whole CBD and hemp business into one all-inclusive, comprehensive event, offering two days of seminars and workshops for attendees and industry professionals to learn about how cannabis improves health and wellness. Exhibitions will focus on the different cannabis benefits, and include the latest study on its use for treating different health conditions.

The BizCann Expo provides an opportunity to learn about the key elements of CBD and hemp from expert speakers. Licensed Producers, investors, growers, and suppliers can take advantage of networking opportunities and join like-minded industry professionals working in different aspects of the cannabis industry. It will help ensure their brands will prosper in the fast-growing cannabis business.

To learn more, please visit https://ibn.fm/LRt2S.

DGE invites PRC Coordinators, PR Managers, Brand Marketing Managers, and Compliance Officers, to attend its 3rd PRC Performance Optimization Summit to be held in Philadelphia, PA from June 12-13, 2023. As promotional review committees face new and tougher compliance challenges, this advocacy-oriented, strategy-focused conference is dedicated to networking and in-person learning, reuniting a devoted community, and providing deep insights into the latest procedural and regulatory perspectives.

DGE’s 3rd PRC Performance Optimization Summit will provide countless opportunities for personal transformation and professional growth. The event will convene the most creative minds in the industry for an unmatched journey exploring the creativity and innovation required to nurture cross-functional skills and cooperation when working on all promotional platforms and meeting deadlines every time.

Participants will learn about the latest success strategies for promotional compliance operations while asking questions directly to the experts, and getting the latest updates on technology developments.

Key topics will include:

• Handling the Order of Review Comments
• Managing Label Changes – at Small and Large Pharma Companies
• Understanding the Push/Pull Dynamics between Reviewers and Marketers for Better Outcomes
• Using Innovative Concept Reviews to Reduce Churn and Miscommunications
• Structuring Modular Content Updates
• Improving Brand Awareness of Promotional Review Teams Within Your Broader Organization

Dedicated to Regulatory Compliance Needs

PRC professionals have always faced challenges while working on team projects, managing relationships with marketing agencies, and anticipating the judgments of subjective regulatory reviewers.

Aiming to build and lead the best teams toward optimal regulatory outcomes, the DGE 3rd PRC Performance Optimization Summit is intended for reviewing professionals working in different fields. Its all-new program features renowned speakers specialized in regulatory and legal affairs, advertising, promotion, and labeling.  More than 25 speakers share PRC best practices for new technologies, maintaining regulatory compliance, communication, and team management.

The 3rd PRC Performance Optimization Summit will also focus on the need for professional standards and facilitate the arrangement of key performance indicators.

To learn more, please visit https://ibn.fm/wKoea.

Professionals, retailers, distributors, and enthusiasts are invited to attend the one-of-a-kind Alternative Products Expo to be held in Medellin, Colombia, from May 20-21, 2023. It’s a uniquely all-inclusive event that brings together the multi-billion-dollar alternative products industry into one comprehensive setting.

Every mainstream product has an alternative counterpart. The Alternative Products Expo is the one-stop destination to meet the prominent counterculture manufacturers and take advantage of the latest innovations and trends, show discounts, and network in the industry. By bringing the alternative community together, the expo seeks to provide industry professionals with a unique and immersive opportunity for business expansion and networking.

The Alternative Products Expo will feature all the advanced products that are disrupting the traditional markets. This innovative business networking event has expanded its show to include a wider range of alternative products, such as dietary supplements, kratom, nootropics, mushrooms, vapes & nicotine replacements, hemp derivatives, energy beverages, and more.

The Largest Expo Of Hemp, Vape, and Counterculture

ALT PRO Expo redefines the tradeshow experience by including a unique vibe that makes this an exciting event for any adult audience. With a vibrant and fun atmosphere, this event is designed to provide an exciting experience to meet the leading counterculture manufacturers, discover new product innovations, get updated on industry trends, and find the best show-exclusive deals.

The event is the ultimate gathering for independent retailers, smoke shop owners, buyers, and counterculture enthusiasts.  Increasingly known for its pleasant climate and warm people, Medellin is an evolving tourism and business hub boasting the perfect landscape and incredible vibe for companies to make an impact. Alternative Products Expo is a B2B and B2C networking event for disruptive industries such as hemp-derived products, non-psychoactive mushrooms, nutraceuticals, semi-synthetic extracts, functional beverages, delta8, kratom, nicotine alternatives, and many more.

• Network with over 400 vendors bringing the industry’s best brands.
• Learn from expert speakers sharing knowledge and industry insights.
• Find exclusive opportunities to buy innovative products at special prices.
• Discover innovative products which your business could take to a mainstream audience.

To learn more, please visit https://ibn.fm/lIiyC and https://ibn.fm/J6trC.

• FinTech Ecosystem Development Corp. is a SPAC whose goal is to identify and engage in business combinations with businesses that have developed or are developing technology that enables communities and companies to store and transfer money
• The company is targeting developing countries, particularly those in South Asia, a region where vast sections of the population are underbanked or unbanked
• 85FEXD plans to leverage its management’s experience in the Fintech sector to identify high-growth targets primarily operating in South Asia with a high volume of customers and growing demand
• Experts believe that Asia is a ripe market for financial innovation, given that it is home to the world’s youngest workforce and consumer groups with a high adoption rate of mobile and digital technologies

More than seventy percent of the adult population in South-East (“SE”) Asia is either unbanked or underbanked, according to consultancy firm Bain (https://ibn.fm/w4Ulu), with the World Bank separately reporting that South Asia accounts for over twenty percent of all unbanked adults in the world (https://ibn.fm/X6Zao). But as Tzu-Chung Liang, a South-East Asia financial services strategy and transaction leader at consultancy firm EY, tells the Financial Times, there is a silver lining: “Asia has one of the world’s youngest workforce and consumer groups, with a high adoption rate of mobile and digital technologies, so it’s a ripe market for financial innovation” (https://ibn.fm/hgA10).

This potential has sparked the interest of Fintech Ecosystem Development (NASDAQ: FEXD), a special-purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) formed to develop a global financial technology system. FEXD’s goal is to identify and engage in a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with a business – or more – that has developed or is developing technology that enables communities and companies to store and transfer money within developing countries and across international borders.

To achieve this, the company, led by CEO and Founder Dr. Saiful Khandaker, plans to leverage its management team’s experience in the Fintech sector to identify high-growth targets primarily operating in South Asia with a high volume of customers and growing demand. Dr. Khandaker, himself an industry veteran with more than three decades of experience, is the founder of FAMA Holdings Inc., a US-based global developer of Fintech platforms, applications, and services with offices in the UK, India, Bangladesh, and Zambia (https://ibn.fm/sTweN).

Dr. Khandaker also led the development of the FAMACASH(TM) network, a global Fintech ecosystem that integrates blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing technologies to provide fast, affordable mobile money services in underserved countries. He also led the development of software solutions for Fortune 100 companies and startups and designed the architecture and managed networks used by Delta Airlines, cellular billing applications for AT&T (NYSE: T) and BellSouth, and network management software for Cox Communications.

Collectively and while working for previous employers, the company’s management team helped develop platforms, applications, and services for cross-border payment, digital banking products, bill payments, mobile lifestyle products, online payment gateways, and interchangeable and multicurrency systems. FEXD hopes this team’s significant operating and transaction experience, a broad network of contacts around the world, and relationships with companies will help it identify – and potentially close – a number of business combination targets.

So far, these factors have led to the identification and entry into a definitive agreement with Mobitech International LLC (dba Afinoz), a limited liability company organized in the United Arab Emirates. FEXD announced September last year that it would purchase Afinoz, with the transaction, once closed, expected to make Afinoz a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. (However, the business combination is yet to be consummated.) Commenting on the planned acquisition, Dr. Khandaker said it would give the company “a solid competitive position in the emerging Fintech 3.0 global markets and allow us to provide neobanking services” in multiple markets, with opportunities to “expand our services to other countries in South and East Asia and Latin America” (https://ibn.fm/BThCb).

Beyond identifying the potential targets, FEXD also aims to leverage emerging technologies to reduce costs and processing times, improve the money delivery process, and create real-time settlements. Some of the technologies on the company’s radar include artificial intelligence (“AI”), machine learning, deep learning, cloud computing, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and decentralized finance. Moreover, FEXD hopes to capitalize on its team’s experience in the design and development of digital payment products, payment gateways, Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) systems, cybersecurity, scalable architecture, blockchain, and AI to deliver on its objectives.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.FintechEcoSys.com.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to FEXD are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/FEXD

• NextPlat is led by a highly experienced management team, board of directors and advisors with proven expertise in M&A, finance, e-commerce, media, technology and health care
• The company operates a state-of-the-art e-commerce platform serving customers in over 195 countries
• NextPlat recently announced a new e-commerce development program in collaboration with Alibaba’s Tmall Global to provide American businesses easy access to the Chinese consumer market, with plans to expand throughout the Americas
• Positioned as the e-commerce platform of the future, NextPlat’s system is now being upgraded with Web3 capabilities to seamlessly enable the sale of both tangible and digital assets
• Its e-commerce model provides NextPlat with a globally diversified, 24/7 revenue-generating business model with increasing levels of recurring revenue
• On April 13, 2023, the company announced its completion of a previously disclosed private placement transaction generating gross proceeds of approximately $6 million

NextPlat (NASDAQ: NXPL, NXPLW) a next generation e-commerce platform, was created with vision and purpose to capitalize on high growth sectors and global markets. The company collaborates with businesses – large and small – to simplify and accelerate online commerce and uniquely enables customers and partners to optimize their e-commerce reach, presence and revenue. NextPlat recently launched a new e-commerce development program to provide American businesses with easy access to the massive Chinese consumer market.

Current Initiatives

NextPlat provides cutting edge technology in an advanced e-commerce ecosystem. The company is actively expanding its global network of online storefronts serving thousands of consumers, enterprises and governments. The company also has developed a next generation platform built for Web3 that enables the creation and sale of digital assets, as well as optimizing e-commerce transactions and business building activities. The company’s current initiatives include:

• E-Commerce Development Program – In April 2023, NextPlat announced it had entered into a merchant sourcing agreement with Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce Private Limited (“Alibaba”) and its Tmall Global e-commerce platform whereby the two companies will collaborate to increase the sale of products produced and sold by American companies to the multi-trillion-dollar Chinese consumer market. Alibaba’s Tmall Global e-commerce platform will provide NextPlat customers a turn-key solution through which products can be sold to the Chinese consumer market. The launch of the Florida E-Commerce Development Program is the first in a series of new NextPlat programs designed to assist U.S. businesses in expanding their online sales capabilities to reach new international customers in the Chinese market. NextPlat intends to rapidly expand this unique e-commerce development opportunity to businesses throughout the United States and all of North America, as well as Central and South America. The new development program features NextPlat’s turnkey global e-commerce solution for customers and leverages NextPlat’s relationships with key partners, including Tmall Global, China’s largest cross-border B2C online marketplace.
• Progressive Care Inc. – In August 2022, NextPlat completed a strategic $7 million investment in Progressive Care Inc. (OTCQB: RXMD), a personalized health care services and technology company. In a news release announcing the investment, NextPlat CEO Charles M. Fernandez noted that the company is “committed to harnessing the power of digital technologies to capitalize on the ongoing digital transformation of Progressive Care and the entire health care industry.” NextPlat intends to accelerate Progressive Care’s digital health care transformation with the launch of a new e-commerce platform for health care products later this year.
• NextPlat NFT Platform – Building on its existing e-commerce initiatives, NextPlat is working to bridge the gap between tangible and digital e-commerce marketplaces by incorporating burgeoning Web3 technologies. The company intends to launch a fully integrated NFT platform in the coming months that will enable brands to create, manage and authenticate digital assets while serving as a new source of revenue for NextPlat. Through this model, the company will receive a portion of the revenue generated from branded NFT drops, as well as subsequent secondary market transactions.
• Global Telesat Communications and Orbital SatCom Corp. – Targeting both domestic and international markets, NextPlat’s subsidiaries leverage partnerships with major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and Walmart to serve a growing base that includes more than 50,000 corporate, governmental and individual customers. In total, the brands market more than 10,000 individual products, with a focus on satellite-based connectivity solutions. In addition to exploring accretive M&A opportunities, NextPlat aims to diversify its range of products and broaden its geographic footprint moving forward in an effort to better capitalize on the tremendous growth potential in the United States, Europe and Asia.

“Our goal for 2023 and beyond is to leverage our improved operational capabilities and enhanced leadership team as we expand our offerings in communications and connectivity into the high-growth health care market where we intend to launch an array of innovative new offerings,” Fernandez said in a March 2023 news release detailing the company’s record top-line performance. “Although there remain supply chain headwinds and the challenge of global inflation, we are confident that we have the right combination of market-tested expertise, technology and partnerships that will enable us to bring the power of e-commerce to more customers, brands and industries in the United States and abroad.”

Market Opportunity

The rapid growth of e-commerce over the last decade is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. According to data published by Forbes, roughly 20.8% of all retail purchases are expected to take place online in 2023, accounting for total sales of $6.31 trillion worldwide. It total, e-commerce sales are expected to grow by 10.4% YoY in 2023, accounting for a whopping 24% of all retail purchases by 2026.

For NextPlat, existing partnerships in the industry could be key to capitalizing on this growth. The Forbes report indicates that Amazon accounts for roughly 38.7% of e-commerce sales, while sites like Walmart, eBay and Alibaba round out the list of most visited e-commerce websites. Alibaba is especially interesting due to NextPlat’s recent strategic merchant sourcing agreement with Tmall Global. The Chinese market is “mammoth,” as a recent Alizila report noted. The country’s annual online retail sales of physical goods have nearly doubled in the last five years, reaching approximately 13.8 trillion yuan in 2022, which is nearly $2 trillion USD.

The health care portion of the e-commerce market is generating particularly bullish forecasts, bolstered by the continued adoption of the 340B Drug Pricing Program in the U.S., which requires most drug manufacturers to provide outpatient drugs to covered entities at significantly reduced prices. Industry reports suggest that the global health care e-commerce market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 16.8% from 2022 to 2030, climbing to a value of more than $1.37 trillion by the end of the forecast period.

Management Team

Charles M. Fernandez, CEO, Executive Chairman and Director of NextPlat, has over three decades of experience in identifying profitable start-up and dislocation opportunities, building significant value and executing exit strategies as an entrepreneur and global investor. Successful across multiple sectors, Fortune Magazine actually labeled Fernandez ‘a restructuring whiz’. As President of Fairholme Capital Management, which he joined in 2008, Mr. Fernandez co-managed all three Fairholme funds and brought in a $2 billion gain for shareholders. Throughout his impressive career, he has participated in more than 100 significant mergers, acquisitions and product development projects across multiple industries. Mr. Fernandez was the founder, Chairman and CEO of eApeiron Solutions LLC, a brand protection and e-commerce company in partnership with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Eastman Kodak (NYSE: KODK), which was successfully sold to Smartrac, a unit of Avery Dennison Corp. (NYSE: AVY).

Rodney Barreto is Chairman and CEO of the Barreto Group and Director of Nextplat. Mr. Barreto’s business career spans over 35 years, including his role at the Barreto Group and, earlier, as the founding partner of Floridian Partners LLC, a corporate and public affairs consulting firm recognized by policy makers as one of the top in its industry in Florida. He chaired the Super Bowl Host Committee in 2007, 2010 and 2020, helping to raise more than $100 million for the success of Miami Super Bowls. As a philanthropist and conservationist, Mr. Barreto is also a three-time appointee to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, where he has served for over 10 years including holding the title of Chairman eight times. He has twice chaired the Annual U.S. Conference of Mayors, was Chairman of the 1999 Breeder’s Cup Championship held in South Florida and was the Chairman of the 1999 Sister Cities International Convention in Miami. Currently, Mr. Barreto is the Membership Chairman of the Florida Council of 100, and a member of the Boards of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Baptist Health South Florida Giving Society, the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, and a member of Miami Dade County Schools Superintendent Carvalho’s Business Advisory Council. Prior to his career in public affairs and real estate, Mr. Barreto was a City of Miami police officer and is a member of the Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.NextPlat.com.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to NXPL are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/NXPL

Dynamic Global Events (“DGE”), a life science leader in providing B2B conferences tailored toward engaging audiences, facilitating information exchange, encouraging collaboration, and accelerating partnerships, is proud to announce its latest iteration of the Transparency and Aggregate Spend Summit on June 12-13, 2023 in Philadelphia. The event is built around providing the latest information needed to meet Open Payments, state and global transparency reporting requirements. As such, the summit promises to be an excellent opportunity for attendees to garner the knowledge and networking they need to compliantly report Health Care Provider (“HCP”) spend while building valuable transparency programs.

This year’s event will be held at The Inn at Penn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It will feature leaders in transparency reporting, such as Lauren Miretsky, the Director, Global Spend Transparency at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Eric Saharig, the Senior Associate Director, Ethics and Compliance at Boehringer Ingelheim, and Gina Dubois, the Associate Director of Compliance at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals.

Some discussion topics will include strengthening and improving risk management of global HCP engagement and transparency compliance, explicitly examining the Italian and French Sunshine laws. It will also focus on gaining a summary of changes in Open Payments federal reporting and gauging the impact of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) enforcement initiatives and speaker programs fraud alert on transparency reporting.

With these topics and more, the summit promises that attendees will gain strategies for managing high-risk HCP interactions, data integrity, and putting transparency data to work. They will also benefit from a live-polling benchmarking session to highlight trends and best practices while leveraging networking opportunities that guarantee peer-to-peer knowledge exchange.

The 2nd Transparency and Aggregate Spend Summit targets biopharmaceutical and medical device professionals working in various areas, transparency, aggregate spend, compliance, data analytics, monitoring and auditing, systems/IT. This event aligns with DGE’s commitment to serving the dynamic informational and networking needs of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, healthcare, and allied industries. More importantly, it lives up to DGE’s objective of facilitating the growth of the industry and the stakeholders therein.

To learn more, please visit https://ibn.fm/FjsCe.

PIOs, communicators, elected officials, marketers, and law enforcement officers are invited to attend the Social Media Strategies Summit for Public Agencies & Government, to be held virtually May 17-18, 2023.

The Social Media Strategies Summit is the leading social media conference for decision-making government professionals. Having strong relationships with creative innovators, the conference strives to bring the best possible experiences and content. It’s a great opportunity to learn from a mix of industry leaders who will share advanced social media strategies through insightful keynotes, networking sessions, hands-on workshops, and meetups. The aim is to create a unique environment of collaboration and support that promotes success and growth for all podcasters of any level.

The Social Media Strategies Summit will provide access to hundreds of workshops and sessions with the top influencers and experts from the social media marketing industry. This is a must-attend event for anyone looking to strengthen their social media presence and connect with like-minded innovators to help them succeed. Attendees will leave with valuable insights into making their campaigns successful and gaining more customers through social media marketing. Finally, there will be ample opportunities for networking in the form of receptions, socials, and panels.

Leverage Social Media to Engage Your Communities

Creating and implementing a social media strategy can be challenging while dealing with internal obstacles such as uncertainty, and lack of time and resources. SMSsummit is your top resource for the latest community-building strategies and social media ideas. The inclusive roster of senior-level executive leaders means participants can benefit from a diverse, rich mix of knowledge and perceptions.

• Recognize and overcome internal hurdles to social media development
• Learn how to create winning social media strategies for business
• Measure social analytics and learn to implement advanced social media activities
• Learn how social advocacy strategies can increase engagement among colleagues
• Understand the significance of social customer service
• Create a social media action plan for upcoming activities

The Social Media Strategies Summit is dedicated to providing an incredible experience for all attendees. This can’t-miss two-day virtual conference will help them learn new social media strategies with government and public agency contemporaries from around the world. Participants will learn how to think strategically about social media and execute initiatives to ensure communication and marketing goals are met for their businesses.

To learn more, please visit https://ibn.fm/RJoS7.

ZJ Events invites you to the much-anticipated BizCann Expo, the premier event in South and Latin America focused on spearheading innovation, entrepreneurship, and education on all aspects of the cannabis industry. Scheduled for May 20-21, 2023, the two-day in-person event is a gathering for the cannabis industry’s best – growers, entrepreneurs, license holders, investors, industry newcomers, legal advisors, c-level executives, and service providers. It promises to provide attendees with a fun and thrilling experience that not only promotes business networking but also provides learning opportunities through well curated panel discussions and presentations from experienced leaders in the industry.

Attendees can expect to learn about the entire region’s legal landscape and associated licensing and application process. Equally, they can anticipate learning about the advantages and business opportunities of operating in all of these markets. A continuous flow of information will come from a variety of sources, not the least of which is the more than 30 expert speakers who will share important market and industry insights for the region.

The list of speakers includes Kieve Huffman, CEO of Engager Brands; Josh Ruben, CEO of Day Three Labs; Elena Samper Arango, CEO and Founder of Poex Consulting SAS; Christine De La Rosa, CEO of The People’s Ecosystem; Auz Zadoff, CEO of CannExp Consulting Group; Nic Easley, Founder and CEO of 3C Consulting, LLC; Rosa Maria Puentes Velosa, Business Developer at Global Cannabis; Camilo Martinez, Co-Founder and Production Manager at Green Leaf Colombia; Juan Gonzalez, Founder of GNC-Brands; Rob Davidson, CTO of Concept Matrix Solutions, Inc.; Peter Holzworth, CEO of Onifarc; Max Alzamora, MD of ApemedCann; Joseph Farruggia, CEO of Canideal, Inc.; Earnest Toney, Founder of BipoCann; James Black, Partner and General Counsel at Falcon Rappaport & Berkman; Terran Cooper, Regulatory Consultant at Falcon Rappaport & Berkman; Andrew Cooper, Chair, Cannabis and Psychedelic Practice at Falcon Rappaport & Berkman; and more.

In addition to the panel discussions, keynote speeches, and presentations by the speakers, attendees will also get to interact with exhibitors drawn from plant-touching and non-plant-touching businesses and companies that provide ancillary services within the cannabis industry.

The event is set to take place at the Plaza Mayor Convention Center in Medellin, a city in Colombia, one of the growing cannabis markets. The country’s parliament has, in the recent past, passed regulations that have heralded cannabis reforms and a new dawn for allied businesses, making the South American nation an attractive location for the industry. And though the mention of South America might conjure up estimates of uber long haul flights, the country is proximate to the US, with flights averaging about 8 hours. This proximity facilitates business travel, logistic operations, lower shipping costs, and, for those looking forward to attending the BizCann Expo, convenience.

ZJ Events is a collective focused on creating top-notch events that bring together the industry’s best under one roof. It facilitates B2B and B2C networking and interactions by incorporating the event’s target industry and its complementary services into an unrivaled trade show experience.

To purchase a ticket, please visit https://ibn.fm/eW1Ip. 

To learn more, please visit https://ibn.fm/tQqXt.

• Canada-headquartered critical metals company Ucore Rare Metals Inc. is in the process of demonstrating its flagship rare earth element (“REE”) separation technology and is preparing to begin construction on its first commercial-scale processing facility later this year
• Ucore’s proprietary RapidSX(TM) solvent extraction process will provide a unique advantage to the standard SX extraction process used for REEs throughout the world, using the same elements as SX but rapidly accelerating production time
• Rare earths are vital elements for modern high-powered technologies ranging from cell phones to electric vehicle magnets
• China currently controls the REE separation market and Ucore’s plans are poised to secure a North American production base free of potential conflicts with adversarial nations

Rare earth metals production has become a vital interest to North American business as well as national defense program technologies in North America because of their foundational use in commonly used items such as smartphones, digital cameras, LED lights and flat screen TVs, plus clean energy tech such as electrical vehicle magnets and steel alloys used in a wide variety of items (https://ibn.fm/gVwgL).

Canada-based Ucore Rare Metals (TSX.V: UCU) (OTCQX: UURAF) is aggressively working to become a leader in solutions for improving the separation of rare earth elements (“REEs”) from their mined ores in order to secure a stronger position for American REE production, Ucore CEO Pat Ryan noted in a recent interview with Proactive Investors.

“The only process used in the world today to separate rare earth elements is solvent extraction. It’s how China controls 90 percent of the mid-market with separation,” Ryan told Proactive’s Steve Darling (https://ibn.fm/ExCSb).

“The (Ucore) business plan revolves around the fact that there are a lot of resources in the rare earth space that are evolving outside of China. But they don’t have the critical mid-market separation, so what we’ve said is ‘let’s get that mid-market separation done.’ By doing that, we’re actually unlocking the resources for downstream customers,” Ryan said. “We’ll arrange the work relationship upstream; we’ll deal with the downstream customers — automotive, wind energy, high energy motors. And, yeah, we’ve had a lot of connectivity in the market as people are realizing now what we’re really doing.”

The key to Ucore’s solution is its development of a solvent extraction process that will not only be the only one based in the Western Hemisphere, but that will be superior to the universally used SX (also known as CSX) extraction process.

Ucore’s RapidSX(TM) process is at least three times more efficient than the SX standard, requires less overall processing time, and costs less for construction and operation, according to independent evaluations of Ucore’s technique (https://ibn.fm/OrFV8).

“We found a tech that needed a little bit of horsepower from a financial side and engineering side. The last couple years we’ve invested north of $10 million and a lot of engineering time,” Ryan said.

The company is now putting RapidSX(TM) through a trial run stage at a Commercial Demonstration Plant that Ucore and its development partner, Kingston Processing Metallurgy, Inc. (“KPM”), have in Ontario with the capability to process “tens of (metric) tons” of total rare earth oxides (“TREOs”).

Ucore expects to begin construction on its first commercial production Strategic Metals Complex (“SMC”) plant later this year in Louisiana, upscaling production to 2,000 metric tons of TREOs at the brownfield site by late 2024 and then increasing its TREO supply chain capacity to 5,000 metric tons the following year.

Two other SMCs are then expected to be built in Alaska and Canada.

At the time of the interview, the company had not yet announced the Louisiana site, but on April 6 Ucore followed up with the announcement it had selected an 80,800 square-foot brownfield facility within the England Airpark in the city of Alexandria. Because the facility is larger than initially anticipated, Ucore stated its maximum throughput capacity will eventually surpass the 5,000 metric ton goal and is expected to reach 7,500 metric tons of TREOs per year (https://ibn.fm/urukq).

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Ucore.com.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to UURAF are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/UURAF

NECANN, a pioneer in developing engaging conventions for the cannabis industry, is proud to announce its third edition of The Illinois Cannabis Convention being held on June 2-3rd, 2023. This year’s event will build on the success of the 2022 Illinois Cannabis Convention, with scaled-up operations that will see even more exhibitors, presenters, products, and even attendees in what promises to be the best B2B cannabis convention in Illinois.

The event will be held at the Schaumburg Convention Center in Chicago from 10 AM to 3 PM. It will play host to cannabis enthusiasts, farmers, entrepreneurs, and investors, with discussion topics ranging from careers in cannabis to marijuana investment opportunities and challenges. Some of the presenters at this two-day event will include Rebecca Abraham, the Founder and President of Acute on Chronic; Nadav Aschner, a partner at The Roadman Law Group; Bennett Cawthon, the President of Streamline Farms; and Jennifer Clark, a Strategy and Operations Consultant at LaunchSpot Consulting.

NECANN has been developing conventions for the cannabis industry since 2014, offering an avenue for expanding market opportunities for entrepreneurs, investors, businesses, patients, educators, cannabis advocates, and consumers. Throughout the years, the company has refined its approach to conventions, adapting to the current state and potential of each local market it has ventured into thus far. In addition, its collaborative approach with the local industries and communities has helped set its conventions apart, stamping its place as the go-to cannabis convention in the United States.

The third annual Illinois Cannabis Convention draws from the learnings from NECANN’s previous events, promising an avenue where exhibitors can achieve consistently high returns, attendees can learn a lot, and the local cannabis market can grow. This is an event that understands the booming cannabis space, especially in Chicago. As such, it looks to tap into that growth and the buzz around cannabis to draw interested parties together in one place to exchange value, ideas, products, and knowledge on how to push the industry forward.

To learn more, please visit https://cnw.fm/EVW4N