cannabis

TradeshowGuy Exhibits: Planning Notes for Cannabis Collaborative Conference

http://www.tradeshowguyblog.com/2018/06/legal-cannabis-industry-evolves-with-tradeshows/

Lori Ajax, Chief of the California Bureau of Cannabis Control gives the opening remarks during the California Cannabis Business Conference in Anaheim, CA on Tuesday, October 23, 2018. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

As a wanna-be 70s hippie I follow the evolution of the legal cannabis industry with great interest. Not because I don’t use it so much anymore, but I’ve always felt that the use of marijuana – or as its getting to be known – cannabis – should be a personal choice, and government shouldn’t be locking people up for simply using it. I figure if the state allows alcohol as a social drug, it has no valid argument to disallow cannabis. But politics aside, it’s a fascinating industry.

Now that cannabis is legal across much of the country, with more states (and countries – Hello, Canada!) to follow, the first thing you’ll be seeing is much more data coming out. For instance, I ran across an article which shows that the method of cannabis consumption is changing. In the old days, you’d roll a joint. Maybe you’d bake some bud into a batch of brownies, and hope you ate the right amount. But now there is data showing that people are smoking it less and eating it more or finding other ways to consume cannabis without smoking.

So why is this topic showing up on a blog dedicated to tradeshows and the event industry? Because there happen to be a BUNCH of tradeshows dedicated solely to cannabis. For instance, there’s a big show in San Jose this summer, the Cannabis Business Summit, put on by the National Cannabis Industry Association, that will attract hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of attendees. And a listing at the Cannabis Business Times shows quite a few cannabis related events.

I’ve attended at least a half-dozen cannabis events in Oregon over the past few years and chatted with dozens of exhibitors about the industry and how they’re finding their way through an industry that, until just a few years ago, didn’t legally exist. Now that it’s out in the open, it wants to shine. Hence, the explosion of tradeshows and conferences dedicated to the industry.

Another twist: in the old days, it was never called cannabis. It was called marijuana, and the scourge of the devil weed, or reefer, spawned panicky movies (Reefer Madness), conspiracy theories and so on. Here’s a quick take on the reason it’s called cannabis these days and is rarely referred to as marijuana.

And what about the exhibitors? How are they faring in a new legal industry? I’ve spoken to many of them over the past couple of years, and as you might imagine, it’s a mixed bag. Some exhibitors are well-prepared with sharp-looking, functional exhibits. Others have barely managed to put up a cheesy vinyl banner hanging from the back of the drape behind an organizer-supplied table. In other words, it’s like a lot of industries.

I heard talk from some exhibitors that when legal cannabis happened here in Oregon, a lot of money rushed into the industry. Businesses were snapping up storefronts, staking out their ground and doing what they could to promote their new businesses. But since that beginning rush (no pun intended), reality is a bit of a come down. Some businesses have closed, others are trying to sell.  It’s a marketplace where a glut of product is keeping prices down. And this comes all with an industry that is heavily taxed by the state so that it can be regulated properly. I recently saw that Oregon suspended applications for new cannabis outlets due to the backlog. For a deeper dive into the Oregon Economic Forecast that looks closer at recreational and medical marijuana, check this out (direct PDF link).

All of which brings me back to the statewide event industry and how its working with cannabis producers, retailers and supporting businesses. Coming in January, TradeshowGuy Exhibits will take part in its first cannabis-related event as an exhibitor. We’ll be at the Cannabis Collaborative Conference in Portland on January 23-24, 2019.

Creating Content For Your Cannabis Drinks Brand

https://cannabisdrinksexpo.com/en/blog/insights-68/creating-content-for-your-cannabis-drinks-brand-190.htm
The pandemic is pausing a lot of things in our brands, but what we can still do is create effective content for our audience. Here’s how.
The country is slowly going on lockdown, one state after another – and people are very actively following social distancing due to the Covid-19 outbreak. As of now, this is affecting a lot of brands as production is lowering, sales are lowering, and there isn’t really much a brand can do at their workplace right now.
However, as a brand, gaining visibility is one of the most important things in this day and age. Digital visibility is what builds brands – and during this time, when there isn’t anything else you can do with your brand, you can focus on building visibility for your brand.
One of the best ways to gain visibility for your brand is by providing your audience top-quality content to engage them with so that your brand is radiated into them and the next time they’re shopping for a canna-bev, they go ‘yes, this is the brand I want to try’.
Yes, we know creating content can be tough, but that’s what we’re here to help you with. Let’s get into the content train and take a trip on how to create effective content for your cannabis drinks brand.
1. Define your audience
Before you go ahead and create any sort of content, you need to know who your audience is. Who are you selling your cannabis drinks to? Are you targeting a younger generation? Or are you going for the more middle-aged group? It’s important to know your target audience because your content is going to be based around that.
Think about it this way, if you’re targeting a drinker between the ages of 21-30, and you create a video about something to do with the 70s, then they definitely aren’t going to relate. Similarly, if you have an older audience and you create content around a TV show that they probably won’t watch, then your content is going to be of waste as well.
So, the best thing to do is first think of your audience. Who do you want drinking your cannabis beverages? Who is going to be drinking it? And why are they going to be drinking it? This way, you’ll know exactly who to create content for.
• Differentiate your brand
As a brand, to grab an audience, you need to stand out. The only way you’re going to stand out in front of your audience is if you’re offering them something different from other brands out there – especially your competitors.
Your customers don’t want the same Simpsons meme that every second cannabis beverage brand is probably creating. Give them something different. Why is your product different? And how are you going to offer your customers something completely different from other brands? That’s what will catch their eye, and that’s how you will gain visibility – and in turn, higher sales as well.
You want people not only to recognize you, but also remember you – and differentiating yourself from other brands is what is going to help with that.
• Making a mark in the consumer’s eyes
There’s a lot of content going around on the internet, so how are you going to make sure that your content is drilled into your customer’s eyes and mind? How are you going to make sure that they remember your brand out of the hundred posts they saw on social media today?
Show your audience who you are, over and over again, but in different ways. Talk about your products in different ways, you can do podcasts, or product reviews. Tell your brand’s story to your audience. Customers usually relate to a brand through their story. Talk about solutions that your brand can offer. All in all, make your brand prominent in front of the consumer.
In the end, it all boils down to, what can you do to make sure your consumers remember you? Is there something in your logo that is going to stand out? Or is it your messaging?
Here’s how you can make a mark:
Podcasts – people are constantly listening to podcasts right now. Create a podcast for your brand where you tell your story, talk about your cannabis beverages, and engage with your audience. You can even do a q&a on your podcast with your audience.
Blogs – use blogs to leverage traction on your website. Make sure you have a website! Write about your products, do interviews with different people in your brands. You can also write blogs about people talking about your cannabis beverages. Share your success stories. This will make people trust your brand a little more.
Online tastings and reviews – Do an online tasting. Not everyone can come out and taste your beverages due to the pandemic, so do it for them – or get an influencer to do it for you. People listen to influencers and do what they are doing. Taste your drinks in a video, tell your audience how the drink tastes, tell them what they can eat with it, how much they can drink, and how they can drink it. This will make them eager to try out your cannabis beverages.
Infographics – develop infographics about your products, how to drink, what to drink it with. Information is something that customers are always looking for.
• Invest in promoting your content
You’re creating valuable content alright, but if no one is going to see it, then what’s the point?
When you create your content, whether it’s blogs, videos, or anything else, you need to go the extra mile to make sure others can see it.
Allocate a budget for promoting your content on social media. For most people, social media has become a way of life, and if they see your content on their feeds constantly, it’s going to drill into their minds pretty well. So run ads and boosts on social media so people can see your brand.

Minority Cannabis Business Association

The Minority Cannabis Business Association is taking a multi-pronged approach to support more women and people of color in the cannabis industry.
Through economic empowerment, community reinvestment, restorative justice, and education and research, this non-profit is committed to including communities of color in a post-prohibition future.
What is the Minority Cannabis Business Association?
The Minority Cannabis Business Association or MCBA is a not for profit organization located in Oregon that was created to progress the cannabis industry by increasing the diversity of business owners, employees, and even consumers.
MCBA Co-founder Dr. Tiffany Bowden refers to herself as “inclusionist”. To paraphrase her own definition, “inclusionist” means actualizing a world that works for everybody by identifying and interrogating different equity measures and improving conditions for the most structurally disadvantaged. She sees education, networking, business mentorship, policy work, and corrections in the justice system as an ecosystem of goals capable of advancing the cause of greater diversity and inclusion in the cannabis industry, from seed to sale.
Their mission is to create equal success for cannabusinesses and promotes economic empowerment for communities of color.
Individuals and corporations in the cannabis industry or interested in entering the industry have a lot to gain from membership and participation with MCBA.
MCBA Objectives
The MCBA has 3 objectives that they live by. These objectives are what drives the Minority Cannabis Business associations to promote equality in the cannabis industry.
• ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT: Increase the number and success of minority business owners and career professionals by assuring equal access to industry opportunity and promoting positive practices
• SOCIAL JUSTICE: Assist in reducing the number of people imprisoned with non-violent cannabis offenses and ensure people with non-violent cannabis offenses have fair access to the cannabis industry
• PATIENT/CONSUMER AWARENESS: Increase knowledge in minority communities on how cannabis can be an effective medicine and safe consumer good
Minority Cannabis History
The recent history of cannabis in the United States is predominantly a history of prohibition and racist abuse of people of color by law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and society. The opportunity to consume or produce any cannabis product only became legal for medical use in California in 1996, following decades of terror and grossly disproportionate incarceration of people of color.
Because the legal expansion of the cannabis industry is now happening on a state by state basis, there are different regulatory and cost burdens imposed on different aspects of cannabis businesses. The ongoing federal criminalization of cannabis imposes a significant level of risk in entering the industry. Staying in the industry means staying on the right side of the law. These barriers to entry and the specter of criminal enforcement, already disproportionately imposed on people of color, suppress racial diversity in legal cannabis businesses.
The Minority Cannabis Business Association was created in 2015 in order to mitigate these inequities through both direct and indirect support of women and people of color.
How to Join MCBA
In exchange for its members’ contributions, MCBA offers a litany of educational materials, events, networking opportunities, and high levels of engagement with other cannabis industry professionals. Individuals and companies who wish to contribute and participate can choose from several levels of membership, detailed at the MCBA website. Each category of membership contains tiered levels, in which the benefits of membership accumulate and increase with higher levels of contribution.
Individual Memberships include:
• Supporter—For $100 annually, individual Supporter members receive free access to online educational resources. Live online events with industry experts, monthly digital newsletter, breaking news, advance notice of MCBA networking events, and a lapel pin are all included at this level.
• Advocate—In addition to the benefits of a Supporter membership, Advocate members receive complimentary tickets to MCBA events and the opportunity to work in a committee, all for $500 annually or $50 monthly.
• Professional—Individual professional members also receive a digital badge to display on their websites and the opportunity to participate in MCBA Lobby Days for $1,000 annually or $100 monthly.
Corporate Memberships include:
• Ally—For $2,500 annually, corporate Ally members receive all the same benefits as individual Professional members, plus their company logo on the MCBA website.
• Advisor—Corporate Advisor members also get the opportunity to cultivate a topic for one educational story in the MCBA newsletter, at a cost of $5,000 annually.
• Champion—The Champion membership level adds the opportunity for an executive to appear in MCBA’s 1-minute mentor series, for $10,000 annually.
• Influencer—For $25,000 annually, the Influencer membership adds a year-long, cultivated social media campaign.
• Game Changer—Game Changer members, for $50,000 annually, also receive invitation-only federal lobbying update calls, participation in MCBA’s Bi-Annual Mastermind Session, and direct access to the MCBA federal lobbying team.
• Power Player—Power Player members contribute $100,000 annually. In addition to all the benefits of the Game Changer membership, they receive access to a customized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion road map; an MCBA curated event and party at its headquarters or an external location; a quarterly Executive Update call; and inclusion in flagship programming such as expungement clinics.
Economic Empowerment Through Management and Startup Consulting
The MCBA economically empowers aspiring cannabis entrepreneurs on the legal and regulatory environments in the states where they plan to operate.
The organization stays current on every idiosyncratic legal detail to ensure its members can be confident in their business operations. Direct management and startup consultancy and business coaching are available for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Professional advice might involve any area of the business, at any point in its development. Marketing research, branding and sales strategy are all critical areas of small business development beyond its initial application and establishment. MCBA organizes state to state education expos, job fairs, and career fairs where people interested in any aspect of the cannabis business—from seed to sale—can meet, find job opportunities, and develop referral networks.
Economic Empowerment Through Engagement
At several membership levels, MCBA members have opportunities to steer the conversation.
They can work with MCBA to develop topics published in the newsletter, participate in working committees, collaborate with the organization’s executives, and influence its lobbying activities. In creating these opportunities, MCBA facilitates entrepreneurs and industry professionals in teaching and learning together about the most cutting edge factors affecting their businesses. It also builds solidarity and leverage within the cannabis industry that it can use to develop better laws and policies.
Education and Research Through Representation
Within ostensibly positive and non-judgmental cannabis industry publications, people of color—especially Black and Latino people—are often portrayed as rastas and rappers.
While these types of personas can be authentic and appealing, they are also stereotyped as consumers or “users,” which can reinforce racist stigma both inside and outside the industry. MCBA’s educational goals go beyond business consulting and into diversifying the image of people of color in the cannabis industry.
This includes developing profiles and highlighting people of color who own and manage cannabis businesses.
Restorative Justice Work
Most states that have legalized marijuana have not included automatic retroactive measures to address its past criminalization. People of color have been historically more heavily policed—more frequently stopped, arrested, and convicted of marijuana possession or distribution. In fully legalized states, criminal records still keep a disproportionate number of people of color out of the legal cannabis industry. On top of that, past convictions can cause individuals to be disenfranchised—to lose their right to vote—in some states.
Even in states that do not disenfranchise for all felonies, people with past convictions often believe that they have lost the right to vote. Leaving past marijuana convictions intact chills voting participation by individuals who have fulfilled all their obligations to the state.
One of the cumulative effects of the War on Drugs is that it wrongfully and immorally stifled millions of individuals’ ability to participate in democratic processes. Had these voices been included in elections and public bodies, the federal government and states might already have moved policy away from retribution and incarceration in general, and away from cannabis prohibition.
Perhaps subconsciously affirming the true goals of the War on Drugs and “tough on crime” rhetoric, in states where marijuana is not yet legal to produce or possess, law enforcement actually increased its targeting and prosecuting people of color for non-violent crimes related to marijuana. The MCBA works to support criminal record expungement, which in most cases also means the reinstatement of voting rights.
Community Reinvestment Through Policy
It has been clear for decades that marijuana poses far fewer risks to users compared to other substances, including legal prescription medications. The real risks to individuals who use or possess marijuana are by-products of its legal prohibition and the militarization of police in the U.S.
The risks to non-users are also by-products of prohibition. Families lost wage earners, individuals lost housing and job opportunities, and entire communities have been destabilized by prohibition. Including women and people of color in the cannabis industry means ensuring that, for example, tax revenue from cannabis businesses goes to rebuild the communities that endured the most harm due to prohibition.
The legacy of the federal War on Drugs is one of failure, racist moral panic, and willful obliviousness to evidence-based harm reduction strategies. As states and the U.S. advance beyond this mindset, it is critical to correct the harms and abandon the stereotypes attached to that legacy.
MCBA lobbies the federal government for law and policy changes in the long term to eliminate the stigma of criminality that burdens people of color in the cannabis industry. It also created model municipal and state legislation to advance equity as legalization advances.
MCBA members have a significant opportunity to contribute to the substance of these efforts and lead their own businesses to resilient success. Anyone interested in justice issues and the cannabis industry would benefit from joining.