How your cannabis business can make a deal at MJBizCon

There are dozens of ways for cannabis business executives to make deals at MJBizCon this week.

Those who want to leave the world’s biggest cannabis business event with leads and fruitful relationships should come with a game plan but also be prepared to be flexible when unexpected opportunities arise, according to executives who’ve sealed business deals at MJBizCon.

MJBizCon 2024 opens Tuesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center with preshow forums and continues through Friday.

Having “unstructured, unscheduled, uncommitted time at the show” is critical, said Kim Sanchez Rael, the CEO of Azuca, a New York-based company that develops rapid-release solutions, emulsions, activators and other products for cannabis edibles and beverages.

“What’s most helpful for me are those serendipitous moments,” she told MJBizDaily.

Other important tips for entrepreneurs and executives seeking deals and connections at MJBizCon include:

• Market your presence at MJBizCon ahead of the show.
• Take advantage of mixers and after-parties for networking.
• Vet potential partners you meet.

Working the show floor

As a solutions provider to the cannabis consumables sector, Azuca puts high importance on exhibiting on the show floor in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“When you are a B2B provider, it helps to be present on the floor – not just walk the floor; that has been a good ROI for us,” Sanchez Rael said.

“It’s obviously a lot of work and heavy lift, but it’s worth it.”

Sanchez Rael said the show provides Azuca with an opportunity to gauge interest in products it hasn’t commercialized yet – and exhibiting at MJBizCon gives the brand a show-floor headquarters from which to provide samples and have meetings.

“We have a very structured schedule for our booth,” said Sanchez Rael, who’s been exhibiting at MJBizCon since 2017.

Before the show, Azuca’s marketing team will “do typical preshow outreach” through the company’s email-distribution list, using social media sites such as LinkedIn and via word of mouth.

Sanchez Rael also likes to have a plan for her time at the show.

“We’ll preplan meeting some businesses with whom we would like to build relationships,” she said.

Joe Salome, co-founder and CEO of The Georgia Hemp Co. and an MJBizCon veteran, also recommends going to the event with a game plan.

“Prioritize what you’re looking for specifically – and the companies that you want to visit” Salome told MJBizDaily, adding that he researches the exhibitor map in advance.

“You need to stick to the game plan, at least initially, to accomplish what you want to accomplish.”

That said, Salome and Sanchez Real agree that flexibility can lead to opportunity.

For example, Sanchez Rael had one of those “serendipitous moments” at her first MJBizCon when she sat next to Nancy Whiteman – then the CEO of Boulder, Colorado-based edibles manufacturer Wana Brands – during a preconference forum lunch and had a conversation that led Wana to buy Azuca’s fast-acting solutions.

“I knew who she was, but I’d never met her. I sat down … and started chatting, and now we’re with Wana in 10 states,” Sanchez Real said.

Salome agrees it’s important to be alert to unexpected chances.

“If you happen to walk by a CEO or decision-maker that you wanted to meet, you’ve got to be able to drop everything and sit down at that bar or that blackjack table … and engage,” he said.

“You have to take advantage of the opportunities.”

Expand your network

It’s also important to know that connections made at MJBizCon this week might not bear fruit until years later.

For example, Jon Spadafora was inspired to open Flower Union, a Denver-based edibles company, to leverage a cannabis-activator product that Sanchez Rael introduced to him during MJBizCon 2022.

At the time, Spadafora was attending MJBizCon as a conference speaker and the CEO of Veritas Fine Cannabis, a Colorado cultivation company that closed earlier this year.

He was looking for packaging and cultivation products on the exhibit floor when an industry colleague told him he should visit the Azuca booth.

Spadafora recalls having good conversations with Sanchez Real on the trade show floor and at an after-party, and she sent him home with samples of the nonintoxicating activation product to try.

His team was sold.

“I was inspired by what I had seen with the product that Kim had created,” Spadafora told MJBizDaily.

“It gave us purpose to build a company and a brand and to really take what Kim and her team built to make it scalable, make it something that will hopefully connect with a lot of consumers.”

Spadafora recently launched the Flower Union Artisan Gummies line in Colorado and plans to expand into New Jersey in January.

The gummies contain decarboxylated cannabis flower, pectin and Azuca Time Infusion Activator to preserve terpenes and cannabinoids – but there are no added colors or flavoring.

Executives hunting for deals also should take advantage of the many networking opportunities at MJBizCon, including preconference forum breakfasts and lunches, after-parties and networking events, such as the Achieving Equity in Cannabis and Empowering Women in Cannabis events.

“You can’t leave out the parties,” Salome said.

“Sometimes you’re so tired or you don’t want to do it, but you’ve just got to go.

“Go to the ones that you think make sense for the right networking purposes.”

To make the most of networking events, Sanchez Rael suggests that team members split up and meet new people rather than stick together, likely limiting the number of connections the group will make.

Immature cannabis markets

Salome noted that MJBizCon can be especially fruitful for companies from new and underdeveloped cannabis markets, where the industry infrastructure is still in its infancy and finding local partners is difficult.

“In Georgia, we don’t have the infrastructure or the industry that other states have; there’s not a lot of hemp farmers,” Salome said.

“To be able to go into that environment and drink from the fire hose and get the information we needed – whether it was from an extractor, a manufacturer, a packaging person – and you may find some stuff you don’t know you need.”

He added: “If you can see those patterns and trends early and bring them back to your market, you’re a first-adapter, you’re that shining beacon to roll out our industry.”

Salome’s first MJBizCon was in 2015.

“That’s when we really first started connecting with companies out west that were a little bit ahead of the curve than where we were here in Georgia,” he recalled.

“We were immediately placed right in the middle of the honey pot when we went to MJBizCon.

“We still have relationships with those companies we met at that time.”

For example, Salome said he often recommends First Citizens Bank to his cannabis industry colleagues; the North Carolina-headquartered bank has a presence in Georgia but can service cannabis companies from its locations in 22 states.

Vetting potential business partners

While there is no better place than MJBizCon to meet potential cannabis business partners, show veterans caution that it’s important to vet the businesses you’re considering partnering with – and don’t feel rushed to sign a deal.

When at the show, Salome said, entrepreneurs need to ask themselves questions that will help them decide who will and won’t be a good partner.

“If I go with a small business, I probably have to know there’s going to be a little less structure, a little more flexibility,” he said.

“You’re weighing pros and cons consistently.”

Salome added: “I like to have much of the conversation there, but I don’t want to make any deals on the floor; typically, a lot of emotions are involved there.

“You want to make sure that whatever you’re looking at can be placed into the strategy that you’re currently doing – we all have a plan, and we’re executing it.

“Conventions in these situations are opportunities to bring things back to implement at a later date – at least for me.”

Omar Sacirbey can be reached at omar.sacirbey@mjbizdaily.com.