As more women enter the cannabis industry, they need an outlet to connect to discuss business, trade war stories and talk about the challenges they face in a male-dominated environment.
Blunt Brunch, a Phoenix-headquartered events business that brings together women cannabis professionals for networking, aims to address that void.
The women-led company’s events help participants make connections, gain valuable leadership insights from female peers and engender inspiration and confidence in women to take leadership roles in the cannabis industry.
A Blunt Brunch content and networking lunch will take place during the “Women in Leadership Forum” that kicks off MJBizCon Week on Dec. 3
Executive disparity
There is undoubtably a need for women leaders in cannabis.
An MJBizDaily report estimated that more than 39% of cannabis executives were women in 2019, but by 2021, women accounted for only about 22% of executive positions in the marijuana industry.
The percentage of women holding executive positions in the cannabis industry returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, but the number of women marijuana leaders remains shamefully low.
What happens at Blunt Brunch?
Blunt Brunch co-founder Adelia Carrillo said her goal for the events is to empower more women to take leadership roles at the companies where they work.
“We have brunch and blunt conversations,” Carrillo told MJBizDaily.
Those conversations range from finding your voice and acting with authenticity to working with male colleagues.
“It all goes back to personal development or business topics that can help them,” Carrillo said.
Blunt Brunch co-founder Parisa Mansouri-Rad said attendees appreciate “knowing that even people (they) look up to face some of these challenges in their careers.”
The founders launched Blunt Brunch shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, when Carrillo relocated from California to Arizona and contacted Mansouri-Rad to expand her network in the cannabis industry.
The women decided to host a brunch, and both invited friends.
“Everybody was hungry for that connection,” Carrillo said.
“We all left and felt like we needed that – and we needed to do it again. We didn’t know it would turn into a business.”
Evolution of EventHi
Carrillo’s other business venture, EventHi, was started in a similarly accidental fashion.
Eventbrite, the events calendar and promotion company, blocked one of Carrillo’s functions from being promoted on its website, even though it was a B2B event with no marijuana consumption.
The event was flagged because of the language included in the posting, Carrillo said.
Spotting the need for a marijuana-friendly event platform, Carrillo found a bank and credit-card processor and began building a compliant protocol to cater to the cannabis industry.
The result was EventHi, which launched in California seven years ago and now works with event creators across the United States to promote events ranging from 20 to 40,000 attendees.
EventHi has 157,000 registered users, and it markets events in 45 states to them through newsletters and other channels.
Events posted on the site range from apple-picking in New York to a pickleball tournament during MJBizCon in Las Vegas; Blunt Brunch events are listed there, too.
“It’s like every other mainstream ticketing platform, but it caters to the cannabis community,” Carrillo said.
Women in Leadership Forum
The MJBiz Women in Leadership Forum is a full day of cannabis education and networking taking place on Dec. 3.
Topics will include:
- “How Rescheduling and Election 2024 Will Change the Landscape for Women in Cannabis.”
- “Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: Strategies for Gaining Access to Capital in the Cannabis Industry.”
- “Taking it to the Next Level: How Women Can Successfully Build a Business and Exit.”
- “How to Mentor the Female Cannabis Leaders of the Future.”
- “Leveraging Opportunities in Media and Marketing: A Guide for Women in the Cannabis Industry.”
- “Opportunities for Women in the Global Cannabis Industry.”
- “Lighting Talks: Lessons Learned While Building a Career in the Cannabis Industry.”
Tickets to the MJBiz Women in Leadership Forum are available here.
An Empowering Women in Cannabis networking event will return to MJBizCon at 4:30 p.m. PT Dec. 5 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The ticketed event includes beer, wine and nonalcoholic beverages.
In addition to the daytime Blunt Brunch during the Women’s Leadership Forum, Carillo and Mansouri-Rad are organizing “A Night of Glitz and Glamour,” a networking gathering featuring a cocktail hour, meet-and-greets and dancing from 5 to 8:30 p.m. PT Dec. 3 at the IPEC Las Vegas events venue during MJBizCon.
Margaret Jackson can be reached at margaret.jackson@mjbizdaily.com.
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