When people talk about Cannafest, they usually highlight the scale of the event. The full exhibition halls. The thousands of visitors. The international brands. But the heart of the story sits somewhere else. It sits with a tall, calm founder who never set out to become an event powerhouse. It sits with Lukáš Běhal.
Lukáš didn’t come from the traditional world of entrepreneurship. He built Cannafest through experience, grit, and fifteen years of learning-by-doing. He figured out operations, crowd management, and international coordination one challenge at a time. His secret wasn’t flashy marketing or a giant team. It was something rarer. A steady temperament. A calmness that holds the whole show together.
Spend a few minutes with him and you notice a pattern. Every ten seconds someone stops him to shake his hand. Exhibitors, old friends, new partners. Yet he stays unbothered, warm, focused. During the conference he rarely stays on stage for long. Instead, he stays close to the small office behind the scenes so he’s ready whenever something unexpected happens. He prefers to be where the pressure is. Where solutions are needed. Where the event stays safe.
And behind this calm professional stance is a personal side many don’t see immediately. Lukáš loves his pets, especially his two dogs (Great Danes). That quiet affection mirrors the way he leads: steady, loyal, grounded.
His resilience became most visible during the Covid pandemic. While many events disappeared or froze for years, Lukáš held Cannafest together piece by piece. He listened to worried exhibitors. He reorganized the model. He pushed through restrictions. And when the doors reopened, Cannafest stood stronger than before. Not many founders in the cannabis industry can say their event survived and grew through a global shutdown.
This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of Cannafest. Instead of slowing down, Lukáš is expanding again. He recently stepped into the beverage business, a move that shows he never stops exploring new opportunities.
When I arrived one week ago to start preparing for this year’s edition, I felt something significant. Next year’s Cannafest will be different. Bigger. If legalization moves forward in Czech Republic as expected, Cannafest bescomes bigger and bigger. A launchpad for a new era.
And in the middle of that moment will still be Lukáš Běhal. Calm. Tall. Shaking hands every few seconds. Ready in the back office when something goes wrong. Building quietly. Building relentlessly. Building the next chapter of Europe’s cannabis history.
See you next year Lukas!
